More a psychological family drama than a horror movie (not unlike "The Shining" was)

Rating: 8/10 (19 February 2016)

"The Witch" (2015 release; 93 min.) brings the story of a 17th century family in New England. As the movie opens, we see the husband of the family at trial, due to religious disagreements, and the man and his family (his wife and 4 kids) are forced to leave the plantation and start life anew. Some time (a year?) later, we see the family having built a house and working the land in a far off place. Thomasin, the oldest daughter, goes out near the woods and plays peekaboo with the newest addition to the family, a baby boy. Then after another peekaboo, when she opens her eyes, the baby is gone. She frantically goes looking for the baby in the woods. At this point we are about 10 min. into the movie, but to tell you more would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.
Couple of comments: this is the debut film of writer-director Robert Eggers, and what a debut it is! In the opening credits, we see that the movie's full title is actually "The Witch - A New England Folk Tale". The movie is billed as a 'horror' film, but if you are expecting a slasher movie or something explicit like The Exorcist, you will surely be disappointed. Think of "The Witch" more in terms of the Stanley Kubrick film "The Shining", also termed a 'horror' movie but in reality more a psychological family drama. Even though they are completely different movies, the parallels are uncanny: the isolation, the gradual breakdown of the family, and the ultimate insanity of it all. Newcomer Anya Taylor-Joy is sensational as Thomasin, but truth be told, so are Kate Dickie as the mother and Ralph Ineson as the father. BEWARE: the movie is spoken in 17th century English ("thee", "thy mother", etc.) and I must admit that quite a bit of the dialogue flew straight over my head, I just could not grasp it (English not being my native tongue may be a factor, although I have lived in the US for 30+ years--I'd be interested in anyone else's perspective on this). Even with that 'complaint', I found this to be quite an amazing movie, furthermore so considering this was made on a nickel and a dime.
"The Witch" premiered at the 2015 Sundance Festival and made a huge splash. I've been waiting to see it since. Not sure why it's taken more than a year to finally get a release in theaters, but better late than never I suppose. The screening I saw this at on the Friday evening of the movie's opening weekend was attended okay but not nearly as well as I had anticipated. Couldn't help but notice that a group of about 4-5 people left the theater midway through, and didn't return. I'm afraid that there was a gap between their expectations of this movie and what the movie really is. Yes, it is a 'horror' movie, in the same way that "The Shining" is a 'horror' movie, but it is so much more than that. If you are in the mood for an outstanding original tale of one 17th century family's descent into insanity, you cannot go wrong with this, be it in the theater, on VOD, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray. "The Witch" is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!