Brave, ambitious horror film-making, which may be lost to some

Rating: 9/10 (27 February 2017)

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
1630, rural England. A devout Christian family find themselves banished by the elders of their local community, on account of their father William's (Ralph Ineson) puritanical, uncompromising religious ways, into the wilderness. They set up a home in the forest, and live their lives strictly in accordance with the teachings of the Bible. But then, a mysterious curse seems to befall them, where their crops fail and the infant child of the family disappears into thin air. The family find their dynamics closing in on each other, with accusations flying around, culminating in daughter Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy) being accused of practising witchcraft.
Of all the genres, in recent times, horror is probably a strong contender for the one that's become the most stale and stagnant, a field that's become over loaded with remakes or original work that's highly derivative of other works that's gone before, and it's all become pretty samey and interchangeable. And so it's refreshing, at least, that feature length debut director Robert Eggers has delivered something like The Witch, a period horror piece that takes us back to the times of Ye Olde England, and drowns us in dialogue that recreates to a tee the spoken dialect of the time, a move that will wrap up and captivate many, and will sadly make it impenetrable for just as many others.
If the dialogue and text is something the average viewer might struggle to get their head around, one thing that will manage to appeal to horror aficionados of all ranges is the beautiful, perfectly creepy and unsettling sense of atmosphere, with the dense, barren forest and the thick, glimmering mist used to beautifully haunting, spooky effect, complimented by a soundtrack that jeeps and jars at just the right times for maximum effect. In the lead role, Ineson's gravelly Yorkshire drawl lends his spoken dialogue an added air of vitality. The climax sacrifices solving the mystery of the missing child for something more startling and ambiguous.
In an age where the average horror flick seems to think frequent jump scares, excessive gore, young teen stars with questionable acting skills being chased and a whiny grunge soundtrack playing over the end credits is enough, it's certainly a breath of fresh air for something like The Witch to come along, and receive a lot of the acclaim it has. And deservedly so, if only so much of the historical recreation wouldn't have proved so overwhelming to so many. ****