A Puritan family has been exiled and starts their own farm on the outskirts of a threatening woods. Misfortune strikes the family relentlessly, and intrafamilial relationships decay dramatically, with the eldest daughter, Thomasin, struggling to be heard out and trusted after circumstance leaves her as the only visible common denominator of every witched tragedy. For there is a witch in the forest.
The film is a moody, slow, and very heavily period-themed horror drama, with costuming, dialogue, and set design all adhering to early colonial American standards. The dialogue can be a bit hard to parse, particularly with extremely baritone Ralph Ineson as the father, but it's not too hard and the film works well. There's a lot of subtext of the Puritan mindset making things much worse for the characters, like confusing one child about death when the father says the soul's placement cannot be promised, and the general negative and self-loathing religious rhetoric not doing any favors for the emotional state. One way to read the film would be as a story of how viewing life as misery just gives you a miserable life.
Since so much of the drama comes from the mistrust within the family about the true cause of the ceaseless and dreadful misfortunes befalling them, I started to think the film would have been just as strong if the film hadn't told us the witch was an outside force from the start. It could have been a compelling magical whodunit drama where we shift allegiances as the characters do, not knowing who accused is a witch until we learn none were. However, later events in the film make it very clear why Thomasin is shown to be innocent—because the entire story is about how she does not deserve this. Thomasin is a devout and kind girl who suffers just as much as her family and is rewarded for it with suspicion, abuse, and accusations. Her most startling actions make the most sense when you realize her belief in herself that she is being unjustly treated and that she must stand up for herself in a scenario where everyone is wrongly against her. And that sense is what motivates the end of her character arc—if you see it as positive or not, it doesn't matter, because it's entirely understandable for someone who's suffered so unfairly.
It's possible to view the film as not supernatural, but I don't think those readings elevate this particular story. I tend to see it as the story of people being broken down by a life that does not reward them, with witches being a real element underpinning it.
This isn't a film I adored, but I can't say it's done badly and I enjoyed thinking about it.
A story named for a force, not a character.
A Puritan family has been exiled and starts their own farm on the outskirts of a threatening woods. Misfortune strikes the family relentlessly, and intrafamilial relationships decay dramatically, with the eldest daughter, Thomasin, struggling to be heard out and trusted after circumstance leaves her as the only visible common denominator of every witched tragedy. For there is a witch in the forest.
The film is a moody, slow, and very heavily period-themed horror drama, with costuming, dialogue, and set design all adhering to early colonial American standards. The dialogue can be a bit hard to parse, particularly with extremely baritone Ralph Ineson as the father, but it's not too hard and the film works well. There's a lot of subtext of the Puritan mindset making things much worse for the characters, like confusing one child about death when the father says the soul's placement cannot be promised, and the general negative and self-loathing religious rhetoric not doing any favors for the emotional state. One way to read the film would be as a story of how viewing life as misery just gives you a miserable life.
Since so much of the drama comes from the mistrust within the family about the true cause of the ceaseless and dreadful misfortunes befalling them, I started to think the film would have been just as strong if the film hadn't told us the witch was an outside force from the start. It could have been a compelling magical whodunit drama where we shift allegiances as the characters do, not knowing who accused is a witch until we learn none were. However, later events in the film make it very clear why Thomasin is shown to be innocent—because the entire story is about how she does not deserve this. Thomasin is a devout and kind girl who suffers just as much as her family and is rewarded for it with suspicion, abuse, and accusations. Her most startling actions make the most sense when you realize her belief in herself that she is being unjustly treated and that she must stand up for herself in a scenario where everyone is wrongly against her. And that sense is what motivates the end of her character arc—if you see it as positive or not, it doesn't matter, because it's entirely understandable for someone who's suffered so unfairly.
It's possible to view the film as not supernatural, but I don't think those readings elevate this particular story. I tend to see it as the story of people being broken down by a life that does not reward them, with witches being a real element underpinning it.
This isn't a film I adored, but I can't say it's done badly and I enjoyed thinking about it.