La bruja

This is what I call a good movie. But it is not for everyone. After seeing the trailer, lots of people thought they get a horror spectacle. I'll never understand why, because the trailer itself is very slow, just like the whole movie.

The movies has a slow pace but its still intense. And it will only feel intense if you give in and not wait for action and speed. This movie is no Hollywood spectacle.

The movie feels like a depiction of real life. No stupid jokes and exaggerated action scenes. Slow and calm dialogues. I liked the way the witch was enacted too. I am happy to see that she is not shown as a crazy woman jumping around eating toads.

On the other side, I wished there would have been a deeper insight into the witches thoughts.

So... go and see if you want more than silly Hollywood witches.

It took me a very long time, up until just this past weekend, to watch The Witch ("aka VVitch". It has been on my radar since it first came out, but it's hard for me to sit through slow-burn films, especially of the arthouse variety, so I naturally procrastinated. I've watched Eggers other movies (Lighthouse, etc.) and for the most part enjoy them, though I can't honestly call myself a devout fan of Eggers; more like an appreciative admirer. But back to Witch, I finally sat down to watch it, and new from the start that it would try my patience with it's setting, lingo and subtle terror. But damm am I glad I kept watching! This film is a masterclass in dread. It's almost difficult to explain how the horror slowly creeps into your nerves without you ever realizing it until it's too late. The buildup was "delicious" and never for a moment did I want to turn it off. Yes, it's not for everyone; short-attention-span audiences will most likely turn it off within the first 10 minutes (then leave a negative review because they didn't get their jump scares and their gore). But those who understand and enjoy this sort of quiet, slow arthouse horror will most likely put it on their favorites list above and beyond anything else Eggers ever makes. The bigger his budgets become, the less likely he is to create these small-scope, moody masterpieces.

I found "The Witch" to be a generally unnerving film, and one which--though I would not place it in the pantheon of scariest flicks I've ever seen--had some moments that I'll not easily forget.

The atmosphere Eggers creates alone is enough to wrench serious dread from scenes other directors would be otherwise unable to make even remarkable. The score, too, helps cull this dark tone and adds life to a film that can be borderline tedious.

That being said, "The Witch" is not for everyone. It is strange, slow but steady, gruesome at points, and almost un-watchable at others. There are two sides to this film; one which I had hoped the director would stick to concerning the family and their struggle with religion and isolation; and another which plays as an undercurrent to most of the film and then takes charge in the end. Sadly, it is this second side which keeps me from giving the film a better score, and that ultimately hurts the film in the very final scene.

Overall, I enjoyed "The Witch" and its originality. Eggers has achieved a film that, for all its low-budget and independent film background, feels richer and better made than many horror entries of late. Should you decide to see it, a word of caution: do not expect a fast-paced movie full of jump scares and creepy crawlies emerging left and right. As the opening credits remind the audience, this is a folktale. One that does not shy away from exploring the real dark places.

This is a story set in the early colonial period of New England. It has the authenticity of a well-researched historical drama, up to and including dialogue delivered in a period accent and vocabulary (softened a bit so that it's easy to understand). Instead of drawing on historical events, though, it draws on historical folklore -- it's the story of witchcraft afflicting a family, such as might have been told at the time.

The characters are a very believable, ordinary family, with the sorts of tensions and problems you'd expect from people living a hard and substantially isolated life after being exiled from the local colonial town. They also have period Calvinist attitudes, and the storytelling doesn't present an outsider's view of this or offer a modern commentary, but instead it just displays these attitudes and tells a story from the characters' standpoint.

Their reliance on period folklore means that it doesn't strictly follow modern horror movie tropes, either. It has the slow build of a modern psychological horror/thriller as well as the standard formula where tragedies start from tragic flaws, but the traditions it's drawing on depend on a Calvinist's conception of flaws, and treat witchcraft as a horrible, well-understood occurrence rather than a shocking supernatural surprise. This story applies these perspectives.

It's very well done in terms of writing, acting, and other aspects of execution, so it might have cross-over appeal to fans of horror, folklore, or straight period drama from colonial America.

To say I didn't get what I was expecting is a huge understatement, I was expecting a run of the mill horror, with all the usual cliches, obvious and blatant scares, etc, but instead I got to watch ninety minutes of rather subtle, intelligent and subtle horror. The film is hugely atmospheric, moody and tense, it is visually fantastic, with great scenery and costumes. The story unfolds cleverly, when I think of witches, this is what comes to mind, as opposed to the more conventional. As you watch you never quite know what's coming next, or who the malign force truly is. Some truly unsettling and disturbing scenes, it's not a horror in the conventional sense, the scares are not cheap, but very poignant. Very good performance from the cast, Ralph Inseson and Kate Dickie in particular. On occasion the dialogue sounded a little flat, but it was in keeping with the setting of the movie.

Very watchable.