Unconventional but very effective horror film

Rating: 8/10 (3 July 2020)

This is my second review I'm posting for this film. My original review from 4 years ago was a long winded comparison between this and Rosemary's Baby. The films do share many similarities I'll get into later, but don't think about that going into the movie.
This paragraph is my spoiler-free review, and everything after that will be more in-depth. All I'm going to say is The Witch is the last horror film I ever saw that legitimately scared me. I've seen a lot of horror movies, and its not like I was a kid when I watched this either. This movie came out when I was 20, it still unsettled me to the point where I had trouble falling asleep for the next 2 nights. No movie has done that to me since. I even saw it in the theater twice. It takes a lot for me to see a movie in the theater twice. I think the reason it affected me so much is because its a very unconventional horror film. After seeing so many scary movies, you get an idea of the formula. Chris Stuckmann said it best when he described The Witch as "almost perversely designed to make you feel uneasy". When I first watched the film, there were several points where I expected something to happen, and instead of that thing happening, it would do something else, and that thing was always way more disturbing than what I imagined. The isolation and tension the supernatural happenings drive into the family's life adds another layer of conflict, and it works very well. The 1.66:1 aspect ratio makes the protagonists feel small and the trees imposing and ominous. The score of slow strings and choirs creates a haunting, monolithic soundscape. The atmosphere is so effective, even in a scene where you can tell the sun's going down, you're put on edge in anticipation of what might happen at night. If the mere time of day in a film can instill suspense, that's good tension building if I've ever seen it. Overall the acting is strong, but the actors who played William and Thomasin were the real standouts. The young twins were annoying, but I think they were supposed to be.
Most of my problems with the film are minor, but the elephant in the room for me was how similar it is to Rosemary's Baby. The dominant male figure in our female protagonist's life seeking professional or spiritual fulfillment is the reason they're in a new environment in the first place. They are isolated (socially in Rosemary's Baby, physically in The Witch). In both endings, the female protagonist joins a coven due to their waning faith and because they are left with nowhere left to go. Their respective decisions to join a coven takes them from the submissive female roles of their respective cultures to positions of relative power, albeit in a perverse way.
I love both these movies, but Rosemary's Baby is undeniably the stronger film. The Witch is a great movie, but if you didn't like it, I would recommend Rosemary's Baby since its a similar premise but more timeless and overall better crafted. It's an amazing first film nevertheless. Since the release of The Lighthouse, Robert Eggers is quickly becoming on of my favorite directors, and I eagerly anticipate his future projects.