Film Review: The witch

 Genre: Horror, Mystery 

Cert: 15 cert

Director: Robert Eggers

Screen writer: Robert Eggers

Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy , Ralph Ineson , Kate Dickie , Harvey Scrimshaw , Ellie Grainger , Lucas Dawson , Bathsheba Garnett , Sarah Stephens , Julian Richings , Wahab Chaudhry 

Running time: 1h 32 min

Parents advised to read before viewing film as some scene may contain scenes unsuitable for younger viewers.

Sex & Nudity:

• A (possibly pre-) adolescent boy looks upon his also adolescent sister's chest two to three times throughout the film. Not graphic or sexual at all, the film just uses these few actions to show the boy's curiosity at a young age.

• An adult woman kisses an adolescent boy.

• An adolescent boy is completely naked shown from behind, but the nudity is obscured.

• A woman is shown breastfeeding a couple times. Not graphic.

• An adolescent girl removes her clothes and wanders through the woods. Much of the nudity of the girl is obscured by shadows or camera angles, though sometimes she is more exposed in a distant shot.

Violence & Gore:

• An infant is kidnapped and killed. It is implied that she mutilates it into a bloody pulp on a stump, later rubbing it all over the front of herself.

• A child becomes ill. He behaves in a possessed, disturbed manner, momentarily suffocating with his jaw locking up. The father uses a knife to pry his teeth open, which is graphically shown with blood and cringing noises. The child then regurgitates an apple.

• A woman is seen sitting in a chair laughing as a crow viciously pecks at her breasts with some blood and matter visible from a distance. She is later shown with a blood stain on her clothes, perhaps unaware of what happened.

• People are killed by goring and cleavers.

Profanity: 

• Obscure language as some is not quite understood.

• A few instances of 'damn' and 'hell' are used (talking about witchcraft and the fate of their family).

Alcohol/Drugs/Smoking: none

Frightening/Intense Scenes: 

• Very intense and disturbing.

• Scenes of arguing between family members. A couple of them are mistreated by everyone else.

• A baby is murdered by crushing, and it's blood is poured over the perpetrator as part of a ritual.

• The witch itself has a very gross appearance. In one scene it appears out of nowhere and laughs in a very creepy way. There is no buildup in his scene and it's very sudden. Arguably the scariest scene in the entire film.

• Several extended sequences involving disturbed or possessed children.

• The film has a very intense atmosphere throughout enhanced by the cinematography, music and imagery.

• Many questions in this film are intentionally left unanswered, making it even more haunting and surreal.

MPAA Rating: Rated R for disturbing violent content and graphic nudity.

Story: New England, 1630: William and Katherine lead a devout Christian life, homesteading on the edge of an impassible wilderness, with five children. When their newborn son mysteriously vanishes and their crops fail, the family begins to turn on one another. 'The Witch' is a chilling portrait of a family unraveling within their own fears and anxieties, leaving them prey for an inescapable evil.

Likes : Well after viewing this film i can say all hype over nothing , what i mean by that is that that this film was advertised as being scary & generally frighting well not at all.

Yes there are some good point about this film the acting is pretty solid using a Shakespearian language in speaking along with its authentic costume design for the period this film is set in , the mood of the film is bad , but my god this film is so flawed in story scripting

   

Dislikes : First mistake is the beginning of the film you see a family in a country for some unknown reason which is not explained they are cast out of the village to live in exile in the wildness which set not back story for the film so you just throw in to a film with not direction.

Now the film is meant to be scary yet there is hardy anything happening apart from a baby that goes missing in a mysterious way , strange woman in the wood of a temptress witch that it , you get three moment in the film that were meant to be frighting & psychological its just fails is so many way to be frighting.

The pacing of this film seriously with not much going on seriously was enough to put you a sleep , this film had potential too be so much better with a more darker story instead its just a mediocre horror that tries to hard to be frighting by with hardly anything happening this is a very poor story in a film.

Overall : total bore-fest with pacing, some dark scene but not enough to say it frightening. disappointing film

Rating: 2 out of 5 for entertainment / 4 out of 10 for concept.