Finally, horror without cheap jump scares

Rating: 9/10 (28 February 2016)

The Witch is exactly the type of horror movie I have been hoping to see for some time. It's a movie that chooses make you think, listen, and pay attention. Too often horror nowadays gives you a couple jump scares, then another 10 or so minutes of bad dialogue and silly plot points that give you time to make a bathroom break and get a snack before the next "scary part". This movie never gives you that break from the dread, even if the movie is slow. It's obviously intentionally slow, to truly build the characters. However it lets you know right away that the witch is real, and it takes the most vulnerable of victims almost immediately in very gruesome fashion. This is sort of the brilliance of this film; it gives you a vile antagonist, but then centers the majority of the movie around the religious beliefs of the family, and how it is tearing them apart, and then let's you decide which is worse. This is the type of movie that will leave some questions unanswered, and while it has its gory moments, it's not particularly violent throughout. And finally, the last thing I love about this film, is that it's clear mix of a "true story" and a fairy tale, which one depends on which century you were born in