Deceptive Previews and an Aggravating Film

Rating: 2/10 (21 February 2016)

I went to see The Witch based on the intriguing previews, plus the high user and critic ratings on IMDb. What did anyone find the least bit redeeming in this wretched film?
Based on the previews I was expecting a frightening, exciting, tense movie about, oh I don't know, a witch!?!? Instead I was subjected to 90 minutes of a family's extreme religious superstition tearing them apart. OK, that's not necessarily bad for subject matter, but since everyone speaks in different accents and variations of 17th century English (ye, thee, thou, whilst, etc.) at wildly varying volume levels, I probably missed a good 40-50% of what was said.
But what upset me the most was how the film existed in the world of plausibility for the majority of the time and then suddenly shifted into fantasy and the supernatural. Far too many WTF moments that I would have to spoil to enumerate. But just when you think you are dealing with the effects of religious extremism and how it can poison a person's mind, suddenly you get slammed with images of pure folklore fantasy and all you can do is scratch your head and wonder what the heck is going on. It's been a long time since a film has made me want to walk out in disgust.
I give The Witch two stars because of the acting performances. The cast had some horrible material to work with but they did a wonderful job of expressing their emotions, fears and doubts about each other's faith. Somehow they spoke the lines they were given effectively as well. In the end they couldn't rise above the material, though, including the fact that like so many movies today, the filmmakers had no idea how or when the story should come to an end.