The Witch

Rating: 9/10 (20 July 2016)

Making his directorial debut, Robert Eggers set out to create a horror film that evokes fear in the most bizarre and diabolical ways. The Witch does not resort to jump scares to put the "scary" in "scary movie". Instead, The Witch relies on a dark atmosphere, haunting imagery, the subject of religion and the consequences of sinning to pull emotions from the darkest depths of your soul.
The Witch starts as a seventeenth century family is thrown from their homes, leaving no choice but to make homestead distant from all civilization. When their newborn baby vanishes, madness begins to pin the family against each other all while something lurks in the very woods surrounding them.
This movie does just about everything right when it comes to a great horror film. Ominous visuals with very tense camera-work involving long shots and quick cuts helping the extremely unsettling aesthetic created. Impressive and convincing acting from all of the cast, especially all the children who actually out perform the adults involved. Mark Korven delivers a spectacularly chilling soundtrack which adds to the already eerie setting presented. The plot itself is like a scary tale you are told as a child around a campfire, and keeps you up that night leaving you thinking whether if something like this could really happen.
The Witch is certainly a distinct movie that might introduce you to elements you have never seen before. When it comes to horror films, The Witch has definitely taken the cake for best of 2016 yet, and I don't really see any upcoming major threats.