The Witch, film review: Don’t be scared — it’s their pain you need to feel

Robert Eggers’s low-budget debut makes our hearts swell and our brains sweat, says Charlotte O'Sullivan

Don’t believe critics who tell you this tale of the supernatural is scary (at no point will Robert Eggers’s low-budget debut make your armpits melt). To suggest otherwise would be like raving about Deadpool’s cameo in the forthcoming epic Batman v Superman. (Just to be clear, Deadpool will NOT be appearing in Batman v Superman). But here’s the thing. It doesn’t matter.

In 17th-century New England an English couple and their five children, recently exiled from a settlement thanks to their fanatical beliefs, are trying to scratch a living from a patch of land adjoining a tangled wood. One day the baby of the family disappears. Was it snatched by a witch? And might wickedness lurk within, as well as without, the family home?

The script creates characters we ache for. Puritan patriarch William (Ralph Ineson) isn’t as tyrannical as he seems. Nor is his wife Katherine (Kate Dickie) as flinty. Their disappointment in America (and each other) is subtly conveyed, as is their ambivalence towards their eldest child Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy). The scapegoat of the family, Thomasin is actually in charge of the clan’s goat (if you’ve ever had a face-off with a feisty goat, you’ll salute the impeccable turn here by “Black Philip”). Everyone is a victim. Everyone has reason to kick back.

The mostly British cast is formidable but Eggers deserves special praise for finding Taylor-Joy. Somehow she creates the illusion that she comes of North Yorkshire stock though she was actually born in Miami and her first language is Spanish. Like Room’s Brie Larson (whose first language is French), the pale 19-year-old is almost unnaturally convincing, not so much an actress as an honest-to-goodness changeling.

A star is born: Anya Taylor-Joy

Eggers’s visual assurance too is astounding. The period details are spot-on, while various tableaux suggest this director has learned all the right lessons from Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon and Neil Jordan’s The Company of Wolves. There’s also, right at the end, a unique special effect.

The Witch’s climax, in fact, is altogether sublime, not to mention controversial. Imagine a movie set in the Middle Ages in which Jews murder Christian infants and the heroine tacitly endorses the slayings. Whether viewed as anti-Christian or anti-Semitic (or both), said movie would definitely be dangerous. Aware that gender, as much as faith, remains a burning issue, Eggers makes our hearts swell and our brains sweat. It’s scary that we would expect him to do more.

Cert 15, 93 mins

Follow Going Out on Facebook and on Twitter @ESgoingout

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT