Saw The Witch (or is it VVitch?) It was a claustrophobic period drama about a family who is exiled for over zealous religiosity. They settle in a new place, but soon the weather turns against them. The crops fail, animals will not be snared, and when a baby vanishes, they finally suspect witchcraft and begin to turn against each other, petty cruelties and betrayals culminating building on each other to a hysterical climax.
The true horror of the film, the horror beneath the talk of witches and devils and so on, is betrayal. Several times the characters betray each other in small and large ways, or they betray their own ideals through cowardice or self-indulgence. The supernatural forces which eventually show up almost need not bother: the family is primed to turn against each other and to fall apart after their baby vanishes.
The film was produced by the A24 studio and has the signature house stylish austerity to it. It's very dark and, although the forest and the frontier look very lush and beautiful, it looks very cold and bare. This austerity extends to the dialogue as well, unfortunately. The characters talk in a very authentic olde English which is reasonably straightforward to understand but which I had a hard time with as the characters muttered and sobbed out lines like "I have become as the wife of Job" or "would you like me to visit you oft?" I had to turn on subtitles a few times, old man that I guess I now am.
I enjoyed the film okay. It was interesting and fairly brief. It didn't tickle me the way psychodramas often do, but this film is more grim anyway. It's not the fun sort of everyone-turns-against-everyone kind of film. It reminds me of Hereditary and The Crucible (of course) which are both more intense than this film. It's not a bad film, but it didn't grab me, alas.
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