The Witch (2016)

Reno June 4, 2016

★ 8/10

> While an evil force slowly possessing them, the family bond is put on a test. The film was based on the collection of a series of the real events that takes place in the 17th century New England. The story of a farmer family who came across the ocean, but now lives on the edge of the forest after denied permission to build a house in a village. When the newborn baby disappears in a thin air, the family begins to experience the mysterious events. Without a clue about the happenings, the evil force begins to possess them while the unity of the family is tested. Wow, finally a wonderful horror-psychological-thriller. Usually horror films are the worst kind compared with other genres, because most of them overly rely on the sudden sound/noise and gore. But there are many awesome horror films I had liked which were better story than the graphical presentation, like this one. So I love…

mattwilde123 March 9, 2017

★ 8/10

This was a really good horror film. The direction was very interesting and Robert Egger plays with darkness and shadows in a really horrifying way. The tension is unbearable at times. The dialogue is a bit hard to follow as it is very "oldé English" to add to the historical accuracy of the piece. The actors are all good at reciting this strange dialect and demonstrating the paranoia spreading through the family thanks to religion and superstition.The film is based on accounts and texts found from the era and so everything seen on screen has been taken from sources and barely been touched. Every part of the film seems authentic. It is refreshing to see a film that doesn't really on jump-scares and annoying "cattle-prod" techniques to make audiences scared. 'The Witch' is genuinely disturbing without resorting to these techniques. It is very strange and gory when it needs to be. I a…

Sheldon Nylander October 24, 2019

★ 8/10

Talk about old school! “The Witch” is a painstaking recreation of Puritan life in New England. The lifestyle is mimicked. The clothes are period-accurate. The dialogue is actually based off of documents and speeches from that time. It’s as if Mel Gibson decided to update “The Passion of the Christ” by 1600 years. As mentioned, the movie is set in Puritan New England as a family is banished from the larger community and has to make their own way out in the wilderness. As they build their home, strange things begin to happen, starting with the abduction of the infant Samuel. Things continue to get worse and worse, until… okay, no spoilers. See the movie. This is a dark and effective movie. I can’t remember the last time I actually had a start from the all too often used jump scares, but the movie is absorbing enough that it did manage to “get” me a couple times. …

r96sk January 16, 2025

★ 8/10

'The Witch', Robert Eggers' feature directorial debut, is very good! I enjoyed all of these 90 minutes, I could've watched it go on for a little longer in truth. I really liked the atmosphere throughout, as well as the look of the film. The dialogue is particularly excellent, too. Everyone on the cast gives a terrific performance, shown perfectly by that final scene with them all together onscreen. Harvey Scrimshaw is super convincing in the aforementioned, I was almost questioning if they had got an adult actor and morphed him into Caleb, such was his high performance. Ellie Grainger and Lucas Dawson are class in that scene too, one of the most unsettling moments in this is as their characters convulse on the floor - that sorta thing with kids always creeps me out. I've gone too far into my review to not note Anya Taylor-Joy, who is quality from beginning to end. Ralph Ineson and …

DogsLoveMe January 10, 2026

★ 10/10

One of the best movies I've ever seen. The acting, the lighting, the writing were all divine. Also, even though this is a horror movie, I liked it because I'm a bit of a scaredy cat. I don't like horrors that have a bunch of gore or jump scares.

FolknHell August 25, 2026

★ 9/10

Robert Eggers’ *The Witch* does something rather nastier than simply putting a witch in the woods. It builds a family perfectly capable of destroying itself, then puts the Devil close enough to offer assistance. William takes his family out of their settlement in pursuit of religious purity and promptly creates a tiny kingdom governed by his own pride. The crops fail, money disappears, truths are withheld and Thomasin occupies the particularly unenviable position of being old enough to work, old enough to blame, but not old enough to possess any meaningful authority. By the time anyone seriously accuses her of witchcraft, the family has already constructed the machinery required to believe it. Eggers makes that machinery horribly convincing. Samuel vanishes during a game of peekaboo with an impossibility that the film barely underlines. There is open ground everywhere except towa…