One of the darkest phases of American history was the witch hysterias of the late 17th and early 18th centuries. It is nearly impossible for us, living in our modern world, to understand that to the settlers of colonial New England, bewitchment was a very real and terrifying prospect. That a person can live according to God’s law and still be beset with bad luck and a hard life was difficult to for them to understand. Other forces must be at work - Satanic forces with ill designs on Godly people. We, with the distance of hindsight and the clarity of science, look upon those times as being infested with ignorance, fanaticism, paranoia, and ambition. We look upon the stories told and testimonies given as fanciful – ridiculously so. We see the accused witches as victims of their neighbors’ own fears and jealousies. We see the witch hysterias also as cautionary tales - warnings to us from antiquity to guard against abandoning reason in favor of supernatural answers. However, that one nagging, uncomfortable question always remains in the back of our minds; “What if?”
What if the tales and testimonials were true? What if the settlers of the time actually experienced a terrifying reality that we have somehow lost the ability to see? What if the witch hysterias were, in fact, justified? These questions were explored in an astounding Horror film from 2015. That film was Robert Eggers’ THE WITCH.
THE WITCH tells the story of a Puritan family who, having been expelled from their pilgrim community, sets up a farm at the edge of a dense wood. One day, the family’s infant vanishes while under the care of the oldest child, Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy), a young girl entering her teenage years. After a search of the woods is unsuccessful, a series of additional hardships befall the family in rapid succession. As paranoia and desperation take hold, the family begins to suspect bewitchment is the source of their woes, and that Thomasin might just be the source.
Writer/director Robert Eggers’ approach to this subject is to drop the viewer into this place and time and force them to witness these events as the people of the time would have. Much of the script’s dialogue is taken directly from diaries, testimonials, and court records from the period – providing authenticity and also forcing the viewer adapt to an extinct manner of speaking. Cinematographer Jarin Blaschke shot the film almost entirely using natural light, again giving an authenticity and oppression to the visuals. Eggers directed composer Mark Korven to eschew conventional melodic writing in favor of dischordant harmonics and jarring rhythms. The director also takes a distinctly European approach to the shot compositions and the edit. All of this combines to disorientate the viewer just as absolutely as the characters, since there is very little familiarity in the filmmaking to ground us. It forces us to sympathize with this family on their level. It forces us to believe what they believe.
The acting in THE WITCH is also top of the line. Ralph Ineson and Kate Dickie are perfect as William and Katherine, the parents desperately trying to keep their family intact, and Harvey Scrimshaw is terrific as Caleb, the eldest son who is trying very hard to be a man and do right by his parents. THE WITCH, however, truly belongs to Anya Taylor-Joy in the role of Thomasin – eldest daughter and the character through whose eyes we witness the events unfold. Anya Taylor-Joy’s audition tape was the first one that Robert Eggers saw, and it is easy to see why it was all he needed. Taylor-Joy is a revelation as she carries the incredibly difficult dialogue and subject matter, and the ease with which she seems to pull it off is remarkable. She is a talent to keep an eye on.
THE WITCH could very easily have not worked at all. All of our cultural biases work against accepting the reality of this film’s premise. The intelligence of the approach and the talent that brings the vision into reality makes THE WITCH an utterly harrowing experience. It is a brilliant film that scares us by showing us that we are really not that far removed from the people who believed in these things with all their hearts. All it takes is for us to ask; “What if?”
THE WITCH fun facts – Shot in only 25 days.
David Eggers has said that the best behaved animal actor on the set was the hare.
“Thou” and “You” are used interchangeably throughout the film, but it is unlikely that a family would have referred to each other as “you.” “You” was for formal situations, while “Thou” was for familiar, informal settings.
The chants are in Enochian - an alleged language of angels. It was first written about by the legendary alchemist, astronomer, and all-around shyster John Dee.
William - “We will conquer this wilderness. It will not consume us.”
Caleb – “Mother, I have brought a book. Will you look at it with me?”
Thomasin – “I be the witch of the wood!”
William – “Corruption, thou art my father!”