The Witch

This morning I saw The Witch, starring Anya Taylor-Joy and Kate Dickie.

It's the early 1600s in New England and Thomasin (Taylor-Joy) is watching her baby brother while her mother tends to other household chores. As she's playing peek-a-boo with him, he disappears in what seems to be thin air (but what really is the creepy dark woods they live next to). An evil witch has snatched him up for her own purposes.

Predictably, Mom (Dickie) goes into hysterics and the family unit is altered considerably. Dad (Ralph Ineson) tries to keep things as normal as possible, but the baby's absence casts quite a shadow. The young twins are constantly babbling about speaking with "Black Phillip," who tells them their older sister is a witch. To get them to shut up already, Thomasin plays along and pretends she is one. She will later regret this action.

To tell you more would be to spoil... so I'll just say that I was underwhelmed by this film as a whole. It had great potential; a great setting with great actors and rich folklore. But for me, it missed the mark.

Though the abstract shadowy images are indeed a bit spooky, I never really felt scared throughout. We know what happened to the baby (and the others as the story progresses), but with the exception of a few gratuitous bloody scenes, there's nothing very 'horrifying' about the story.

Sure, it's clever that the main character's last name ends in "sin" and the mother longs for happier times in the past, in the place that really felt like home.

But crafty moments don't make for an overall good film. I actually shivered more at the trailer for The Conjuring 2. I'm hoping this spring after I see that one I'll be compelled to write a better review.

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