I am the Witch of the Wood

Rating: 6/10 (2 October 2017)

Robert Egger's 2015 film, The Witch, centers around a family in 1630s New England that begins turning on each other after the disappears of the youngest son, Samuel. This film falls into the genre of horror and mystery, and discusses supernatural phenomena of witchcraft.
After the family is banished from their religious plantation, they set out on their own and begin to cultivate a new farm. This leaves the family isolated and their only sense of reality is that which they can plainly see. With no outside witnesses to the horrors that occur, their only truth is based on past assumptions and leaps in logic. To find meaning behind these horrible events, the members of the family begin suspecting one another of witchcraft. For this reason, the film serves as a social commentary on fear and how it negates reason. It also brings up the importance of perception as all "evidence" points toward one character.
The scene leading to the infant, Samuel's, abduction shows Thomasin, the eldest daughter, playing peak-a-boo with Samuel. This innocent game foreshadows how Thomasin will be made the villain after Samuel's disappearance. She continually says "boo", and later the other members of the family begin to fear her.
While the main archetype shown in the boogeyman, the film also uses the archetype of light vs dark. Particularly, the woods act as the dark, in which mysterious events occur. No one truly knows what is happening, and therefore are literally "in the dark". The farm is in an open field and acts as the light. The environment of the farm then mirrors the situation of the characters, which is shown through cinematography.
At times, I found the plot to be unclear, particularly toward the end of the film. The resolution therefore did not seem complete. The left me, the audience member, dissatisfied, especially because this film is a mystery. For this reason, I would rate this film a 6/10.