Spoilers follow ...

Rating: 8/10 (11 August 2016)

What is it that separates a good film from a bad one? Certainly not budget (or lack of), not even acting talent. Not necessarily a cohesive story. Generally speaking, it is down to individual taste. With horror, gore and special effects can be added to the list of things that don't really matter â€“ it is, I suppose, a translation of convincing mood, of atmosphere, of fear. I say all this because 'The Witch' has received widespread acclaim, yet is almost the polar opposite of successful horror films of modern times.
This concentrates on the ascension (or descension?) of young Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy) into a witch. Beginning with the exile of a family of six (Shortly â€“ if briefly to become seven) to a farm beside a secluded forest. The head of the family William (Ralph Ineson) does his best to provide for them, but lacks skill as a hunter and is surrounded by mysteriously failing crops. Whilst in the care of Thomasin, the new baby vanishes â€“ her older brother Caleb (Harvey Scrimshaw) also disappears only to return in a state of possession, and the two remaining youngest, Jonas and Mercy, display increasingly frightening behaviour. It seems an unexplained and tragic series of coincidences mars Thomasin, but as things transpire, events seem pre-ordained by the legendary Black Philip.
As a glut of unexplained circumstances occur that disposes of her family, Thomasin wanders in a trance, into the forest where she comes across a haven of naked witches who, after completing a ritual of dance movement around a blazing fire, physically rise and ascend into the trees. Laughing, Thomasin joins them.
The acting in this is extraordinary throughout, even from the youngest members of William's family. Occasionally, the olde-world dialogue spoken with thick, regional accents, is hard to make out. And we only see a witch once in close-up. A seductive, long-haired woman emerges from a cottage deep in the forest and appears to seduce young Caleb (there is also an incident where her coven break into the barn when Thomasin has been imprisoned by her father, and drink the blood of the animals, but this is shrouded in darkness).
It has been suggested by a handful of reviewers that this could be a kind of loose prequel to 'The Blair Witch Project (1999)', which, if you forget the change in location, is an interesting possibility â€“ if you want it to be. Any connection is, I think, entirely unintentional.
This is a leisurely-paced, stunningly shot psychological horror in which a family's worst fears actually become a distinct possibility. It won't please everyone, although it did well commercially and received well deserved critical acclaim.