Witches really do exist. Well, don't they? Yes, and No.

Rating: 10/10 (13 March 2016)

I enjoyed The Witch immensely. The mood it captures so well. A real bone-chilling horror story that conveys full plausibility to the world that it depicts. And the scenery and music help the mood along very nicely.
William (Ralph Ineson) and Katherine (Kate Dickie) and their family are expelled over some religious dispute with the elders of a Puritan plantation in early 17th century New England (1630 is the date given). Even the language used throughout the movie is Early Modern English (1500-1700) with its thou-thy/thine-thee 2nd person familiar pronouns-now considered thoroughly archaic.
With their children in tow, they tough it out on a small farm somewhere on the outskirts of the plantation, growing Indian corn (aka maize) and raising goats, forbidden to participate further with their brethren in the fortress. This forced isolation from society and other human beings plays a significant role in the movie as does their intense religious practices and beliefs. They take the grace of Christ very seriously as they also do the wickedness of the Devil. The large dense forest near their farm also plays a part in the movie.
The focal point of the movie is William's and Katherine's elder daughter, Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy). She is 14 or 15 in the movie and what today would be called a pubescent teen. She is the oldest child and is tasked to watch over the latest addition to the family, the infant Samuel. While Thomasin is playing peep-a-boo with him, he mysteriously disappears from her sight. The scene shifts briefly to the shocking scene of a strange nude woman bashing the child to death and smearing herself with his blood. William and Katherine are distraught with grief. At first William explains Samuel's disappearance to a wolf.
One other incident is worth noting. The two younger children frolic with their large male goat appropriately named Black Phillip. Thomasin is jeered by them as they hold her responsible for Samuel's disappearance. She chases them and asserts that she is the witch of the woods. After this they fear her.
After Samuel's disappearance things grow more awry. His father having failed to find game in the forest, Caleb (Harvey Scrimshaw), their eldest son, and Thomasin mounted on the farm's only horse set out in search of game in the thick woods. A large hare stares intensely at them as though it has a mind of its own. Caleb tries to shoot it with his father's blunderbuss but he misses. The shot scares the horse. He bolts and tosses Thomasin to the ground. Caleb runs after the hare deeper and deeper into the forest. Soon he realizes he has lost his way. The forest is dense and scary. He stumbles onto a hut and is greeted by a strange but alluring woman who hugs him to her ample breasts. He returns home several days later delirious with fever and dies mumbling prayers as though he's committed some heinous sin.
As the incidents pile up, William and Katherine see something sinister and unholy in all the goings-on and become convinced that Thomasin is a witch and begin accusing her of witchcraft on their children, which she vehemently denies. They are both frantic with fear and loathing and soon they turn on Thomasin. Hysteria and chaos set in. In their struggle to take control of her, William is rammed and killed by Black Phillip. As Katherine tries to strangle her, Thomasin kills Katherine with a knife. In the commotion the two younger children are killed.
Thomasin is now all alone expect for Black Phillip. Although not clear, it was hinted that she's also had some kind of sexual relation with him. There is the mysterious scene of the witch seemingly milking a goat, but a more sexual interpretation can clearly be made. Docilely she follows Black Phillip into the barn where she partially disrobes, clothed now only in her tunic.
In the darkened barn we see the shadow of a man-creature who speaks to her in a deep male voice, asking her what she wants. To experience the world in all its splendor and glory she tells him. He instructs her to sign allegiance to him. She cannot write she tells him. To which he responds: I shall guide thy hand.
At the very end we see Thomasin nude in the woods observing a coven of naked witches dancing around a fire chanting curses and incantations and then hovering lightly in the air, they ascent into the sky. Thomasin has become one of the witches of the woods.
Was she a witch? It depends on what angle we view the facts presented to us in the movie. Within the cultural milieu in which she lived, one would have found her guilty of witchcraft. Her punishment would have been death by hanging or being burned at the stake. But what about our present milieu dominated by science? A different angle would be to see a young woman severely constrained by parental authority suffering from a neurological disease that would today be classified as schizophrenia, which often manifests itself in teenage years and early adulthood. In her case characterized by the display of both auditory and visual hallucinations (to a person having these hallucinations they experience them as completely "real"*), paranoia, and aggrandized modes of thought. And in the cultural milieu and isolation that she experienced, she could easily believe she had become a follower of the Devil. So, the appropriate answer to the question is, Which milieu does the asker inhabit?
To the actors and director, kudos to all of them. A masterpiece horror movie. And one that is open to a sequel.
Regarding the archaic English, even though I could follow the conversations reasonably well, I honestly think subtitles would have been helpful.
10 out of 10.
* The mathematician, John Nash (1928-2015), learned how to control his hallucinations.