The Witch

Rating: 9/10 (20 February 2016)

Back in the year 2000, I had the pleasure of seeing the director's cut and re release of The Exorcist on the big screen at my local theatre. This was such a thrill for me as I was not around in 1973 to see the film when it was first released in theatres and now having a chance to see not only one of my favourite horror films, but one of my favourite films of all time on the big screen was an experience that I was to savour and that was a great all around film experience for me. Overall as I mentioned, seeing the film on the big screen in stereo sound and with additional unseen footage was great. I also thought that being able to see and experience the film with a then live audience full of people who perhaps had never seen the film before as well as fans of it probably who even saw it back in the 70's would be a real treat, but unfortunately seeing it with a live audience was one of the drawbacks of the film. All the then teenage viewers who were in the film audience amongst me, were instead of being in fear, or absolutely captivated by the film as they should have been, they were instead laughing and mocking the film as if what they saw on the screen was one of the funniest things they had ever seen. I was completely in disbelief and truly was despairing of this generation of moviegoers, even if I unfortunately fall into that same age group and demographic. I mention this in this review of the new film, The Witch, because the exact same thing happened to me while I was watching this film with a live audience who typically fell in the teenage age bracket as well. People were not only laughing and sneering at the film as if this was the funniest film to come along in quite awhile, but they also mocked it, were squirming in their chairs with boredom and countless times various people of the audience would leave and then come back into the theatre which each time caused the heavy theatre door to make a large slamming sound as they would enter and then exit the theatre and this happened frequently throughout the film. I think in both cases with The Exorcist, and now with The Witch, both films are very good, but the proof shows that they go beyond the typical maturity level of a teenage audience and those who attended my screening. The Witch, is a smart film with sparse and bare settings and backdrops that reminded me of the European films of Bergman, Tarkovsky and even Lars Von Trier's last few films in his depression type trilogy with Antichrist and Melancholia being the main examples. The acting was all by people who were relatively unknown to me as was the director and most of the crew if I have to be honest about it, but their dedication and craft on this film was excellent and this ended up being one of the most effective and interesting horror films of recent years. There certainly were moments in the film that were almost baffling, ludicrous and even hard to understand at times, but I at least was so compelled and interested by what was going on that even the more bizarre aspects of the film were intriguing to me as opposed to being something that bothered me about it. The film is getting rave reviews from critics and for good and appropriate reasons because technically it is one of the best made horror films from an artistic standpoint as well as any serious fan of the genre can tell you how effective and thought provoking this experience was. The people in my theatre like the people almost 16 years ago who laughed and mocked The Exorcist, are from a generation who like their horror films violent and with loud, annoying and sometimes just plain idiotic jump scares and stuff that most of us would just avoid, or roll our eyes at if we saw. Too bad that all these years later that today's teens are still enjoying the same old garbage and are totally aloof to anything of any artistic merit such as the two films in question. With time we will see how these films continue to fair, but I have a suspicion that critics and horror fans will be on my side and these teens will eventually grow up and their past tastes will be left in the dust. Time will certainly tell.