Part of Shocktober
“Wouldst thou like to live deliciously?”
New England, 1630. Upon threat of banishment by the church, an English farmer leaves his colonial plantation, relocating his wife and five children to a remote plot of land on the edge of an ominous forest — within which lurks an unknown evil. Strange and unsettling things begin to happen almost immediately — animals turn malevolent, crops fail, and one child disappears as another becomes seemingly possessed by an evil spirit. With suspicion and paranoia mounting, family members accuse teenage daughter Thomasin of witchcraft, charges she adamantly denies. As circumstances grow more treacherous, each family member’s faith, loyalty and love become tested in shocking and unforgettable ways.
In this exquisitely made and terrifying horror film, the age-old concepts of witchcraft, black magic and possession are innovatively brought together to tell the intimate and riveting story of one family’s frightful unraveling in the New England wilderness.
“The film is so consistently engrossing that I surrendered to it early on. THE WITCH draws you in so well that you won’t realize its creators have been broadcasting exactly where they’re taking you.” —Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times (Feb 18, 2016) “A deeply impressive first film by director Robert Eggers, THE WITCH is immaculately constructed, evinces an exquisitely ominous tone, and is unequivocally haunting…. An evocative look at the nature of evil and the inescapability of malevolence, THE WITCH will dazzle and shake you right to your core.” —The Playlist (Jan 24, 2015) “There is no silliness to undercut the menace — nothing to let you off the hook of having to think about these folk, about the leathery toughness of their existence, and about the load that their souls are forced to bear. You believe in their belief… This is a scary movie and a serious one, because it lures us into the minds, and the earthly domains, of those who are themselves scared, night and day, that they have forfeited the mercies of God. It takes an original movie to remind us of original sin.” —Anthony Lane, New Yorker (Feb 21, 2016)
