A lot of slow build-up for no payoff

Rating: 4/10 (5 August 2019)

I honestly don't understand where the hype for this movie comes from. As a depiction of Puritan religious hysteria it may be well done; for a movie intended to be entertaining, particularly a horror movie, it doesn't fare as well.
I was aware the movie was slow going into it, but was expecting more of a buildup of tension. Instead, roughly 80% of the movie was a snails pace run-through of the characters squabbling with each other without making any marked attempt to really figure out what's going wrong. The only points where tension was built was when the musical score demanded it, as the characters themselves were unable to build up any sense of suspense. The witch that was shown didn't really help this as I found her to be almost comical rather than scary.
The use of old English didn't help this feeling at all; I understand that this is meant to be a period piece, but the dialogue was too burdensome to contribute meaningfully to the feeling of the setting. It often felt like characters were rambling on with no proper point, using far too many words to convey meaning. This ruined any suspense they may have generated, and I don't know if the actors were good or not due to them having to slog through such dialogue. I may be mistaken with regards to how peasants spoke back then, but as an assessment of entertainment value the dialogue was purely negative.
Additionally, the witch herself didn't contribute any meaningful or unique aspects as an antagonist in the film. She could have been replaced with a whole host of other villainous characters and the film could have been exactly the same, right down to the obviously evil children and unexplained, vague ending. If the film was meant to show how witches were perceived back then from a Puritan standpoint, I would've liked to have seen more of the witch side of things to make them more defined as an opposing force.
Overall, I would not recommend this movie to those looking for a solid horror movie. If you're looking for a tense thriller without too much gore, 10 Cloverfield Lane (minus the final scene) or a similar movie would be more appropriate. For actual horror, a whole host of better, more interesting movies are available.