The Witch (2015)

[haptalaon]

The Witch (2015)
"What went we out into this wilderness to find?"

The Witch is a meticulously researched little gem of a horror film. A Puritan family are sent out from their village at the end of the world, to a homestead in the woods - where they are troubled by a witch.

Eggers has a passion for the 17th Century: much of the text, and most of the imagery, has been taken directly from original sources. This gives his film a unique perspective and feel - especially, I think, for non-Pagans who may never have encountered the weirdness of witchlore before. But paradoxically, this made the film less effective for me: I'm not especially afraid of the woods or the weird, of witches or devils or deals in the dark, these images are familiar and comforting
 
(I think a lot about how American the fear of the devil is. For sure, England is a Christian country, but we have long lacked the hysterical intensity of belief which makes heresy or demonology a source of fear in film. I am quite easy to scare; but anything with demons leaves me cold. One cannot be afraid of, say, a ghost nun or a defiled cross if one does not already have a relationship with those images.)

Is the witch real - or just the product of hysterical imagination? Eggers chooses to show her almost immediately, and it's a good choice. The supernatural as a metaphor for repression or madness is an old, tired cliche, and it's refreshing to see him stake his territory at once: the witch is real, as the pilgrims believe her to be. Nor is there anything clever or complex about the witch: she's evil, and works evil, a servant of Satan whose joy is to wreak havoc on the Godfearing. Still, the story is played out against the immense strain of subsistence farming, isolation, religious rigidity and patriarchy. It is little surprise that such beliefs took hold. The family's crops fail, one by one, and their faith isn't strong enough to ward off division, hunger, and fear. For there is evidence enough of the witch's actions: and a immense and hollow silence from God.

I didn't love The Witch; I don't think it worked on me in quite the same way it would a person who was afraid of demons and devils and spells from the wood. But it is a beautiful, small-scale, effective little beauty - with an atmospheric historic mood. Not essential, but worth viewing.
 
Fencraft Notes:
Especially interesting for those on paths with the Witch Gods, or who use Sabbatic and traditional witchcraft images. It is based on primary research, and is packed with evocative imagery. The Witch is primarily a Solar/Stellar current film: like much folk horror, it shows the tension between civilisation and the wild, between anthropocentric faith and the impassivity of nature.

It's also a powerful illustration of our principle of Disconnection. "Disconnection" is not a bucolic LARP, a pastoral fantasy or game of dress up. We don't call on people to disconnect because the old days were "better": they self evidently were not. The Witch is a story about the sheer terror of subsistence farming, of days when you could get lost in the woods and never find your way back. In such circumstances, strange beliefs flourish and take root. We do not recommend you build a cabin in the woods because you're going to *like it*.

Content warnings:
The Witch is violent and contains disturbing imagery, including sexualised scenes involving children. Story includes child death, demons, orthodoreligion. Horror film: it aims to scare.