# GO SEE... The Witch (2016) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 19, 2016, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-see-the-witch-2016/746531 "2016-02-19T08:01:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-see-the-witch-2016/746531/21 "2016-03-02T01:12:23Z")
I loved this movie so much, even if i only understood half of what they were saying. Were the witches purposely setting up Thomasina to look guilty? ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-see-the-witch-2016/746531/22 "2016-03-02T01:28:16Z")
I really liked **Goodnight Mommy**. My coworker hated it, though. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-see-the-witch-2016/746531/23 "2016-03-02T03:27:56Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > I loved this movie so much, even if i only understood half of what they were saying. Were the witches purposely setting up Thomasina to look guilty? That’s not how I read it. I don’t think they really cared. ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-see-the-witch-2016/746531/24 "2016-03-02T08:40:52Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > 8.) The one thing that bothered me the most was how this family – one man, one woman, a teenaged girl , a pre-pubescent biy, and two toddlers – could, in the space of less than a year, put up a homestead as huge and complete as they depict, unaided. They have a full-size house with loft and thatched roof, a small barn, and one other outbuilding. The walls (and the divisions in the garden) are made of sawn planks – that requires a sawpit and two people to work the saw. Raising just the house would take a company of people the better part of a year, and this family was expelled from the colony for heresy – they wouldn’t be able to count on help. An actual bunch of settlers to Salem put up a couple of dwellings that are reproduced in one of Salem’s parks – it’s a closet-sized room half-0buried in the earth, and it slept a dozen people. These folks in the film werre living in incredible luxury (although it might not look like it to us). But I’ll let it pass – the story’s the important thing. I read an article about how the director consulted with people at Plymouth Plantation and other specialists about recreating the features and styles of Pilgrim Life. The boards, for example, were split oak, not sawn planks. I haven’t seen the movie (and don’t really intend to, except for the historical recreation thing) but I remember looking at stills and also thinking that it was a bigger house than I expected. I just chalked it up to the demands of the movie. You can’t really make a horror movie if the characters all squat in the same tiny cellar the whole time (well, you _can_, but it’s not that kind of horror movie). Anyway - here’s an article about the movie’s production, with a director interview: > **[How Robert Eggers Wove the Nightmares of The Witch Out of Historical Documents](https://www.vulture.com/2016/02/how-robert-eggers-researched-the-witch.html)** > > The facts beyond the scariest moments in The Witch. And here’s an accompianment reading list courtesy of the New york Public Library: > **[The Witch: A Reading and Resource List](https://wayback.archive-it.org/18689/20220312004754/https://www.nypl.org/blog/2016/02/26/witch-reading-list)** > > Already being touted as one of the best horror films of the year, The Witch is the story of a New England family that slowly begins to fall apart when they are banished from their Pilgrim community. Writer and Director Robert Eggers recently... And here, perhaps inevitably, is Black Phillip’s Twitter feed: [https://twitter.com/blackphillip](https://twitter.com/blackphillip) He’s a damn fine goat, I’ll give him that. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-see-the-witch-2016/746531/25 "2016-03-02T13:09:43Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > **MINOR TO MEDIUM SPOILERS BELOW** > The father mentioned trading with the Plantation, and they were discussing sending Thomasin to work for a family in the Plantation (a standard practice for adolescent girls as I recall), so apparently they had some dealings with them. > > We saw the dwelling of one witch and it’s much as you described- a tiny earth lodge. Maybe others lived with her. > > ] Dealings, yes, but they’d have to have wholesale cooperation in order to get those buildings built, not just trading silver cups and the like. Not exactly what you do with a Banished Member of your society. The witch’s dwelling, as depicted, is still more luxurious looking than those first shelters the Salem pioneers built. Here are the images from Salem Pioneer Village: [https://www.google.com/search?q=salem+pioneer+village&biw=1920&bih=934&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwiczqSoiaLLAhVS\_mMKHSwVDkEQ\_AUIBygC#imgrc=M3w-\_oALt6o7IM%3A](https://www.google.com/search?q=salem+pioneer+village&biw=1920&bih=934&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwiczqSoiaLLAhVS_mMKHSwVDkEQ_AUIBygC#imgrc=M3w-_oALt6o7IM%3A) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-see-the-witch-2016/746531/26 "2016-03-02T13:13:46Z")
> [@Merneith](#): > > I read an article about how the director consulted with people at Plymouth Plantation and other specialists about recreating the features and styles of Pilgrim Life. The boards, for example, were split oak, not sawn planks. I haven’t seen the movie (and don’t really intend to, except for the historical recreation thing) but I remember looking at stills and also thinking that it was a bigger house than I expected. I just chalked it up to the demands of the movie. You can’t really make a horror movie if the characters all squat in the same tiny cellar the whole time (well, you _can_, but it’s not that kind of horror movie). > > Anyway - here’s an article about the movie’s production, with a director interview: > [How Robert Eggers Wove the Nightmares of The Witch Out of Historical Documents](http://www.vulture.com/2016/02/how-robert-eggers-researched-the-witch.html) > And here’s an accompianment reading list courtesy of the New york Public Library: > [http://www.nypl.org/blog/2016/02/26/witch-reading-list](http://www.nypl.org/blog/2016/02/26/witch-reading-list) > And here, perhaps inevitably, is Black Phillip’s Twitter feed: > [x.com](https://twitter.com/blackphillip) > He’s a damn fine goat, I’ll give him that. The boards, both in the house construction and in the garden, look an awful lot more like sawn boards than split ones. In fact, I can’t see how you could get split wood as big and as flat as the ones used in the construction of the house. In any event, even split boards of that size represent a helluva big investment in work, especially while youy’re trying to raise a crop and _have a baby_ (which they did in the interim). I doubt that they’d carry historical reality that far, and am willing to extend them the liberty of having a bigger and relatable set for the drama that unfolded. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-see-the-witch-2016/746531/27 "2016-03-02T17:06:01Z")
Was it said how much time passed between the banishment and the scenes with Samuel? She wasn’t carrying a baby and didn’t look pregnant, so at least a year, but possibly two or three. He’d also had time to build a barn and plow and plant a field after all. Does anybody know what kind of candle that was at the dinner table? It had one vertical and one diagonal taper. I was wondering if there was a reason for that. (Speaking of, one thing I really liked was how the candles gave enough light to see for a few inches at the dinner table but that was it; I hate it in movies with historical settings when a candle puts out the light of a 60 watt bulb.) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-see-the-witch-2016/746531/28 "2016-03-02T17:20:10Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Was it said how much time passed between the banishment and the scenes with Samuel? She wasn’t carrying a baby and didn’t look pregnant, so at least a year, but possibly two or three. > He’d also had time to build a barn and plow and plant a field after all. > > Does anybody know what kind of candle that was at the dinner table? It had one vertical and one diagonal taper. I was wondering if there was a reason for that. (Speaking of, one thing I really liked was how the candles gave enough light to see for a few inches at the dinner table but that was it; I hate it in movies with historical settings when a candle puts out the light of a 60 watt bulb.) The toddlers weren’t any more grown up after they had the buildings, so it couldn’t be several years. According to the Wikipedia page she wasn’t pregnant when they set out. It’s obviously only a couple months old, tops, when we first re-encounter the family. The time passed couldn’t be more than about a year. The candle at the table was actually two – one standard candle, and something clasped at an angle in a clamp. That setup looks like a rushlight, in which a rush dipped in wax is used as a candle – except that it didn’t look like a rushlight. The “rush” looked like a garden-variety candle, simply mounted at an angle. Why you’d do that, I don’t know. But rushlights burn rapidly, and have to be changed frequently. Maybe for filming they just stuck a regular candle in a rushlight holder so they could get on with filming. Candles, by the way, are another big time investment. Tallow candles , using animal fat, used to be the standard – the fat is a byproduct of cooking. But it’s dirty and smelly and smoky, and can get soft. Mice like to eat it (which is why you keep candles in a tin “candle safe”, nailed to the wall). You can make bayberry candles, if you’re near bayberry bushes, but you have to pick the berries, boil them, and skim the wax. If you have beehives, you can make beeswax candles, but raising bees is a huge investment in time and effort. They had awfully clean, white-looking candles, which is kinda hard to square with all this. I’m assuming, again, that we should just allow this, for the sake of the movie. Rushlights: [https://search.yahoo.com/search;\_ylt=AwrBT7vJ\_NZWW9YAUK9XNyoA;\_ylc=X1MDMjc2NjY3OQRfcgMyBGZyA3lmcC10LTIwMQRncHJpZANUc2R6MnRDQlFWbWRmeGhiMEhuaE5BBG5fcnNsdAMwBG5fc3VnZwMxMARvcmlnaW4Dc2VhcmNoLnlhaG9vLmNvbQRwb3MDMARwcXN0cgMEcHFzdHJsAwRxc3RybAM5BHF1ZXJ5A3J1c2hsaWdodAR0X3N0bXADMTQ1NjkzOTE2MA--?p=rushlight&fr2=sb-top-search&fr=yfp-t-201&fp=1](https://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=AwrBT7vJ_NZWW9YAUK9XNyoA;_ylc=X1MDMjc2NjY3OQRfcgMyBGZyA3lmcC10LTIwMQRncHJpZANUc2R6MnRDQlFWbWRmeGhiMEhuaE5BBG5fcnNsdAMwBG5fc3VnZwMxMARvcmlnaW4Dc2VhcmNoLnlhaG9vLmNvbQRwb3MDMARwcXN0cgMEcHFzdHJsAwRxc3RybAM5BHF1ZXJ5A3J1c2hsaWdodAR0X3N0bXADMTQ1NjkzOTE2MA--?p=rushlight&fr2=sb-top-search&fr=yfp-t-201&fp=1) [https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;\_ylt=AwrBT8.XINdWiLQA2ERXNyoA;\_ylu=X3oDMTE0djUyaTg2BGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDQjE3NTdfMQRzZWMDcGl2cw--?p=rushlight&fr=yfp-t-201&fr2=piv-web#id=1&iurl=http%3A%2F%2Fartantiquesmichigan.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F02%2Frushlight\_1.jpg&action=click](https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=AwrBT8.XINdWiLQA2ERXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTE0djUyaTg2BGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDQjE3NTdfMQRzZWMDcGl2cw--?p=rushlight&fr=yfp-t-201&fr2=piv-web#id=1&iurl=http%3A%2F%2Fartantiquesmichigan.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F02%2Frushlight_1.jpg&action=click) ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-see-the-witch-2016/746531/29 "2016-03-02T20:42:39Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > The boards, both in the house construction and in the garden, look an awful lot more like sawn boards than split ones. In fact, I can’t see how you could get split wood as big and as flat as the ones used in the construction of the house. In any event, even split boards of that size represent a helluva big investment in work, especially while youy’re trying to raise a crop and _have a baby_ (which they did in the interim). I doubt that they’d carry historical reality that far, and am willing to extend them the liberty of having a bigger and relatable set for the drama that unfolded. Well, again, I haven’t seen the movie, but the technology that used to be used for splitting wood is well understood. Here’s some dudes splitting an oak to make planks for a longship, using Viking era tools. Once the tree is split into eighths, the plank from each section is smoothed out using a variety of blades. The resulting planks are quite thin and even rather flexible. It made for a stronger, more agile, ship. Here's another example, photos of a guy making the handle for a long axe - http://www.hurstwic.org/history/articles/manufacturing/text/viking\_woodworking\_riving.htm OH - here's a better link, relating to 17th century woodworking. http://www.greenwoodworking.com/RivingArticle No argument though that making enough planks to build the buildings in the movie would have needed either more people or more time. Well, I guess I don't know how rich the guy was supposed to be. Maybe he bought the wood or hired the help. Even religious fanatics couldn't be too choosy about their customer base in 1632. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-see-the-witch-2016/746531/30 "2016-03-02T20:54:14Z")
> [@Merneith](#): > > Well, again, I haven’t seen the movie, but the technology that used to be used for splitting wood is well understood. Here’s some dudes splitting an oak to make planks for a longship, using Viking era tools. Once the tree is split into eighths, the plank from each section is smoothed out using a variety of blades. > > The resulting planks are quite thin and even rather flexible. It made for a stronger, more agile, ship. Here's another example, photos of a guy making the handle for a long axe - http://www.hurstwic.org/history/articles/manufacturing/text/viking\_woodworking\_riving.htm OH - here's a better link, relating to 17th century woodworking. http://www.greenwoodworking.com/RivingArticle No argument though that making enough planks to build the buildings in the movie would have needed either more people or more time. Well, I guess I don't know how rich the guy was supposed to be. Maybe he bought the wood or hired the help. Even religious fanatics couldn't be too choosy about their customer base in 1632. Yeah – my point wasn’t that it _couldn’t_ be done – it was that I didn’t buy it being done by one guy, his (pregnant part of the time) wife, and two kids (ignoring the toddlers). You’d expect something a great deal cruder, because it’s what could be done. Back then, for instance, it wasn’t uncommon to keep the animals in the house, especially if building a barn would’ve taken more work than you could wrangle workers. it’d be close quarters and wouldn’t smell great, but in the winter everybody’d be warmer and sheltered. But I could see them just assuming a basic 17th century farm just to get on with the story, and so that we could concentrate on the weirdness without worrying about a farm full of compromises. it’s enough trouble to get a 21st century audience to relate to the 17th century farm life as it is. (Especially having to decipher the dialect.) ---
**Author:** ![Laggard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Laggard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laggard)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2016, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-see-the-witch-2016/746531/31 "2016-03-03T05:39:17Z")
I grew up in a rural area and never liked the woods at night but now will never go into them after dark again. Still processing the film. Very slow and dark. This is not a horror film. If you’re expecting Insidious you’ll be disappointed. By the way, what happened to the twins at the end? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2016, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-see-the-witch-2016/746531/32 "2016-03-03T13:20:47Z")
> [@Laggard](#): > > I grew up in a rural area and never liked the woods at night but now will never go into them after dark again. > > Still processing the film. Very slow and dark. This is not a horror film. If you’re expecting Insidious you’ll be disappointed. > > By the way, what happened to the twins at the end? I assume that the Witch made off with them, like the baby. They’re simply gone from the “barn” at the end, never seen again. ---
**Author:** ![Slade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@Slade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slade)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2016, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-see-the-witch-2016/746531/33 "2016-03-03T14:04:02Z")
I’m really looking forward to seeing this. The New Yorker has a great review here: [“The Witch” Review | The New Yorker](http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/02/29/the-witch-review). ---
**Author:** ![amaguri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@amaguri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amaguri)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2016, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-see-the-witch-2016/746531/34 "2016-03-03T19:10:02Z")
I enjoyed it quite a bit but as with many movies lately, I think it’s being mis-marketed. It’s not a horror movie, it’s a creepy period piece that is… very… deliberately… paced. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2016, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-see-the-witch-2016/746531/35 "2016-03-03T19:38:28Z")
> [@amaguri](#): > > I enjoyed it quite a bit but as with many movies lately, I think it’s being mis-marketed. It’s not a horror movie, it’s a creepy period piece that is… very… deliberately… paced. It’s not just a Period Piece, though. as I say above, it’s Dark Fantasy, if only because witches really do exist in the film’s universe, and behave and have the powers described by contemporary documents. It’s not like that film _The Devils_, where the witches of Toulon were tortured for suspected of being witches, but weren’t – they really do have witches with supernatural abilities in this film. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2016, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-see-the-witch-2016/746531/36 "2016-03-03T22:54:18Z")
A friend of mine was asking if the witches were women who didn’t want to be second class citizens and perhaps practiced with home remedies and herbs. I told her “Not exactly…”. It’s hard for people to wrap their mind around "No, it’s a world where the Puritan world view is _right_. It’s as bizarre as sci-fi realities, but it held sway for a long time in Old and New England. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-see-the-witch-2016/746531/37 "2016-03-06T07:06:45Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Was it said how much time passed between the banishment and the scenes with Samuel? She wasn’t carrying a baby and didn’t look pregnant, so at least a year, but possibly two or three. > He’d also had time to build a barn and plow and plant a field after all. Yeah, I also thought the kids were supposed to be at least a year or two older when we saw them after the first sequence. Of course, that’s harder to suggest with actual child actors, who are more reliant on size than makeup to convey age and who can’t be resized at will. > [@DigitalC](#): > > Were the witches purposely setting up Thomasina to look guilty? My take on it is that It was a massive spiritual-destruction campaign to get Thomasin distraught and helpless enough to sign her name in the Book. The nubile virgin is the one the Boss was after, and apparently the victim has to consciously and officially agree to the deal before they can be brought into the coven. No way they were going to get a good Puritan girl on board with that unless and until everything else in her life had been reduced to sheer demonic horror. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-see-the-witch-2016/746531/38 "2016-03-06T23:24:28Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > I’m told if thou stayeth for the after credit feasting they hath an extra like unto a Bollywood style dance number, but I know this not. Of a truth, thou art a merry soul! I laughed within myself. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-see-the-witch-2016/746531/39 "2016-03-07T13:18:23Z")
Finally got to see this and I really enjoyed it. All the performances were strong, especially those of Tomasin and Caleb; the actress who plays Tomasin could be a third Fanning sister and in fact when I first saw the trailer for this I thought it was Elle. It is so refreshing to see a truly atmospheric, creepy movie that doesn’t rely on jump scares and gore. The few blooody(ish) parts were just icky enough to be disturbing but not over the top. I’m not totally sold on the ending and am wondering what anyone here thought. My first thought when she’s talking to the goat and then Satan appears was "_Really_?They really _had_ to go there? But then HIS voice really was hypnotic and I found myself just going with it and looking back it was a good choice by the director. I’m still torn, however, by the very last scene with the coven around the fire. I felt like that scene was from a totally different movie. The stereotypical, almost comical chanting and the witches literally taking off on broom sticks just felt kind of lame. I wonder if anyone got something from it that I didn’t that might make me view it in a different way. As it stands that scene really takes away from all the great stuff that came before it. Also, Black Phillip is one cute goat (though I read he was rather difficult on the set. Diva. ) ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-see-the-witch-2016/746531/40 "2016-03-07T18:24:50Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > I’m not totally sold on the ending and am wondering what anyone here thought. My first thought when she’s talking to the goat and then Satan appears was "_Really_?They really _had_ to go there? But then HIS voice really was hypnotic and I found myself just going with it and looking back it was a good choice by the director. I’m still torn, however, by the very last scene with the coven around the fire. I felt like that scene was from a totally different movie. The stereotypical, almost comical chanting and the witches literally taking off on broom sticks just felt kind of lame. I wonder if anyone got something from it that I didn’t that might make me view it in a different way. As it stands that scene really takes away from all the great stuff that came before it. Well, but if my take on it is correct, the whole point of this evil cascade of catastrophes was to get Thomasin broken down enough to join the coven and surrender her soul to her new master. Where else could they have gone with it? As **Sampiro** noted, the worldview here **is** the Puritan mindset, taken at face value. Witches are real, the Devil is real, and if you’re not one of the mysteriously chosen Elect then God ain’t gonna do shit to save you from them. I agree that the coven scene didn’t have anything particularly fresh or awe-inspiring about it, but that’s kind of the point. In the Puritan mindset, evil is real and terrifying but also small-minded and nasty. People are selling their souls and destroying their kin and neighbors in seriously revolting ways not in exchange for being able to do anything magnificent and glorious, but just to indulge all their petty little lusts and power fantasies. Flying on broomsticks: check. Scaring the shit out of everyone you don’t like: check. Naked orgies round the bonfire: check. Achieving anything genuinely wondrous or delightful: sorry, that’s not in our charter. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-see-the-witch-2016/746531.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-see-the-witch-2016/746531.md?page=3)