The Witch

Every few years or so there's a movie that comes out that, if you allow it to, will affect you in such a way emotionally that it will wind up sticking with you for the rest of your life. I, for better or worse, have had quite a few of these moments in my lifetime as there was the embarrassing instance where I cried in the theater for the first time after seeing Ricky get shot in Boyz in the Hood. That was then followed up by the time I hooked up in a theater while watching Clair Danes fall in love in Romeo and Juliet (looking back I realize how gross that was but hey I was a teenager), and then there was the time I swore I'd never have children after seeing Chloe Sevigney get infected with HIV in the movie Kids.

Now I could honestly write an entire book on the number of moments I've had like this but I think you get the point by now. Well after seeing the movie The Witch, I think I'm going to have to add it to the list as well. I didn't cry and I certainly didn't feel like having sex after seeing it but this dark and terrifying film will definitely haunt me for weeks to come. First of all, I have talked ad nauseam about my fear of the woods and this movie does absolutely nothing to dispel that emotion. Second, the entire time I was watching this wickedness and depravity unfold on screen I felt as though my soul was going to light on fire at any second! Why on Earth was I subjecting myself to this? And why didn't someone tell me that these white people were going to be so pale?!?! That just adds to the overall creepiness of the experience; it's like watching a family of Powders fight against evil.

Now The Witch isn't your traditional jump from out the shadows scary movie, it instead puts its focus more on its sinister material. And as more and more of the plot is revealed and the gloomy mood is firmly established, you realize that you are about to encounter something that is truly evil.  In this film you first meet the family's head William as he is on trial in the township's courthouse for apparently ignoring some of their community's codes for living. He however remains steadfast in his belief that he is upholding the Christian standards they all agreed upon when leaving England to go to the New World and he happily accepts his banishment from their society. So he and his family move out to the woods to make a new life for themselves.

At first things appear to be normal as the family has settled in to their new surroundings and William and his wife Katherine have brought a newborn baby into to the world to join their little twins and the story's main focus Thomasin. But one day when Thomasin is playing peek-a-boo with the baby, he suddenly disappears and is apparently taken into the woods by something supernatural. Katherine is understandably inconsolable once this happens but she has no idea that the baby's disappearance was only the beginning of what will tear their family apart in the coming days. A series of strange events occur and the family slowly starts to turn on one another as they struggle to understand what's happening to them.

This film pulls no punches when it comes to depicting the horror this family is put through and I give the filmmakers credit for not succumbing to the pressure of the studio heads and actually challenging the audience for a change. When the final credits started rolling everyone got up in the theater with a disgusted look on their face which basically said "I guess I liked that film but I feel awful for saying so". And any movie that has that kind of effect on people has to get a rating of FRESH! Now if you will excuse me, I'm going to bathe myself in holy water!