Fails miserably

Rating: 1/10 (1 August 2016)

For the life of me I can't understand why they chose to market this movie as a horror movie. The tone in the trailer does not for one bit match the tone of the movie. No wonder a lot of people call this movie boring if they went in with high expectations after having seen the trailer.
The rookie director makes one huge mistake after the first 15 minutes or so of the movie when he shows that the witch is indeed real. Had he not done so the witch might have worked as, say, an allegory of religious hysteria or coming of age. But no, the witch is real and there's no room left for ambiguity.
But the major flaw of this movie is that it simply isn't scary, the one defining characteristic of a horror movie. The pacing is glacial. And a slow horror movie is fine if you're building to some payoff. But no, the movie sort of trundles along without any real excitement. When we do get nearer to the end there are two climactic moments that weren't scary, but funny, I assume unintentionally so. The main character's little brother has what seems like an epiphany on his death bed which was so over the top it almost felt campy. And when her two twin siblings freak out and accuse her of being a witch, forget how to pray, and fall to the floor, they had me laughing out loud.
The movie is well made. The cinematography is excellent, the sound and music is good too. As is the acting. It's just a shame that it was not scary and fails miserably as a horror movie.