Characters / The VVitch

Thomasin

Thomasin

Played By: Anya Taylor-Joy

The oldest daughter and first child of the family. A somewhat willful but dutiful adolescent girl.

---

• And Then John Was a Zombie: Thomasin ultimately chooses to become a witch.
• Big Sister Bully: She has no problem scaring and roughing up the twins, especially Mercy. Downplayed, as she's loving and affectionate towards Caleb and Samuel.
• Break the Cutie: The whole film. She's blamed for her baby brother's disappearance and death, accused of being a witch, tormented by her grief-stricken mother, abandoned by her father, tortured by her twin siblings and so, unsurprisingly, this is the outcome, especially notable when Thomasin kills her mother in self-defence.
• Butt-Monkey: She's the whole family's scapegoat throughout the movie (except for maybe Caleb).
• Calling the Old Man Out: She rails against her father for being a hypocrite and a coward who allows her to take the blame for everything going wrong.
• Cool Big Sis: Unfortunately, it doesn't go well for Thomasin; she's playing with baby Sam when he disappears. Being trapped in the woods with no alternative, her brother Caleb seems to develop some sexual feelings towards her, but it's heavily emphasized that he feels great shame over them and it's just because there are literally no other girls close to his own age around. However, Katherine senses this and also places the blame on Thomasin. Although averted with Jonas and Mercy, they are heavily implied to be unwittingly in league with Satan.
• Deal with the Devil: With her entire family dead and seeing no other options, Thomasin signs her name in the Devil's book, becoming a witch.
• Despair Event Horizon: The death of her entire family drives her to accept Satan's offer.
• Face–Heel Turn: In the end, she abandons her Puritan beliefs and becomes a witch. However, see Sadistic Choice below.
• Fallen Heroine: After being exiled by their community and watching all her family fall one by one which leaves her as the only survivor, she is left with no choice but to sell her soul to the devil/Black Phillip and become what her family has been continuously accusing her of being, a witch.
• Final Girl: She's the only survivor of her family by the end of the film though she's a much darker example of this trope.
• Freudian Excuse: The entire movie is essentially one for her. She sells her soul and becomes a witch at the end, but after seeing the absolute horror show that is her life, it's difficult to blame her.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: She has lovely blonde hair and is the most sympathetic character.
• The Hedonist: Thomasin is certainly no hedonist by modern standards, but in her repressed Puritan environment, any desire for pleasure is considered indulgent. It's no surprise that she jumps at the Devil's offer to live "deliciously".
• I Was Just Joking: When Mercy accuses her of being a witch, pointing out that Thomasin even said so herself, Thomasin is left desperately trying to explain to her parents that she was only kidding. (Though even joking about such a matter would've been a no-no by Puritan standards.)
• Informed Flaw: Downplayed. With her first lines, she is in prayer and seeking forgiveness for having broken "every commandment". The only one she explicitly mentions is playing during the Sabbath and she does terrify Mercy to shut her up, but otherwise Thomasin is arguably the most moral of her family up until the end.
  • Actually justified by the Black-and-White Morality practiced by her family. Thomasin, as a young woman, is fairly clearly The Scapegoat for things that are either out of her control (such as developing sexually, which Katherine seems to hate and find suspicious or her brother's disappearance), or disproportionately punished for things that her mother regards as being her fault, like the disappearance of the silver cup.
• Kick the Dog: She has a bit of a cruel streak, especially towards the twins. Although it may be justified if the twins were in league with Black Phillip.
• Posthuman Nudism: Upon her transformation into a witch, Thomasin strips herself nude like with all the other witches.
• Protagonist Journey to Villain: From a pious, dutiful girl trying to do right by her family, to a witch who is in the Devil's pocket.
• Sadistic Choice: While Thomasin does become a Satanic witch by the end, she is also ultimately in the woods starving to death, with no family, at that point.
• The Scapegoat: The poor girl gets blamed for everything that goes wrong. Her mother even tries to kill her over it, which leads to her own death.
• Self-Made Orphan: Forced to kill her own mother in self-defense, stabbing her bloody and sobbing as she cradles and strokes Katherine's head.
• Sole Survivor: By the end, it's just her and Satan.
• Trapped in Villainy: She ultimately makes a deal with Satan and becomes a witch, but it's hard to blame her after everything she's been through. Everyone she loves is dead, she's miles away from civilization or anyone that could help her, she has no food or means to provide for herself, and she's stranded and alone on an abandoned farm. If she wanted to survive, there was really no other option.
• The Unfavorite: Katherine dislikes Thomasin, much preferring her younger children.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: A gender flipped example, with her mother. Thomasin is a good girl eager to please her mother and win back her approval. Katherine only gives it once, and things go down in flames after that, so Katherine dies hating Thomasin and holding her responsible for the destruction of their family.
• What the Hell, Hero?: She calls her father out for his cowardice and willingness to throw her under the bus.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Thomasin has a troubled life. She's pulled away from her home by her father's pride, her parents plot to send her away from her family, she's blamed for the disappearance of her youngest brother, she's betrayed by her suspicious family and has to kill her own mother in self-defense. It's little wonder she becomes a witch.

William

William

Played By: Ralph Ineson

The patriarch of the family, William leaves the Commonwealth with his family over a religious dispute. He chooses to run a farm with his family close to the woods.

---

• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: William is shown to truly love Katherine, comforting her while she weeps over their dead newborn and desperately insisting "I love thee, Kate!" during their fight after he admits to selling the cup, which he confesses he kept secret to surprise her with what he could buy with it.
• Be Careful What You Wish For:
  • He, like many Puritans, believes that earthly suffering will make his family purer, and pay off in the afterlife. They get plenty of suffering, but absolutely no reward for it.
  • In a somewhat milder example, he begs Thomasin to tell him the truth when he suspects she's a witch. Thomasin, who is about at her wit's end, responds by letting him know exactly what she thinks of him.
• Blood from the Mouth: This happens after he's impaled on Black Phillip's horns.
• Death by Irony: While Black Phillip gutting him isn't particularly ironic, the fact that immediately after this, a pile of his lumber falls on top of him sure his. As Thomasin points out, cutting wood is the one thing he's actually good at.
• Dirty Coward: Accused of this by Thomasin. At best, he is a mild example. He is brave enough when trying to go into the woods at night to search for his children and doesn't show fear even after realizing witchcraft is afoot or when being gutted by the Devil in the form of Black Phillip, but he takes a long time to own up to the fact that he sold Katherine's silver cup, intervening when Katherine blames Thomasin but unwilling to confess to it in front of all his children.
• Do Not Go Gentle: He gets mortally wounded by goat horns to the stomach, and upon realizing he was staring down the Devil himself in the form of Black Phillip, tries to take an ax to him.
• Fatal Flaw: Pride, by his own estimation.
• Henpecked Husband: While he's the patriarch and technically calls the shots, he's obviously wary to upset Katherine.
• Heroic Sacrifice: The spiritual equivalent of one. Eventually, he comes to realize that his pride is what caused his family's suffering, and he prays to God to dispose of him as he wishes, but to spare his children the torments of Hell. Subverted in that they were all probably damned anyway.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: He is impaled on Black Phillip's horns.
• It's All My Fault: Briefly before he dies, he finally admits that this whole mess is his fault; if he'd just swallowed his pride and gone back to the commonwealth, he and his family wouldn't be broken, starving, and alone with a witch.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He is very gruff, goes behind his wife's back to sell her Tragic Keepsake, and absolutely terrible at consoling his family, but truly cares for his family and even Thomasin, he's just too afraid to stand up for her.
• Manly Tears: After all the losses his family has endured, he finally breaks down into sobs as he admits to his sin of pride and beseeches God to absolve his children of being witches and kill him instead.
• Noodle Incident: William's Pride lead him into a religious dispute with the colony's leadership, resulting in his and his family's banishment, but the exact details of the dispute are not shown.
• Offing the Offspring: He seriously contemplates killing Thomasin and/or the twins, when he believes one or more of them might be a witch. He even draws comparison to Abraham sacrificing Isaac (apparently missing the part where God stopped him). He can't bring himself to go through with it, though.
• Parents as People: William is a devout man and truly a loving father and husband who works tirelessly to provide for his family. He's openly affectionate and tender with his family and puts their comfort ahead of his even when he is in pain. But he is still the one who has put them in a borderline unsurvivable situation over a conflict with their colony which is implied to be over nothing greater than his own pride and then refuses to return for help until the consequences of his choices have already cost them the life of their newborn son and put their other child at death's door. In the end, his choices are what bring about the total annihilation of his family plus Thomasin's eventual corruption.
• Papa Wolf: He's very protective of his children, even Thomasin, until Caleb's death. He then locks Thomasin and the twins up. Although he crosses back into the trope shortly afterward, when he breaks down, admits that it's all his fault, and begs God to punish him and save his children.
• Pet the Dog: For all his steadfast religious beliefs, even declining to reassure Caleb about Samuel's fate because he won't speak on how God might judge souls, he goes to Thomasin when he believes she is a witch, and holds and comforts his crying daughter before begging her to tell him the truth as he still believes she can be saved.
• Pride: This is what got him and his family exiled in the first place. He breaks down towards the end of the film as he acknowledges this.
• Supernatural-Proof Father: For all his fundamentalism, William is long to accept his wife's early suspicions of witchcraft and still insists that Caleb's illness needs a doctor.
• Take Me Instead: Begs God to kill him and spare his children. He does die, but it doesn't seem like his prayer was enough to save them.
• Would Hit a Girl: He hits Thomasin after her "The Reason You Suck" Speech towards him.
• Would Hurt a Child: He behaves very roughly towards Thomasin, Mercy, and Jonas when things go especially pear-shaped, even violently shoving them into a shed and locking them in there overnight.

Katherine

Katherine

Played By: Kate Dickie

Katherine (Kate for short) is William's wife and the family's matriarch. An authoritarian mother, she often chides on Thomasin.

---

• Abusive Parents: After Samuel disappears on Thomasin's watch (believed to be a wolf), she begins treating Thomasin scornfully and cruelly, even suspecting her of losing Katherine's prized silver cup and making a passive-aggressive jab about Samuel to her stricken daughter asking if a wolf took that too. It seems to be imply the stress of their situation plus her pain at the loss of her newborn have created this resentment towards her daughter. She then fully rejects her and refuses to have her in the house after believing she's a witch who caused the deaths of her siblings, and ends up trying to kill her, only to get killed by her instead.
• Anti-Villain: She's cruel and borderline abusive to Thomasin, but she's not heartless — and given that she loses her baby, is deeply afraid for the fate of his immortal soul, and eventually loses Caleb and her husband as well, it's hard not to feel sorry for her. Even when she tries to kill Thomasin, Thomasin herself clearly takes no pleasure in killing Katherine, even though it's in self-defense.
• Asshole Victim: Played with. Her brutal death by her face getting sliced by Thomasin until she is dead when she tries to strangle her, is understandable given her treatment of Thomasin throughout the film, but she has also seen four of her children and her husband die over the course of less than two weeks. That plus their total isolation and her implied depression makes her death tragic as much as terrifying.
• Ax-Crazy: By the end, she has lost her mind and tries to murder her own daughter in a fit of sorrow and rage. This, of course, leads to her own death.
• Broken Bird: A harsh example. The film seems to imply Katherine was once very similar to Thomasin, a young girl full of faith. But moving away from her homeland to a wild new country, being banished from their colony due to her husband's pride, and forced to raise five children under the age of sixteen by herself with no help of any kind in a near hovel has deeply embittered her. Then her newborn baby vanishes, apparently eaten alive by a wild animal, and she believes he is being tormented in Hell for all eternity as he was unbaptized, again due to her husband's pride. It's little wonder she's such an angry woman.
• Cassandra Truth: At the dinner table she exclaims something isn't natural about the farm. She's right.
• The Cassandra: She technically perceives the witches and Devil's work long before disaster even strikes and is the one pushing for William to realize Caleb is not suffering from a regular illness. Of course given her emotional instability and William stubbornness, most of her warnings go unheeded.
• Despair Event Horizon: May have hit it early on, after Sam vanishes without a trace and they have to give him up for dead. She is often seen both crying and praying after this, and admits in private to William that she cannot feel the love of God as did before. After losing her entire family, she also seems to lose her sanity.
• Despair Speech: When William decides to return to the colony to seek medical help for Caleb she confesses to her husband that ever since the death of Sam she feels unable to sense God's love or hope at all. William has no words of comfort to offer except that she will feel it again in Heaven.
• Dramatic Irony: An intensely religious person like her husband, at the end she believes Thomasin is a witch and tries to kill her... without realizing that she herself (Katherine) may have been tricked into signing the Devil's book and sold her soul.
• Excessive Mourning: Katherine stops sleeping and prays nonstop throughout the day and night for the soul of her dead newborn. Even her husband tries to convince her to stop.
• Freudian Excuse: Her treatment of Thomasin is painfully cruel, but she is raising five young children in the middle of a wilderness, miles from any human contact, with a husband who is unable to provide for them. And even then the treatment seems to become particularly harsh in the wake of Sam's disappearance, after she gave him to Thomasin to tend.
• Hate Sink: Despite losing Samuel, the film never let's you sympathize with her since all she does is take her frustrations out on Thomasin, never listens to reason, accuses her family members of being hypocrites when she is one, carries a bitter air about her and is overall unlikeable. It's no wonder everyone roots for the Witch to win.
• Hypocrite: She tries to kill Thomasin for bringing the Devil into their house... Kate herself having entered a covenant with the Devil the night before.
• Laughing Mad: While she is "nursing" the crow.
• The Mentally Disturbed: Katherine is clearly suffering from severe depression, her description of her emotions to William while they're discussing returning to the settlement for help is almost a textbook example of it. Given the time period and their circumstances, she has nothing to help alleviate her state except William's cold comfort that she will eventually feel joy again "in Heaven."
• Offing the Offspring: She tries to murder Thomasin after Black Phillip kills William, only for Thomasin to kill her in self-defence.
• Only Sane Man: Ironically, despite her later breakdown Katherine is the more practical and insightful parent. She actually had the idea to sell her father's cup before William did and is the one to point out how unsustainable their current lifestyle is, as well as call out William for how his decisions are destroying his family (not having their baby baptized, lying about going into the woods and selling her cup, raising their children like "savages", then wanting to go out to search for Caleb in the wood while it's pouring rain in the pitch black). She also is the first to realize something deeper is amiss on their farm and the one to instantly recognize that Caleb is bewitched when William insists he's merely sick, and she also is the one to tell Caleb to "think on Christ" when he is being tormented.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Four out of her five children die before her eyes.
• Parental Favoritism: To Samuel her youngest and to Caleb, her oldest son. The Devil seemingly tricks her into writing in his book by sending her visions of them appearing to her after their deaths.
• Parental Incest: She seems to feel Thomasin and William's interactions have shades of this even the script explicitly states their interactions while innocent carry a unsettlingly and inappropriately close vibe and after signing the Devil's book and totally losing the last of her sanity she accuses Thomasin of seducing her father.
• Parental Neglect: To Mercy and Jonas, who seem entirely left to their own devices despite appearing to be being no older than seven, though it seems given their dire straits she barely has the time and this is before her mental collapse. She even points out to William early in the film that they are not providing a good life for their children.
• Pet the Dog: She has treated her oldest daughter coldly throughout the film and blamed her for things she was not responsible for. After William comes clean to her about selling her cup, she shows Thomasin concern by trying to keep Thomasin from going outside to tend to the goats; when Thomasin insists, Katherine calls her over to gently cup her face and smile at her, implying their relationship was probably strained from their isolation and the recent loss of her newborn. Unfortunately after this, Caleb reappears and the twins accuse Thomasin of being a witch, forever turning Katherine against her oldest child.
• Properly Paranoid: Given how things turn out, her sense that something sinister is at work against them proves 100% correct.
• Sanity Slippage: Shows signs of this after Sam's death, and by the time of her husband's death, she completely loses it and attacks her surviving daughter in an insane fury, only to get her face chopped up into meat by the latter.
• Sour Outside, Sad Inside: Katherine personality is very harsh but she shows signs of severe depression and her baby has just died.
• Tragic Keepsake: Her silver cup, which was her father's. Even if he's not dead, she can't see him again as her family has been banished from the New England plantation. William selling it without her knowledge is another blow after Samuel's disappearance.
• Trauma Conga Line: Like all the characters, her life is utterly unraveled in the worst and most nightmarish way possible.
• Would Hurt a Child: She blames Thomasin for William's death and the other misfortunes happening on the farm and attacks her, only to get a large gash on her face from a knife. Of course, this angers her further and she tries to choke Thomasin, which forces her to keep chopping her face up until she dies.

Caleb

Caleb

Played By: Harvey Scrimshaw

The family's oldest son and second child. A dutiful and pious boy, he follows his father's teachings to the point.

---

• Big Brother Instinct: Or sometimes Little Brother Instinct. He tries to calm things down between Mercy and Thomasin, fears for Samuel's fate, and later decides to ride off without his parents' knowledge to try to find something of value so Thomasin doesn't have to be taken from the family. Though he doesn't tell his mother the truth about the silver cup to spare Thomasin her suspicions, because he already promised his father.
• Blood from the Mouth: After spitting up the apple, he has blood on his mouth and chin, and dies minutes later.
• Dude, Not Funny!: In-Universe, this is his response to Thomasin and Mercy claiming to be witches. He genuinely doesn't believe that they are, but he still doesn't see witchcraft as anything to be joked about.
• Final Speech: A very delirious example. Shortly before he dies, he writhes, mumbles, shouts nonsense and prays to God for help and comfort with his final breath.
• Hormone-Addled Teenager: Possibly not quite a teenager yet, but his nascent sex drive still gets him into trouble.
• Incest Subtext: Seems a little too interested in Thomasin, though it may be more because there are no other girls around besides his sisters and mother. He seems like a good kid otherwise.
• Nice Guy: Comes off as the member of the family most invested in keeping the others together after Samuel's death, and is shown to have a great relationship with the otherwise overlooked Thomasin. He even calls Thomasin out for making light of being a witch to scare the twins, which demonstrates that his role as a mediator extends beyond sticking up for her.
• Rape as Drama: The Witch is implied to have molested him after he encounters her.
• Sex Is Evil, and I Am Horny: He's entering puberty and becoming curious about sex for the first time, but was raised a pious and repressive Puritan. He's clearly uncomfortable with his own behavior towards Thomasin, apparently well aware that it's not a healthy way to feel about your sister.
• Tempting Apple: He lies to his mother that he and his father had ridden off in search of an apple tree Caleb thought he'd seen, when really they'd been out in the woods she didn't want them to go in. After likely being raped by the Witch and later raving over her while dying from her spell, he coughs up a bloody apple, seemingly symbolizing temptation and his newfound knowledge of the Witch.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: As the oldest son, he tries to live up to his father's expectations, hold as strong to his father's beliefs, and be his Number Two, even covering for him with Katherine. His father tells him he loves him, but won't reassure him of the religious fears Caleb has.
• What the Hell, Hero?: He calls Thomasin out for bullying the twins.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: In many ways, he seems much more mature than your average twelve or thirteen year old boy, and shoulders responsibilities that today would likely be saved until he was a bit older. Justified, as Puritan children (and to a lesser extent, all children at the time) were expected to grow up quickly — the concept of being an adolescent didn't really exist yet. You just went from "child" to "adult."

Mercy & Jonas

Mercy & Jonas

Played By: Ellie Grainger & Lucas Dawson

The family's twin children and second daughter and son. Spoiled, bratty and playful, they often play with Black Phillip, the farm's black goat.

---

• Ambiguously Evil: Are they in league with the Devil? Or are they just kids playing around? Thomasin accuses them of being witches, but she said it in a moment of panic, when she herself was suspected, and it looked like she would be thrown out or even killed, so it's not clear if Thomasin truly believes this or not. Also it should be noted neither Jonas or Mercy seem to believe Black Phillip is evil but rather simply their talking goat friend and given who he actually is he could be using that to deceive them into doing his bidding.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: They get on Thomasin's nerves very easily.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Despite their disobedience and brattiness they cling to William and beg him not to go when he wants to search for Caleb in the woods after dark in the rain. They also are shown sitting in their mother's lab while she embraces them.
• Bratty Half-Pint: Both twins seem very poorly disciplined. Mercy tells her big sister that their mother hates her, and Jonas takes part in the teasing and taunting of Thomasin, when they aren't outright ignoring her or their parent's commands. This seems to be due in part to them being mostly neglected by their parents and the influence of Black Phillip, aka Satan himself.
• Ambiguous Innocence: Do Jonas and Mercy really understand the weight of their actions by accusing Thomasin of being a witch or are they being manipulated by Satan? Mercy says pointblank it was Black Phillip who told her Thomasin "is wicked" and Thomasin did genuinely convince her during their fight that she was capable of "witching" her. Given their young age and the neglect by their parents plus the strange happenings on their farm and Satan's power, it can be strongly argued they genuinely believe Thomasin is a danger to them.
• Creepy Twins: Jonas and Mercy are deliberately written to be as unsettling as possible. Mercy jokingly pretends to be a witch at one point, and both twins spend their free time singing creepy songs and playing with Black Phillip—who is Satan in animal guise.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Though their status as "evil" is heavily ambiguous, Mercy immediately jumps up and screams "No!" when William threatens to kill Jonas to prove their catatonia is faked.
• Free-Range Children: Due to their parents' neglect and how isolated the farmstead is Jonas and Mercy are clearly left to their own devices all day long.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Did Jonas and Mercy fake their inability to pray, their mimicking of Caleb's "possession" and subsequent catatonic state? Or due to their constant dealings with Black Phillip were they "corrupted" enough to react negatively to prayer and be influenced by whatever demonic power had a hold on their brother?
• Not-So-Imaginary Friend: Their initial claims about Black Phillip can be chalked up to two lonely and imaginative kids playing a game of pretend. They aren't.
• Single-Minded Twins: They're never seen apart, essentially share the same personality, and can even sing creepy songs in perfect harmony.
• Strict Parents Make Sneaky Kids: As per the time period and culture, when their parents do interact with the twins they're clearly strict. But Mercy is shown sneaking away to the brook where she isn't supposed to be plus they both neglect their chores.
• Troubling Unchildhood Behavior: Practically the poster children for it, though the creepiest part is most of their behavior would be considered innocent at first glance, until things start going downhill...
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Implied Trope. They may have been the ones who first entered a covenant with Satan in the first place, as they argue that Black Phillip whispers to them.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: After their encounter with the Witch in the barn, neither are seen again, but given what happened to their little brother, it probably isn't good.

The Witch

The Witch

Played By: Bathsheba Garnett, Sarah Stephens, Viv Moore, Karen Kaeja, Brandy Leary, R. Hope Terry, Carrie Eklund, Madlen Sopadzhiyan

The entity that plagues the family, assuming many forms.

---

• Bad People Abuse Animals: She is far from a positive influence on the family's animals. She kills their dog and leaves him ripped open, and may have been responsible for the bloody milk and eggs the family's livestock start producing, as well as the animals' deaths (if it wasn't the Devil's work). The horse is terrified just from her presence.
• Blood Magic: She kills Samuel to make a potage that makes her float in the air.
• Charm Person: Implied by Caleb's terrified expression as he continues walking towards her at her beckoning, hinting that walking towards her was not a choice Caleb made of his own free will.
• Evil Counterpart: When you think about it, her interaction with Caleb mirrors his and Thomasin's relationship, and not in a good way. While Thomasin and Caleb care for each other as siblings, puberty complicates things, and Caleb can't stop himself from sneaking glances at Thomasin's body once in a while; the witch flips this dynamic around by forcing herself on Caleb in a blatantly sexual fashion. Thomasin is a beautiful blonde young woman who's constrained by layers of austere Puritan clothing; the witch appears to Caleb as a seductive dark-haired succubus, but her true form is that of a disgusting old hag who repulses and frightens him.
• Fan Disservice: In keeping with her rather animal-like portrayal, she's naked in her true form. Even for an elderly woman, her body is twisted and grotesque, usually splattered with dirt or blood.
• A Form You Are Comfortable With: She seems to change her form into that of a beautiful young woman to tempt Caleb, but with the revelation of numerous witches at the film's end, it could be that the family is being plagued by several witches, all with their own forms. The beautiful woman's hand becomes a twisted old claw while she's seducing Caleb, however, so it seems more likely that she uses glamours or shape-shifting. She certainly does appear to Katherine as Caleb and Samuel near the end of the film.
• Hot Witch: The witch uses some sort of glamour, appearing as a gorgeous woman who seduces Caleb.
• Humanoid Abomination: Particularly inspired by Puritan folklore.
• Magical Barefooter: In the form in which she seduces Caleb. Also technically in her wizened form, as she goes around without a single cloth.
• Nothing Is Scarier: For the most part, she remains hidden in shadow and rarely shows her true form.
• Primal Polymorphs: Capable of numerous feats of shapeshifting alongside her usual magic, being first encountered by William and Caleb while in the form of a hare, later uses the shape of a beautiful young woman to lure in Caleb, and it's implied that she's been sneaking around the farm in other forms. She also lives exclusively in the forest, preys on animal carcasses like a beast, is often covered in blood and filth, and is usually naked in her true form. As such, she's set up as a direct contrast with the Puritan family, who desperately cling to civilization and fear the wilderness even before the Witch shows up. She's actually part of an entire coven of forest-dwelling witches, all of whom are depicted naked and feral.
• Red Right Hand: The Hot Witch's monstrous right hand indicates her appearance is just a glamour.
• Sinister Nudity: When she isn't shapeshifting or hidden by illusions, the eponymous Witch is always encountered stark-naked in her ancient true form... and these face-to-face encounters number among the most openly horrific in the film, usually ending with someone being murdered or worse - as is the case with Samuel, Caleb, and the twins.
• The Vamp: When she appears as a young, attractive woman to Caleb after he gets lost in the woods.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: She or they can apparently take the form of animals. It's heavily implied at one point she has taken the form of a hare, which freaks out both the family horse and their dog.
• Wicked Witch: To a tee. She is never shown any redeeming qualities, torments a family by taking their children away one by one before killing almost all of them, and serves Satan.
• Would Hurt a Child: Her first on-screen act is to abduct a baby boy, kill him and use his blood in a spell. She later curses Caleb with a prolonged, agonizing death and most likely butchered the twins.

Black Phillip

Black Phillip

Played By: Charlie the Goat, Wahab Chaudhry

A goat on the farm that is secretly the Devil.

---

• Animalistic Abomination: A Gruesome Goat who secretly is the Devil himself. His briefly seen human form could be categorised as a Humanoid Abomination.
• Big Bad: Satan in the guise of the family goat who is responsible for the witch tormenting the family in the first place.
• The Corrupter: Seems to have quite a creepy effect on the twins and later on Thomasin. Given the reveal that he's Satan, this really isn't all that surprising.
• Devil in Disguise: The twins claim this throughout, and as the film progresses, other characters take these claims with much more seriousness. It's revealed to be true at the end of the film.
• Evil Counterpart: Disturbingly, his human form (what little we can glimpse of it) is the perfect foil for Thomasin's father, William. Both of them are strong, bearded, male authority figures, but they contrast in the most unsettling ways possible. William has a rough, bass voice; Satan's voice is a delicate, faint whisper. William is a repressive Puritan; Satan is a hedonist who takes on the appearance of a Cavalier. William often wears a white shirt, while Satan wears black and emerges from the shadows. William and Thomasin's interactions are punctuated by uncomfortable sexual tension, while Satan is boldly seductive. Both men are proud, but William is a controlling parent who nevertheless lacks the courage to protect his daughter; Satan, "the god of this world", offers Thomasin nothing but freedom. William manhandles Thomasin repeatedly and threatens to kill her; Satan only needs to gently guide her hand.
• Faux Affably Evil: When revealing himself to Thomasin, he plays himself as gentlemanly and sympathetic to her plight but it's done after he's driven the teenage girl to insanity, having her disrobe and sign her soul to him.
• A Form You Are Comfortable With: Satan first assumes the likeness of a black goat, then reveals his true identity to Thomasin in the form of a handsome well-dressed man.
• Gruesome Goat: The Puritan family owns a goat that becomes increasingly ominous as the Creepy Twins play with him and claim that he speaks to them. At the end, he fatally gores William and is revealed to be Satan in disguise.
• The Hedonist: Satan's offer to Thomasin is to "live deliciously". As a repressed Puritan girl who has been taught to reject all worldly pleasure, she jumps at it, even though his offer is of simple things like butter, a new dress, and the opportunity to travel.
• Hellish Pupils: Subverted, interestingly. Regular goats do have rectangular pupils, but Black Phillip's are round like a human's, which serves as a subtle clue that he's not really a goat.
• The Man Behind the Man: Satan is the true master of the witches.
• Southern Gothic Satan: His human form is a tall man with black hair and beard who wears a lot of black clothing. A note of mention is that his clothing resembles royal clothing worn by the Royalists/Cavaliers, the rival faction of the Roundheads, who the Puritans supported, during the English Civil War. Since Thomasin was a Puritan, it is symbolic of her temptation to joining her faithful's enemy.