[HorrorScience] The VVitch (2015)

Reading time: 8 minutes

Qualification

The VVitch: A New-England Folktale

Year

2015

Duration

92 minutes

Director

Robert Eggers

Distribution

Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie, Harvey Scrimshaw, Ellie Grainger, Lucas Dawson, Julian Richings, Bathsheba Garnett, Sarah Stephens

Script

Robert Eggers

Many of us know, to a greater or lesser extent, something about witches. From those witches from fairy tales or Disney movies, like Maleficent, to those witches with green skin, huge noses and warts, which are usually seen in cartoons or children's series.

The most superstitious or knowledgeable on the subject will also say that there are people, seemingly the same as any other, who are witches and have the power to influence people, cause accidents, deaths or miracles. In general, and although there are "good" witches, which are those who use "white magic", the witch is represented as an evil being, and even as a servant of the Devil himself.

In the 17th century, the height of the time of English settlers in America, religion and superstitions were the order of the day, with a complicated chemistry existing between beliefs derived from Christianity along with myths and legends of older origin. One of the most famous cases of religious fanaticism against witchcraft occurred at the end of that same century, and is that of the Salem trials, in which dozens of people were tried and accused of witchcraft, mostly women, and sentenced to death by hanging or burning at the stake.

In The Witch (The witch, written as The VVitch) we find ourselves in the New England town, in the first half of the 17th century, attending a meeting in which a family headed of course by the father (since we are in a time in which men commanded and provided while women served and obeyed) argues heatedly with the town court, a Puritan plantation, and they end up being exiled. This family is made up of william (the father), his wife Katharine, his teenage daughter Thomasin, your pre-teen son Caleb, and the little twins Mercy and jonas.

As time passes (which the film fails to convey effectively but which we can assume due to different circumstances), the family builds a farm on the edge of a thick and isolated forest, far from the Puritan plantation from which they were exiled. There they also manage to have some goats, a black goat, nicknamed by the children as "black phillip» (Black Pillip), a horse and a small corn plantation.

Like a good family of those times, very religious and without much to do in the middle of nowhere, Katherine is pregnant once again, and soon a new child joins the family: Samuel. The life of this family seems to be going well and prospering little by little, but everything goes wrong at a time when Thomasin is taking care of the baby, playing the classic game of covering her face with her hands and saying "Where is Samuel?" and then uncover his face and say with a smile "Here it is!" Thomasin repeats this action several times, causing the baby to smile each time she does it, until one of those times, when Samuel's face was uncovered, he disappeared. There was no sound, no movement, nor was anyone seen fleeing in the surrounding area. The baby is simply not there.

Moments later we see a figure that we can quickly associate with that of a naked old witch, who is in the middle of the forest and has Samuel there with her. He makes certain movements near the baby and then shows us a dagger in close-up. Seeing the dagger, we all know what will happen, right? The shot goes to black and in the next scene the witch is crushing in a large mortar the pieces of fat, skin and blood that little Samuel has become, and she smears her body with the mixture, then lying down on the forest floor.

This tragic event changes everyone's lives, as expected, causing Katherine to spend her days crying and praying, and blaming Thomasin for the loss of the child. To make matters worse, the corn harvest does not seem to be going well, and William is worried about the lack of food. Caleb is distressed because he knows he has not been baptized and fears for his fate when he dies, believing he is condemned to go to hell, and he is also attracted to his older sister Thomasin's budding breasts, and this eats away at him inside. Thomasin feels unhappy and blamed for everything bad that is happening. And the twins are dedicated to bothering everyone in the house, playing and not keeping quiet, and talking to "black Phillip" (the black goat), who they claim is talking to them.

The VVitch It is a film with a very dark, dirty predominant color palette. The performances are remarkable and Caleb, even being so young, gives us a memorable scene that I won't reveal here for obvious reasons. Whoever waits in The VVitch a standard modern horror film, you will end up disappointed and even feel cheated. Is it really a horror movie? In the general sense, it is, but you could also say that it is a family drama, a documentary about a dark time of religion and how devotion can affect and make an entire family suffer, and a colonial folklore story with the myth or legend of the witch as the protagonist of everything that is wrong.

There are 3 strong points of this film. The first is the performances of the main characters, as I mentioned before. The second is the disturbing soundtrack, which accompanies us throughout the film, generating a sound discomfort quite consistent with the images. And the third point is precisely the visual section. The setting is impeccable, the shots denote a prior study and planning so that the scenes impact us visually and are coherent throughout the footage, and there are notable sequences that seem taken directly from realistic style paintings in which a painter and very devout Christian would have captured his worst fears and nightmares.

The action is slow, as is necessary in films of this style where the script and the visual are so strongly united, and this can cause drowsiness or boredom in those viewers who do not like cinema where words abound and shocks are lacking. The VVitch It must be viewed in a dark and silent room, alone or with like-minded company, and with an open mind, letting yourself be carried away by the images and taking the side of the protagonists, of how their faith before God guides their lives even in misfortune, and of the terror that a thick, threatening, dark forest can make us feel that feels alive and seems to be an integral part of the witch who lives there, that horrible being whose only purpose is to cause evil and serve its master on Earth and the Hell.

Some curiosities:

The VVitch It represents the debut of director Robert Eggers and turned out to be a commercial success, grossing $37 million on its $1 million budget. It was premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2015, receiving excellent critical reception, and was distributed a year later, in February 2016 in theaters around the world by the American independent film company A24.
Despite the critical success, the film has also received various negative comments from the audience in theaters, due to the strong marketing campaign that The VVitch has received in different countries, showing it as a modern horror film with guaranteed scares and a misleading trailer that does not represent the final product.
Much of the film's dialogue and story are based on and taken from writings from that time.
The story is set at the beginning of the mass hysteria against witches in New England, 1630, 62 years before the disastrous events in Salem.