Cult of the Occult.

Rating: 9/10 (11 August 2019)

The future of horror is here. Thy name is Robert Eggers. The Witch is close to being a perfect modern horror film. Reminiscent of classics from the mid-20th century, The Witch pushes the boundaries of what a film can accomplish, psychologically and visually, in scaring you. This is eye's wide open terror. You can hear it, you can smell it, you can feel it. Matched with performances that are all around breathtaking. Anya Taylor-Joy shocks the senses in her feature debut. Ralph Ineson as William is absolutely earth shattering. His booming, shivering voice praying to God for mercy will haunt you for days. The deeper we get into the curse of witches, as they inflict on this poor family, the darker and deadlier of a fate it becomes. None of us are spared either. Thomasin gives into the curse by the film's end, and by proxy, so do we all. In that sense, it's not as scary as it is hypnotic. But once you reenter the real world after your screening of The Witch will the dread of what you just watched overcome you. Boom. That's how you do Horror.