Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Movie Review: The Witch

I should hang my head in shame that once again I’ve opted for a horror movie over any other movie, but here we are again.  I often feel like I’m competing against an unseen clock, time ticking down for a movie to fly out of the theatre before I can see it.  Sure, I could just wait for the movie to appear on Netflix or Amazon (as I did with Goodnight Mommy – which was worth seeing).  I fully admit, I tend to get caught up in the hype, caught up in believing I need to see something.

In a lot of ways, The Witch was a both a traditional and non-traditional horror movie.  The story follows a family that has been banished from their plantation and forced to live in the wilderness.  The movie is set in the 1600’s, so this is not a huge stretch, I suppose.  Amazingly, they are able to build a farm in short order.  The family consists of a father, mother and five kids.  Don’t get too attached to any of the kids.  Not long into the harvest for the season, the viewer realizes that something is afoot.  The crop is unusable, one of the kids goes missing and the animals go nuts every so often.


Without revealing what could be potential SPOILERS, I found myself surprised and unfazed by a lot of things.  One particularly gruesome scene early on I only just now understood the implications of after reading a synopsis.  I didn’t think, anyway, I don’t want to ruin that.  For a horror movie, I was never scared.  If this were a psychological thriller, then this was on point.  The acting is passable, but not great.  The scenes are tight, at times too much so, as if a wider frame could have revealed more.  I also found the main actresses’ eyes to be too far apart.  This was thoroughly distracting throughout the movie.  I’m not sure this movie is a can’t miss, but it kept me engaged, but was soon forgotten.

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