Few redeeming qualities and a grossly misrepresented genre.

Rating: 3/10 (27 February 2016)

Usually the amount of patrons that leave a theater in the middle of a showing is a accurate representation of a films worth. Four people did so at the 7pm showing of Robert Eggers' "The Witch" and I can't really blame them. The movie itself is well acted and the interaction between the characters is believable. Couple that with the excellent sets and costumes, period anarchism's and speech and you can actually believe that this is how 17th century Calvinists would of lived. However at no time did I feel frightened or unsettled by what was happening on screen. More than once myself and the majority of the audience actually laughs out loud or groaned in embarrassment at a sequence that was clearly intended to produce frights. In fact it is my opinion that this would of been a much better film if stripped of all supernatural elements and presented as merely a family drama that dealt with the issues of isolationism, mistrust and the effects of pride and religious fanaticism on the wellbeing of a colonial family. If that were the case I would of rated it far higher. As it is however, presented as a horror movie, I give this film 4 stars out of ten.