God, Devil, Psychological Terror

Rating: 10/10 (22 May 2019)

We all have our vices and hot-buttons. In the horror genre, I find the most fertile ground remains the push and pull between God and the Devil.
It's also the most challenging and ambitious field to plough, as films such as The Exorcist and The Omen have commanded top billing in this pantheon for a half-century and counting.
Imagine, then, the thrilling shock of discovering the film The Witch toying with the idea of competing with those cornerstone films on their own turf. Beautifully shot with coldness to the cinematography that perfectly suits the harrowing subject matter, this is a claustrophobic film in which feel isolated and cornered despite taking place in the middle of nature. We feel the mounting terror of the characters; a natural reaction, surely, when Beelzebub is systematically and incrementally messing with you as he closes in, and just because. This is nothing short of one of the greatest horror films made.