Director
Robert Eggers
Leading Actors/Actresses
Anya Taylor-Joy
Supporting Actors/Actresses
Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickey, and Bathsheba Garnett
Genre
Folk Horror
Language
Early Modern English
Awards
The film was nominated for a slew of awards at independent award shows, including the Saturn Awards and Bram Stoker Awards.
Date of Release
The Witch was first shown on January 27, 2015, and received a wide release on February 19, 2016.
Producer
Jay Van Hoy, Lars Knudsen, Jodi Redmond, Daniel Bekerman, and Rodrigo Teixeira
Setting and Context
The film is set in the 1630s in New England, during a time in which white colonists (typically from Britain) created and lived in settlements based on their religion to ensure mutual safety and compliance.
Narrator and Point of View
The Witch is told primarily from the perspective of Thomasin and her family, as they navigate the challenges the witch has brought to them. However, the film has a third-person omniscient narrator who is not involved in the story.
Tone and Mood
The film is tense, dramatic, scary, historically evocative, bleak, and oppressive.
Protagonist and Antagonist
Thomasin is the film's protagonist and the witch is its antagonist.
Major Conflict
The major conflict in the film involves Thomasin and her family coming to terms with, and discovering why, Samuel's disappearance and death occurred, as well as contending with the witch that has haunted their family.
Climax
The climax of the film occurs when Thomasin, who has just lost her entire family, accepts Black Phillip's offer to join the witches coven, embracing a new way of living.
Foreshadowing
Thomasin's dream of the witch drinking the blood of one of their goat foreshadows the witch later disemboweling the goats.
Understatement
For much of the film, Thomasin is portrayed as a good girl who rarely rocks the boat and frequently does good things for the people around her. However, her capacity to do bad things is understated for much of the film, leading viewers to be surprised when she ultimately joins the witch's coven.
Innovations in Filming or Lighting or Camera Techniques
Though there were no innovations in filming or lighting or camera techniques, The Witch was lauded by critics for its photography and for capturing the authentic experiences of a family living in 1600s New England.
Allusions
The film is chock-full of allusions to folklore, ancient and more contemporary history, religion (particularly Puritanical religion), and other social movements.
Paradox
Thomasin is routinely horrified by the terrible things the witch and her coven do to her family, yet chooses to join the same coven.
Parallelism
N/A
