If it weren't for the offensive content, this might have been one of the best films of the year

Rating: 1/10 (9 March 2017)

The creepy atmosphere was first rate and the performance by Anya Taylor Joy was outstanding, but unfortunately the script was utterly tasteless. There was certainly a mass hysteria promoted by Christian fanaticism in the colonial period and many innocent people were murdered because of it. I'm sickened by the direction that this film takes because rather than creating a horror film that explores how twisted and demented people of the time were and then gruesomely illustrating their terminal descent into madness, the film actually gives credence to their fanaticism by making their fears into reality. And to make the point, I'm not against supernatural elements in storytelling, in fact it's one of my favorite themes, but depicting women, animals and forests as wicked and depraved things to be scared of is completely unacceptable.