The Witch (2015)

THE WITCH  (2015)  ¢ ¢ ¢
    D: Robert Eggers
    Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie,
    Harvey Scrimshaw, Ellie Grainger, Lucas Dawson
This movie takes place around 1630 in New England, where a righteously stubborn man named William is being expelled from his Puritan community, together with his wife and family. The dispute has something to do with religion, but whether they're being kicked out for being too fanatical, or not fanatical enough, is hard to say. What it means is that they're cut off and out on their own in the wilderness, where their assets are few and their liabilities include heavy doses of guilt, escalating bouts of hysteria, and the sad, inescapable fact that William has no skill at all when it comes to hunting and farming, which means that come winter, they're probably going to starve. Then it gets creepy. The movie's great on atmosphere. The Lord's punishing grace may be shining down on these people, but the sun is not. The language is archaic. Everything looks authentically 17th-century. It's moody and unsettling as long as the nature of the terror afflicting the family remains mysterious, suggesting that the real evil out to destroy them isn't looming in the dark or in the woods, but in themselves. It loses something at the end, when it becomes more literal. Horror movies can be more horrifying sometimes when they don't try too hard to explain themselves.