Outstanding true horror film.

Rating: 9/10 (4 April 2016)

Probably the best new horror film in several years. From the beginning, the film establishes an unrelentingly bleak and oppressive tone and barely lets up. It has some of the most upsetting and terrifying moments I can recall in a film. The cinematography is Oscar-caliber, and the soundtrack and sound design are top-notch. It kept me in a constant state of dread for its entire runtime.
You need to watch this in the dark and in complete silence. You cannot talk through this film. It requires complete immersion.
I'm very confused by the 1-star reviews I'm seeing. I can only conclude that these people do not have much of an attention span, or don't have much of a horror palate. Or, they've been conditioned to expect cheap scares like the scary face moment in Insidious.
The Witch doesn't rely on jump moments, and to me that's a great thing. In the horror movie canon, I can think of a few jump scares that feel earned and really enhance the scene, but they are a small minority of the total. Some good ones would include the monster reveal in The Descent or the alien jumping out in the access tunnel in Alien. Most jump scares aren't like that. They're in the film to create fake tension. Unfortunately, I believe many moviegoers have come to expect the rush of adrenaline that comes with a jump scare and have come to associate this with the horror experience.
I would urge the people giving it 1 star to watch a lot more horror films and try to really gain some knowledge about the genre, and then come back and watch this one again. As a horror aficionado, this was top-notch, in my opinion.