The Witch (2016)

[Plain Old Tele]

Discuss.

[Ozymandias]

Piece of shit.

[75Live]

I guess I'll be the opposing view

 

I liked it, but I can definitely see why people won't

 

It is literally a re-telling of old time witch stories from early US history.  It is even based on some of those stories that used to be told.  So in a way, it really isn't current horror, just more of a study of how people were back then and how they saw the world.

 

Of course, they do add in some supernatural stuff that is "real" as opposed to say The Village where it was just all made up.  So taht part is partially still in the horror genre.

 

The story is a complete build up and a lot like Blair Witch where you are following a family basically going through hell and them breaking down and not trusting each other.

 

In the end, there really are witches and the devil that tortures this family all the way to the point that the only remaining surviving member takes the devil's offer and becomes a witch herself

 

So overall, it's more atmospheric and creepy as opposed to jump scares and gore.  

 

I give in probably a B+, or at least no lower than a B

[Water Bottle]

I think it was mostly good even if I didn't feel satisfied by that ending. Maybe it's because I don't like evil winning or maybe because I just felt like the movie just ended, I don't know. Also I had some difficulty understanding the dialogue so when I get the Blu-ray and turn on subtitles, I might raise the grade.

 

But for now, it's a solid movie that was creepy and effective until the ending.

 

B

[Plain Old Tele]

Y'know, at some point you gotta decide whether you're making a Malickian tale of dread and man vs nature... or a movie with talking evil goats and a cackling witch coven. You can't really get away with doing both. 

 

C

[baumer]

I can't even grade this right now as I don't know what to think of it.  I liked some of it, disliked a lot of it and loved the last 5 minutes.  Taylor Joy is terrific in it but ultimately, like Tele says, this doesn't know what it wants to be.  It should have chosen to be one or the other.  When it concentrates on horror, it's fairly effective but there's just so much that doesn't work.  Not sure what to grade it yet, but as of right now, maybe a 6/10

[75Live]

I can definitely see where you and Tele are coming from.

 

I told a friend about the movie who was not interested at all, then I told him they marketed it wrong and the movie actually has a subtitle of the old New England Folk tale and he perked right up saying he would see that kind of movie about "salem", etc and how they felt at the time.  But I think they knew that wouldn't sell completely to a wide audience.

 

but yeah one of my "gripes" was it was a bit uneven with where it wanted to go, but I just went along with it all

[JohnnyGossamer]

If The Crucible and Don't Look Now had a child, it would be The Witch. I thought this was pretty great but suffered from some lag here and there. B+.

 

Hmm... This movie got me thinking about witch movies. Some other good ones. Please feel free to add to the list.

Rosemary's Baby

The Witches

Suspiria

Blair Witch Project

Sleepy Hollow

The Crucible

 

Edited February 24, 2016 by JohnnyGossamer

[mattmav45]

It's an immersive and atmospheric viewing, and yet it is above all, very much a film that acquires a large majority of its impact once the credits begin to roll.  This is a film that in many ways takes its time to reveal its vision, and comes out the better for it. 

 

Superior horror cinema, plain and simple.

[AniNate]

 

It had me for the first hour or so. Excellent atmosphere, interesting theme about just the idea of a witch turning the family against each other. But it just goes off the rails at the end as it tries to mix in some visceral horror goods, and the result is a rather unsatisfying experience with a disappointingly rote resolution.

Edited March 2, 2016 by tribefan695

[JohnnyGossamer]

I kind of expected it to be more well liked around these parts. But, hey, to each his/her own. The more I think on it, the more I like it.

Edited April 21, 2016 by JohnnyGossamer

[Goffe]

Not a fan. The filmmaking kept me interest throughout most of it, first hour being especially fixating, but overall I didn't see much of a point. Third act was very anticlimatic. 60/100

Edited March 5, 2016 by Goffe

[ainsleyb]

Like 'The Babadook,  this is another raved about horror film which completely fails to deliver. The audience I saw it with could best be described as bemused throughout at what they were seeing. Firstly, I didn't have a problem with the olde english, if you're a native english speaker then it's not particularly hard to follow and it is at least authentic to the time in which the film is set. The problem I had was that the film is just plain not scary, not in the slightest. The witch is in it for maybe three minutes of a 93 minute film and the rest is just build up which isn't particularly engaging and finally ends with an anti climactic non ending. What happened to the twins? had they been speaking with black phillip? 

 

I'd classify the acting as generally pretty strong, unfortunately there is no depth to the characters they are portraying and as such, I didn't care about any of their fates.

 

Really hard to recommend this one, even to die hard horror fans. 5/10

[DAJK]

Didn't really like it all that much. The girl I went with and me had the entire theatre to ourselves (  ) but the scariest part was when my manager snuck up behind us and scared the crap out of us.

[Avatree]

Did thou make an unholy bond with that goat?

[The Stingray]

Dug it. A lot. Very atmospheric. I'll take something like this over a Paranormal 7 any day of the week. Still overhyped tho.
 

[Webslinger]

Very solid horror flick that gets a ton of mileage out of its spooky, well-developed atmosphere. Furthermore, it works equally well as a character study of its protagonist's struggles within her rigid, suffocating home in a time and place that were decidedly unkind to inquisitive young women. 

 

B+

[Avatree]

13 minutes ago, Webslinger said:

Very solid horror flick that gets a ton of mileage out of its spooky, well-developed atmosphere.

Hey, that's a great phrase.

[The Stingray]

I feel the goat was underused. I also didn't like the way he appeared as a man towards the end, the voice alone would have been sufficient. Didn't mind the old English, it only added to the atmosphere. The one thing it lacked though was scares, there was dread in there, but it just wasn't scary, which obviously is a big minus for a horror movie.

 

[somebody85]

Thou could not finish thy movie. Thou is a giant horror fan and thou didn't think it was necessary to use Ye olde English that was accurate to the time period to tell thy story. Thou got annoyed after not being able to understand what the fuck most of thy characters were saying half the time and threw in thy towel.

Thou may try again when it hits bluray with subtitles but thou doubts it. Thou thinks life is too short.

Seriously this was like a Shakespeare horror play. I was really looking forward to it too after hearing a lot of good things pre release. I could feel the tension there with the loud insidious like score but it was usually followed by characters I didn't care at all about thanks to not being able to understand them.

 

Literally the only time I was entertained was when the goats sounded like they were signing "Mock yeah Bird yeah" from Dumb & Dumber.

I don't know why they needed the dialogue to be accurate to the time period. This wasn't going to win awards come Oscar season. The story would have been the same if they didn't talk like that for the entire thing and probably been more effective. Instead I kept throwing up my hands after hearing more unintelligible dialogue before finally saying fuck it, I don't care anymore and turning it off.

 

And I was watching it with great audio in headphones.

Edited April 24, 2016 by somebody85