The Witch

Saw this in IMAX last night and front to back it’s a masterpiece for me! Must’ve been the fourth or fifth time I’ve seen this now and there’s just 0 parts of this movie that I’d change, nothing feels off and it’s just nailing everything pretty brilliantly! Always so interesting to watch a film not shot on IMAX been blown up and I thought it just looked SHARP! great picture!  For a first movie it’s incredibly seasoned and it would make sense cause eggers was a production designer so he’s been in the industry for a long time but this just seems so confident! I think a part of it would be knowing people matters and your in the industry so you just know how it works but then I think it’s just so rare for a horror to be heavily depended on the acting, so many intense acting sequences, long takes, the weird Shakespearean language and that’s all eggers, it’s just consistent throughout! The characters feel real and just all the performances are impressive as hell, he 100% had a vision of what he was tryna do here and I’d say it’s unique in a sense that I haven’t seen something like this, going after horror but then placing it in a time of beliefs of the people and I just find that to be original, I really like that whole aspect of the way witches were conceived then as being so disgusting so filmmakers wouldn’t even go there but eggers has gone there and played with their beliefs and what they thought witches were, It’s the idea of taking that pilgrims perspective and doing it from all their perspective in that time giving what they deal with, also gonna make the witch thing real and that’s why I think this is remarkable!  It’s just such a vibe for 90 minutes, you get atmosphere in droves and some horror films can get away with not heavily relying on a narrative or character arcs/progression as it’s all about the mood and scare factor from the jump that it all just works incredibly well!  The script is incredibly laser focused just like the movie, they knew exactly what they were going for, it’s so tight and for 4 million it’s just incredible!  I think Folk horror is going out of your comfort zone , leaving everything that is safe, you are out there and that’s what folk horror is!  The film automatically sets you expectations as folk tales can have supernatural elements or a mythical idea as well so it’s already giving you loads to chew on and I did find this time round that eggers has softened it a bit to make it less clear, more suspenseful and I think another piece of the movie that works very well is your wondering if something demonic is actually happening or if there just crazy like it just adds more suspense.  Masterfully done this film! The tone, the feel, the colour, the acting is all top! It looks amazing too, it’s so relentlessly dark and I just love it, the score puts hairs on my spine every time I watch and I just appreciate it more, the more I watch!  (Is Robert eggers the best animal director ever?)  Bravo