Fear is a response that demands an awareness of surroundings, an intricacy of perception, and a spike in our sense of “now.”. Under circumstances in which our brain is consciously aware that we are safe despite a perceived threat, fear can be quite exhilarating and entertaining, and it can allow us to retain vivid memories due to our heightened senses. Perhaps the best example of people submitting to fear in an engaging recreational manner lies in the timeless scary movie. Old and new, realistic and outrageous, horror films have thrived for decades and have been among the heaviest demands in the entertainment world. Though they often lack substance, following a cliche thread in lieu of a deep plot or underlying meaning, scary movies can also be some of the richest forms of art the entertainment industry has to offer. One of the best examples of a horror masterpiece is the 2016 film, The Witch. This movie takes its viewers on a journey like no other, and one that is excruciating to watch and impossible to look away from at the same time. Writer-director Robert Eggers pairs the inevitability of a horrific outcome with an aura of soul-shaking uncertainty to solidify The Witch as one of the most well-crafted and unsettling horror flicks of all time.
The Witch follows a 15th century immigrant family that is banished from its Puritan village and is forced to start a new life in the New England wilderness. To add to this misfortune, the family’s youngest member, infant son Samuel, “disappears” while playing peek-a-boo with the eldest sister, Thomasin. Though our main characters are left in the dark, the audience is made fully aware that this tragedy is the doing of a twisted woodland being; a grotesque figure is seen trudging through the forest cradling the baby, and the scene cuts to the creature rubbing what can only be assumed to be the infant’s flesh all over its body in some kind of hideous ritual. This shrewd construction of a harsh and unforgiving setting immediately followed by a hellishly disturbing sequence sets the stage for a theme that can be observed throughout the movie: the assurance of an ungodly, horrific outcome. A family is stuck in the middle of an unknown, untamed wilderness, and they are in the midst of a devilish creature (or creatures) that have a supernatural ability to intrude without being noticed in addition to a proclivity for grisly and inhuman practices. Our protagonists have nowhere to flee, no way to defend themselves, and, worst of all, they are completely unaware of the threat that lurks just beyond their crudely built shelter. The Witch articulates this progression toward an unfavorable ending in the recurrence of insurmountable obstacles in the family’s quest to live off the land. Their crops fail to yield a sufficient food supply, the father is injured while hunting, and the cows fail to produce milk. In addition to this sequence of bad luck, Eggers employs a progression of subtle supernatural encounters and the toll it takes on the family to ensure that the ending will not just be destructive, but it will be nightmarish as well. When the eldest son, Kaleb, fails to find his way back after a trek through the woods, he stumbles upon a smoking hut in the permeating darkness, where a deceptively beautiful “woman” lures him inside. After the boy returns naked and cursed, the family spirals into an abyss of accustation and despair as the evil around them continues to strike.
This theme of “no way out” is what sets The Witch apart from nearly every other horror film. Most scary movies begin on a somewhat positive, or at least hopeful note, and the possibility of a way out remains a tension-building theme throughout. Whether it’s killing a killer, getting the devil out of a little girl, or warding off an angry spirit, there always seems to be some type of a “solution” in horror flicks. The Witch offers none of this, instead crafting its fear and suspense by ensuring the audience of a grisly end and instilling in them a sense that they should not be seeing what they’re seeing. Though the audience knows things will end horrifically, it remains a mystery how things will end horrifically. The supernatural beings remain very much a mystery throughout the film, and though the audience knows they’re there, only glimpses are ever shown. The intent and nature of these “witches” remains enigmatic, and the source of the evil and misfortune that plagues the family is not revealed until the end. Utilizing this “ambiguity amidst certainty”, Eggers instills a sense of constant disturbance and hopelessness among his audience while also keeping them on the edge of their seat. The viewers are made to ask, “Will everyone in the family die, or will a worse, more eternal fate befall them?”
Robert Eggers’ The Witch is a horror film like no other. It does not succumb to the conventions of typical scary movies in that it does not build fear and tension in the possibility of an escape. Rather, this film does just the opposite, ensuring the audience of a gruesome ending from the get-go in both the hopelessness of its setting and in the progression of bad luck and supernatural forces that remain uncontested. This sense of certainty is paired ironically with an aura of mystery, as the audience is left in the dark concerning the nature of the evil in the woods and the kind of horrible fate that awaits their protagonists. Eggers’ skillful employment of these various elements makes for a film that shakes us to our very core and doesn’t let us rest for even a minute. In this portrayal of a tale that is troubling as it is intriguing, The Witch proves that storytelling is not so cut and dry, and rather, it often gains substance through a loss of conventionality.