This is a Movie about Faith, not a Witch (You've been warned!)

Rating: 7/10 (19 February 2016)

The Witch is one of those films where heading into the movie you sort of need to know what you are getting into. This IS NOT a movie about a witch, it's about a family's faith being tested and the fallout that follows...all the while a witch lurks in the woods nearby.
The Witch is being touted as a movie with pure, unrelenting dread. While that is the case at times, the atmosphere dwindles during the many times the characters repent. And they repent an awful, awful lot. I understand that the movie is about a family's faith being torn apart from within, but the movie's 'entertainment value' dips during some of those scenes. The tension is killed the moment they start bickering and doubting one another. It's just as one might expect, however, the Devil (evil) is a whisper in your ear which creates doubt with one's faith. And that is just what The Witch is, it's a whisper of evil.
There are swift, small build ups that tease there is evil afoot, but just when you expect something sinister to occur, nothing. The hare, the goat, the raven (all heavy symbolism of Satanism) are all present. But they are used ineffectively half the time that they feel like child's play (literally at times) rather than signs of their forthcoming damnation.
I really wanted to like this movie more than I actually did and that's a pity. A case can be made that the hype got the best of me, but I was just as hyped (if not more) for It Follows and The Babadook and those two turned out to be some of the best horror movies of the decade. The Witch did have moments of tension and trepidation, but when the time came for the payoff it simply wasn't sufficient enough to justify the many teases of evil.