More Disturbing than "Scary"

Rating: 8/10 (1 March 2016)

What a good directorial debut. The Witch is a solid film by Robert Eggers. Set in colonial times in America, the story is one of a family that is exiled from a village. The family chooses to settle near the woods in which many strange things occur, the first being the disappearance of the baby of the family.
The eldest daughter of the family is cautious when it comes to the woods, but that doesn't mean she can't get good fun out of teasing her little sister that she is the infamous witch of the woods. This little sister and her twin brother take this jest too seriously, and eventually inform their parents of this incident. That being said, supernatural forces are at play among the family at the core of the movie, and tensions are raised and the family members are against each other as possible demons.
Some may find trouble keeping up with the Old English used in the film, but it seems easy enough to understand when you compare it to Shakespeare's works (even with modern adaptations such as Whedon's "Much Ado About Nothing"). The person who uses this type of the language the most is the father, William, played by Ralph Ineson. Ineson steals the show even when the audience cannot fully comprehend what he is saying (it is easy to get the general idea though). His performance is probably one of the best aspects of this film, other than the lack of great color variety that truly sets the mood for this film.
In terms of "horror" films, this movie does not produce many jump scares, and is instead just disturbing in content, making it comparable to films like The Shining or perhaps Rosemary's Baby. With the family accusing each other, elements of The Thing also come into play. A solid film when it comes to technicality and the horror genre in general, but it could have used a bit more story and more clarification about the demons at play in this film.
3.0/4.0