I think my gripe isn’t with the final resolution itself, but how it is portrayed. The last scene was just so cliched whereas the rest of the film had an original and truly chilling tone. I’m probably just overthinking it but to me the visuals / tone just don’t jibe with the rest of the film. Seems it would have been more effective if the last shot had just been of her walking into the woods and approaching the fire. Maybe showing us something so we realize she has joined the coven like the old witch with ghastly smile on her face or something, but not the stupid chanting and dancing, and for the love of Lucifer, not the broom ride.
I plan to purchase this and watch it a few more times and I think I read there is commentary on it so perhaps that will shed some light on some of the artistic choices.
Well, you may be right; to be honest, by that point I had pretty much given up looking steadily at the screen (I do not do horror movies very well, though I steeled myself to this one because it was reported to be such a good flick). So I may have missed the cumulative cinematic effect.
Though now that I think of it,
maybe the “chanting and dancing” was intended to suggest Native American rituals, which also would have seemed terrifying and devilish to the Puritan settlers? The witches AFAICT were not portrayed as Native, but it’s the sort of thing an English Puritan girl like Thomasin would have associated with them.
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I plan to purchase this and watch it a few more times and I think I read there is commentary on it so perhaps that will shed some light on some of the artistic choices.
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You are braver than I am, for shiz. But yeah, that should be enlightening for those who are up for it!
[spoiler]…the dream that the mother had towards the end with return of baby Sam and Caleb, and she ends up trying to nurse Sam, but it’s a raven pecking at her breast…was that a dream? Any of it? Or just parts of it? She wakes up the next morning with blood seeping through her night shirt.
Also, what was the point of Caleb’s glances at Thomasin’s breasts several times? Just to show that Caleb was a normal boy susceptible to hormones leading him to be attracted to the disguised witch in the wood?[/spoiler]
Well, to be fair the subtitle of this movie is “A New England Folktale” so I think any bits that are deemed too cliched or too on the nose get a bit of a pass under this umbrella.
I liked that the idea of witches being an actual thing was never doubted. There was no tiresome debate as the the existence of them. They were a reality in their world and that was that.
It’s a movie I look forward to delving deeper into. Can anyone recommend some fiction or non fiction that deals with this subject, time and place?
a dream with a genuine demonic basis, and the raven really did peck her. Remember that dream-Caleb was talking to her about the Book, trying to lure her into signing it with the promise of being able to be with her sons again. The Devil was mostly hunting Thomasin but I think he’d have added Katherine to the bag if he could get her.
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[spoiler]
Also, what was the point of Caleb’s glances at Thomasin’s breasts several times? Just to show that Caleb was a normal boy susceptible to hormones leading him to be attracted to the disguised witch in the wood?[/spoiler]
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Yup, and also to sharpen his consciousness of sinfulness and his anxiety that he might not be one of the saved and eventually evil was gonna get him.
By the way, I never figured out
why Caleb took the horse for the abortive journey through the woods in the first place. Was he sneaking off to the Plantation to find someone to baptize him? You could tell when he was overhearing his parents discussing Samuel that he was seriously worried about his salvation status. But I never got hold of any definite clarification on that development.
So,as Caleb was dying, was he being restored to Jesus or having erotic hallucinations? It seemed half sincere “come to Jesus” and half flashback to his molestation by the witch.
I took it as him being saved, thereby expelling the apple / rejecting forbidden fruit (also ties into the lie he told about having seen an apple tree). I can also see the other side you mention though so now I’m not certain. Either way, holy cow (no pun intended) what a performance by the young actor!
I also didn’t get understand where Caleb was supposed to be going when he took off on the horse. Was it ever explained?
Also, at first I did think Caleb’s visit to his mother actually happened but on second thought, that would conflict with him being saved before he died so now I tend to agree with Kimstu that it was a demonic dream.
I don’t think he actually got saved. I don’t think anybody gets saved in this movie. But I do think he was desperately trying to stifle and repress the consciousness of his sexual corruption by recasting it in Biblical terms and pleading for divine help.
Which is not manifested, natch. There are no happy endings round here, unless you’re rooting for Team Devil.
Actually, the movie never says it’s “based on a New England Folktale”: it says that it is a New England Folktale, i.e., that’s the movie’s subtitle.
In other words, the moviemakers took a bunch of legends and historical accounts about witchcraft and pounded them all together in a hollow tree stump to produce a story that they are presenting in the guise of a folktale.
Kind of like how Washington Irving’s story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” wasn’t an actual legend but a fictional account of imaginary events presented as legendary.
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. I actually did think it was creepy, and the first 2/3rds I’d give a 3.5 star rating (out of 5). The ambiguity–is the teen girl really a witch? What about the little kids? (they behaved freakily for sure at times). Which accusations are true and which are demonic dissembling? What about Black Phillip? What really happened to the baby? I totally got that the father was trying to do the best for his family and balancing that with strongly held and sincere beliefs. All that added up to good atmosphere and suspense.
But then the last 20-30 minutes went and undid all that.
Ok, when Black Phillip manifested as an actual demonic presence I though “aha, here we go–we’ll get the real story now.” Or at least up the amp on the creepiness or horror. But no. All he does is ask the girl if she wants to be rich or popular or whatever, and she says yes (which is completely out of character for her given the first hour or so of the movie) and then she wanders naked into the woods and people start floating up into the air??? Really??? That’s all you’ve got to say after an intriguing lead-in???)
I don’t think it was out of character at all, Thomasin literally had no other options. Either become a witch or have everyone believe you were a witch and probably kill you or at least blame you for your whole family dying. Or i guess die of starvation or wait around until the witches take her too. There was no happy ending, no good solution.
Yeah, thus endeth my streak. It was visually stunning and I thought the lead, as well as the dad, did some pretty fine acting, but overall, it left me cold. Probably because it’s more exciting clipping my nails. And I get that there’s many interpretations, but that seemed too contrived. Ugh, I had such high hopes.
On a related note, that little girl was creepy as hell. She could haunt someone’s nightmares.
Now upon re-reading the thread, I have two more things to add…
1.) I thought Caleb was absolutely horrid. Every time he was on screen, it took me right out of the moment because his acting was so atrocious. However, looks like that at least here, I’m alone in my feelings.
2.) I don’t remember anyone mentioning this, but could everyone hear what all they were saying? The accents were fine, just the sound quality was so bad I had to watch the entire film with the closed captioning on.