Atmospheric, authentic and utterly terrifying

Rating: 8/10 (26 May 2020)

"The VVitch: A New-England Folktale" is a 2015 horror drama directed by Robert Eggers starring Anya Taylor-Joy and Ralph Ineson. I experienced it firsthand that the movies of independent label A24 are somewhat peculiar in their style and far away from being the mainstream friendly features that pleases every single moviegoer. As of today, it is still a hit or miss for me, as I dearly love a few titles, some being unexpected surprises, but on the other hand also got a few titles that just don't resonate with me at all. May it be the utterly underwhelming psychological horror hit "Midsommar", a surprisingly intriguing crime drama like "Spring Breakers" or an innovative coming of age drama such as "Lady Bird", my opinions about the films of this production company differ wildly. It is not only in my case, the most unconventional titles seem to divide the whole viewership in general, sometimes I hear two totally opposite thoughts on the same movie. In the case of this film, this theory proves to be correct and happens to be a fact even in my own social circle. My classmate, who recommended this film to me and brought it to my attention, considers this film to be one of the scariest films she has ever seen and deeply loves it, on the other hand I have got my own parents who both agree that this film is a big snoozefest and think it is one of the most overrated horror films of all time. So, it is obvious that I didn't quite know what I should be expecting. I just went in with an open mind, and I got to say, it was undoubtedly an unconventional film, but I personally took a liking to it. What mostly stood out was the sheer authenticity of the whole production. From the contemporary setting over the costumes that are true to the depicted time, it all looks breathtakingly original, as if the crew travelled back in time and filmed an actual Puritan family and how they deal with their lives, but the thing that gives it the rest is the archaic language used in this film. Fortunately, I covered Shakespearean English and antique speech in my advanced course back in high school and surprisingly understood everything that has been said (given the fact that it is a foreign language to me, it was somewhat pleasing that I remember most of my education) and I think that was a strange but great experience. But of course, it isn't only this what makes this film so great. As I already implied before, the film's main focus lies on religion and especially Christianity. In the beginning, protagonist Thomasin and her family part ways with the colony they inhabited and start a life on their own in the wilderness, but once they arrived there, some scary things happen around them. It is indeed a simple premise and I understand why many might be bored by this, especially when the film itself is an extreme slow burner and horror fans that need everything to be graphic or to jump right in their faces are at the wrong address. The dread only creeps in slowly and one of the biggest factors why this film works out so alarmingly well to me is that it keeps up this certain kind of ambiguity until the very end. The baby all suddenly disappears, the brother returns from the wood and is visibly sick and no one seems to have an answer to that, except for the assumption that witches are after the family and that the devil himself has cursed them. The thing is, of course the members of the family try to explain the strange incidents reasonably (at least to a certain degree) and even though the film keeps up with the ambiguity and leaves it up to the viewer to decide whether everything is happening due to natural causes or to supernatural powers, the narration rather tends to go with the first option and tries to stay on the realistic way, but without excluding the other option completely. That makes it so unsettling throughout, as I didn't know what to believe in. Of course, there were several scenes that obviously depicted witches and their wicked actions, but all of them had this weirdness to them that made them appear like dream sequences or figments. They even could have been a part of a big metaphor. If you see the family leaving the colony as some form of banishment from the Garden of Eden and the aftermath as the struggle of surviving beyond the walls of paradise, the following things could be explained reasonably. The baby died of illness that resulted from the lack of comfort and Caleb got sick as well after got lost on his last hunting trip and the vanishing of the twins at the end of the movie also falls in the same category. People and children back in the day died comparatively quickly and when they had no explanation for what is happening, they scapegoated someone, mostly women, and accused them of being a witches. From a today's point of view, it of course is rubbish, but in this unenlightened time the easiest solution was also the correct solution. That is why I also think that the witches that are depict in some scenes could also be just a visual metaphor for this procedure to underline this paranoia. No matter what theory you believe in, the film itself has an indisputably unnerving atmosphere that never once let go of me. There was this invisible threat that haunts the family and even as the viewer I could not tell what the actual danger was. The fact that the film has shown some shots of the bordering forest for a few seconds from time to time without any connection to the actual context of the previous or following scene made me feel extremely uncomfortable. Like, it wanted to show us something with this, wanted to make us see that probably wasn't there. But what if? Even if I was just the one who watched the film while sitting on his couch, the film absorbed me completely and made me feel like I was in the film - and I felt constantly watched by something ... or someone. I mean, there was nothing shown explicitly, but still. The fact that I live near a forest and get a direct glimpse into the dark woods when I look out of my bedroom window made it even worse to me. Seriously, this film consumed me completely. Aside from the horror aspect, the film also contained a serious family drama that was shaped by paranoia, enviousness, and suspicion. To be honest, considering it was a family, it more seemed like they all hated each other with all their heart rather than loving each other, but that was the comprehension of family at that time, I think. They were stricter and more merciless in bringing up their children. Apart from this, most of the film also wouldn't work without the performances of the lead actors. Taylor-Joy is stunning and unpredictable in her feature film debut and carries most of the tension with her inscrutable innocence, Ineson is great in his role as the preaching family patriarch with the distinct bass voice and also Dickie's acting as the worried and grieving mother had something chilling to it. Believe it or not, the film hasn't even reached its final form of terror until the shocking finale. After each member of the haunted family, except for Thomasin, has been killed this way or another, it turns out that the witches actually exist in the context of the film. While it has been already subtly creepy before, the revelation that everything that has been going on throughout the whole film was indeed a result from supernatural forces makes it utterly terrifying retrospectively. I mean, they were in fact haunted and constantly watched by the witches living in the wood, right next to them and that sent shivers down my spine. At a moment's notice it destroys the illusion that everything that has happened was due to natural causes and that shocked me profoundly. The fact that the devil himself has been amongst them the whole time shines a whole new light on the religious meaning behind the film and subliminally confirms that evil exists ... while God doesn't. I mean, in the beginning, Thomasin prays to God and asks for salvation from her and her family's sins, but who shows up in the end? Who answers? It is superb how the film that focuses on the Christianity of its protagonists eventually subliminally draws the atheistic conclusion that there is no God and only pure evil. This whole thesis is then wrapped up with the conversion of Thomasin, as the pious young woman then turns herself into a witch and ultimately leaves behind her faith. She has been accused of being a witch throughout and was innocent all the time, so this act is also one final expression of disobedience towards her parents and I think that rounds it up magnificently. Oh, and let's not forget about the text in the end credits that reveals that most of the depicted scenes are based on contemporary literature, actual events and that some parts of dialogue were taken directly from diaries, documents and papers from that time. That gave me the rest. All in all, this film profoundly surprised me and scared the hell out of me with its unnerving atmosphere and the merciless mind games it plays with the viewer. The ambiguity it builds up is ultimately destroyed and makes it even creepier afterwards. It is unconventional and not quite the fastest film in terms of narration, but it is intensively atmospheric, authentic and absolutely historically correct. It is an accurate portrait of a dark and moody time that knows to scare you with its source material and doesn't need to be graphic to achieve its goal. It is undeniably quiet but effective, with a magnificently supporting disturbing score and the fact that it is based on true tales and folklore makes it utterly terrifying. A special kind of horror film that I thoroughly liked. I think I am going to check out more A24 films now ...To be honest, it was very hard for me to find sleep after watching this ... especially with a dark forest nearby.