this is it, horror fans

Rating: 9/10 (24 October 2016)

This is it, horror fans (and by that I don't mean the teenage gore hounds or the jump scare fanatics). I mean lovers of true horror.
To begin, THE WITCH is a slow boil. What does that mean? It means those looking for scares within the first minute, even the first twenty minutes, should go elsewhere.
And when the horror does encroach, it is GRADUALLY, like something slowly being injected into you. You become uneasy to a greater and greater degree.
The slow boil approach helps us feel for this family who, day by day, are being ravaged by hunger. The Mother, Father and Kids, including the young woman who is basically the main character.
A member of the family goes missing and how the family reacts tells us so much about them and their time.
The lighting, the music, the editing, the sound design...all of it are gorgeous. The ending kept me thinking. And thinking.
I can't think of a more apt way for this movie to have ended.