# 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:** 9\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2016, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-see-the-witch-2016/746531/61 "2016-05-24T19:46:47Z")
I just watched it on-demand. I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, it reminded me greatly of one of my favorite horror movies of all time: _The Others_. Like _The Others_, _The Witch_ is meticulously, almost painfully slow, but in a good way. However, in parts it was more sad than scary, especially in the way that, by the end, one of the main characters was only left with three options, all three of them bad. All in all, I give it 3.5 out of 5 stars. Caleb Question: At Caleb’s death scene, did he have an orgasm? I swear that when the camera panned back, there was a little glisten on the blanket where his johnson would have been, as if he’d ejaculated during his ecstatic death sequence. ---
**Author:** ![SaharaTea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@SaharaTea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SaharaTea)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2016, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-see-the-witch-2016/746531/62 "2016-05-24T21:29:31Z")
I thought it was excellent. I agree with whoever said this should be required viewing for people interested in the Puritans. One of the reviews posted upthread mentioned the ending’s similarity to a Goya painting, and I thought that was interesting. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2016, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-see-the-witch-2016/746531/63 "2016-06-07T11:19:21Z")
Just watched this via Netflix DVD, and also watched the commentary. I love commentary tracks, but unfortunately this was a bad commentary. Just the director alone (which is almost always bad) and well over 90% of it was “I love this scene” / “This is my favorite shot” inanity. As a new director it was also overly self-effacing, to the point that I legitimately got the impression he doesn’t actually like this movie. Obviously that’s not the case, but too many comments along the lines of “this is horrible” / “I can’t actually watch this movie” added up to that impression. He conceded that the house was WAY too big, but had to be in order to fit production inside of it. He specifically didn’t want to shoot interior shots with a camera positioned outside the walls, since he felt that would take the audience out of it too much. As for the movie itself, I thought it was excellent but was greatly let down by poor marketing. Someone upthread mentioned The Others, and I really wish I’d gone in with the thought that if I liked The Others I’d like The Witch. I would have been much better prepared (and more receptive) for what this was. > [@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. I don’t really follow this.[spoiler]Witches and the devil existing for real exactly like how it was in folklore is the whole premise of the movie, so of course they had to go there. Their purpose was to go there. Also, witches literally taking off on broom sticks happened right at the start of the movie. After snatching the newborn in the first ten minutes, we see the witch disembowel the baby and rub its guts all over her flying stick, and then we see her flying on said stick. This all happening right at the start lays the groundwork for seeing the witches floating at the end.[/spoiler] > [@faithfool](#): > > Yeah, _The Visit_ was better than I could’ve hoped for, but I LOVED both _Krampus_ (which was frigging awesome!) and _Pride and Prejudice and Zombies_. Plus, going back to some stuff I’ve rented, I’ll be buying a secondhand copy of the new _The Town that Dreaded Sundown_ and _It Follows_. But I think we’ve already talked about the latter. > > Still waiting to see _Goodnight, Mommy_ and _The Green Inferno_. I’m hopeful about the former. Cool, just added Krampus to the top of my queue. Should be getting it shortly. I liked It Follows quite a bit (though the commentary was meh) and also Green Inferno. I actually bought Green Inferno after checking it out on Netflix because the commentary was excellent. Pretty much the only reason I buy DVDs is for the commentary tracks. Specifically, commentaries with the director plus several cast members and they’re all having fun with it, like you’re at a viewing party. ---
**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:** [June 8, 2016, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-see-the-witch-2016/746531/64 "2016-06-08T19:01:53Z")
Thanks,\*\* Ellis Dee.\*\* This is exactly why I wanted feed back. I didn’t connect the earlier scene with the last as sort of bookends and keeping that in mind may help me view it differently. I only saw it the one time in the theater so I’l keep this in mind when I rewatch it at home. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-see-the-witch-2016/746531/65 "2016-06-08T20:09:42Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > Thanks,\*\* Ellis Dee.\*\* This is exactly why I wanted feed back. I didn’t connect the earlier scene with the last as sort of bookends and keeping that in mind may help me view it differently. I only saw it the one time in the theater so I’l keep this in mind when I rewatch it at home. In fairness, on first viewing I didn’t realize I saw a witch flying on a broomstick _at all_, so if you totally missed it too, we’re right there together. After she captured and cut up the baby, we saw her smear its guts all over herself and a stick. I didn’t fully perceive her smearing the “unguent” (the director’s word) on the stick at the time, probably because smearing the guts all over her naked body kind of commands your attention. The very next scene was first-person perspective from the witch’s point of view as she gets on the broom and takes off, flying through the trees. I think I was still “ewwww, she smeared dead baby guts all over her body” to really register it. Plus, it was pretty short, and it’s also easy to misinterpret it as a simple establishing shot of the forest where the house is. The second viewing, while watching the commentary, is when I finally noticed what was actually happening. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-see-the-witch-2016/746531/66 "2016-06-08T20:18:29Z")
Missed the edit window: During that sequence, on the commentary track he explained that the belief back then was that witches used un-baptized baby guts to make their sticks fly. (They were just sticks, not broomsticks.) IIRC, I think the son even mentioned how the baby wasn’t baptized in that scene where he was asking the father if the baby went to heaven. Just one more example in a long line of examples where he went to great lengths to reproduce the period realities and mythologies faithfully. I don’t think he did a great job highlighting the action in that sequence, but knowing what he was going for it wasn’t bad. ---
**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:** [June 10, 2016, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-see-the-witch-2016/746531/67 "2016-06-10T16:58:03Z")
I watched this again last night and some of the insights shared here are really spot on (especially\*\* Ellis Dee’s\*\*) and helped me to enjoy it even more. I don’t know if the picture was especially dark when I saw it in the theater or I was just concentrating too hard but I caught a couple of things the second time that I didn’t see the first. No wonder I didn’t get the first witch flying scene; I could barely make it out on my first viewing. Or maybe it’s because it was explained to me but anyway I saw it clearly and, (un)holy cow is that creepy:eek: Another thing I hadn’t seen / noticed was that we actually see the witch running off with baby. I mean, I realized that’s what happened but I didn’t actually \*see \*it the first time. I also was not able to see Satan’s face the first time around; only his black gloved hand. Also, another excellent point that was made is that it does indeed tell us right there in the title that this is a folk tale. \*Not Whatever Happened to Baby Sam?\*or found footage a la that other witch from Blair. What we’re watching is what (according to legend) happened. I’m so used to watching horror movies with psychological aspects and ambiguous endings that I forgot to just watch it and take it at face value, and in that context it really is a sad, creepy, satisfying film. ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2016, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-see-the-witch-2016/746531/68 "2016-06-10T20:04:48Z")
I had the same dark film experience in the theater. I didn’t see the witch with the baby at all until I saw it OnDemand again. It was also a better sound mix than in the theater. I’m trying to remember which theater I saw it in. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-see-the-witch-2016/746531/69 "2016-06-21T02:36:23Z")
> [@divemaster](#): > > I really wanted to like\*\* The Witch\*\*. It got a great review in the _Washington Post_. But I was…underwhelmed…when all was said and done. [/SPOILER] I thought it was pretty terrible, and super overhyped. It felt like someone like Uwe Boll trying to do a serious movie for once, and cramming in every cliché he could remember from his early American Lit class. The music overwhelmed the dialogue too often, and all the characters were caricatures: proud father, shrewish mother, spoiled children, trying-to-be-noble oldest son, innocent baby, and overworked/under appreciated oldest daughter. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/go-see-the-witch-2016/746531.md?page=3)