A fantastic directorial debut from Robert Eggers

Rating: 8/10 (4 December 2019)

So I recently watched Robert Eggers directorial debut, the 2015 horror film 'The VVitch' and it was pretty good. I've been excited to see this movie for a while due to the critical and financial success it garnered in it's opening week, I never had a proper chance to view it until now and I can say that I am satisfied.
The film centres around a small family in the 1780s living in a cottage just off the edge if the woods where strange occurrences begin to happen to them and they have no idea what's causing them as they slowly fall into madness pointing fingers at each other. The story is simple yet effective, the thing that helps seperate this film from others that came out in it's time was how it chose to focus on the characters and how they are coping with the situation they find themselves in rather than placing the focus on cheap jumpscares and monster effects. The script really makes you invested in the story and characters to the point where I wouldn't even really class it as a horror movie and more of a fantasy drama.
Like I said this was Robert Eggers first time helming a film and I'd say he did a good job, the directing is crisp and meaningful with a lot of thought clearly put into it. The cinematography by Jarin Blaschke was by far the best thing about the film with plenty of intricate shots and moments that were rather ambitious in scale and I don't believe could've been accomplished without the combined efforts of both the director and cinematographer. The acting was great for the most part although there are some lines and moments that in my opinion could've been done better from the child actors in the film, that being said a lot of the time child actors really suck but these ones actually delivered a convincing performance. The music was great and really helped add to the creepy atmosphere the film was going for.
The primary problem I encountered from having a fully immersive experience was that the characters speak in a very old dialect that I found incredibly hard to understand even at full volume, I eventually had to turn on subtitles to just understand what was actually happening in I had to keep them on for the duration of the movie. No idea if it was just my tv and if i could have had a more fulfilling experience in a theatre, regardless it hurt my enjoyment quite a bit.
Overall The VVitch is a very well crafted piece of cinema from a director who clearly cares about his art. Not sure if I'll ever rewatch it or not but none the less I'd recommend it for it's fantastic presentation.