A beautifully presented box full of nothing

Rating: 7/10 (6 June 2016)

So last night I saw The VVitch: A New-England Folktale. I was very excited to see this movie, having been swept up by the hype that preceded it, and, in all fairness, the trailer looked honestly promising. But perhaps because of these high expectations I was a bit let down. The psychological horror is decent, but the film is never really terrifying. Based on script alone, the movie doesn't deserve much more than a pass. Beneath all the period costumes and baroque language is a rather plain – and sometimes even downright badly written – story. But because, thankfully, a movie is made of more than just script, I was able to enjoy the other things it had to offer. One has to praise Mark Korven's chilling score (I could swear the violin pizzicati on the track Caleb's Seduction imitate a witch's cackle), the animal acting (arguably better than the human acting), and Jarin Blaschke's clever cinematography, which doesn't only create a genuinely creepy atmosphere thanks to its consistent palate of grays and use of natural light, but also uses a rather unusual 1.66:1 aspect ratio, a very subtle change that makes the shots more claustrophobic and gives the audience the queasy feeling that something isn't quite right. The research behind the movie is also noteworthy; the dialogue is based on writings from the period, making it pretty close to what real 17th century New England dialogue must have sounded like (there was even some well-informed accent coaching going on), and the period clothes and settings are very convincing (although its nerve-wrecking how the protagonist's braid remains un-tussled through wind and rain). Even the witchery depicted is historically accurate: a shunning of society and convention to connect with a raw primeval force of nature, rather than with the supernatural Satan, which is Western filmmaking's usual take on devil-worship. Anyway, if you like unusual flicks, period films and psychological horror, you should check it out. If you're a fan of fast-paced blood and gore, not so much.