History Trivia / TheWitch

* DoingItForTheArt: The film was [[http://www.indiewire.com/2015/10/how-robert-eggers-combined-history-and-childhood-horrors-in-the-witch-56333/ a passion project]] for Creator/RobertEggers, and it shows in both [[ShownTheirWork the massive amount of research done]] on the setting and folklore and in the amount of work done to bring all of that to the screen, from hiring historians and experts to ensure that the homestead they built was period-accurate to using actual instruments from the 17th century for the score.

* FollowTheLeader: ''Series/ChillingAdventuresOfSabrina'' clearly takes a lot of cues from this film, especially the finale [[spoiler: featuring a blonde teenage girl signing her name in the devil's book in the middle of the woods]].
** Inverted, as the ''ComicBook/ChillingAdventuresOfSabrina'' series actually began a year before the movie was released.
** Witches signing their name in Satan's Black Book has been part of witchcraft folklore for centuries.

-->'''Robert Eggers:''' "It's not that it's bad, and the performances are great, but I was not skilled enough as a filmmaker to get what was in my brain onto the screen,"

** The script just said "Katherine prays" as a stage direction. Kate Dickie drifted towards a prayer book called ''The Practice of Piety'' to draw inspiration for what her character was actually praying depending on the scene.

* TheDanza: Kate Dickie plays Katherine, who is affectionately called "Kate" by her husband.

* ShrugOfGod: Director Robert Eggers has said that the supernatural stuff could just be hallucinations or rationalised if people wish to interpret it that way, but still maintained ''he'' believed it was all real.
* SleeperHit: The film grossed a very respectable $40 million worldwide, which is ten times its budget and appeared on many "Best of 2015" lists. It currently has a 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and is credited with helping revive FolkHorror as a genre.