Review: The VVitch (2015)

Directed by Robert Eggers

Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie.

The plot follows a Separatist family encountering forces of evil in the woods beyond their New England farm, forces that may be either real or imagined.

Another horror film by A24. So far I've seen Hereditary, and this film (I might be watching It Comes At Night at a later time). After seeing Hereditary, I was excited to see this film. After finally watching it with a few friends on Netflix, I can say it was quite good.

The acting was great, and I loved all of their performances, and this film really did reminds me of Hereditary with it's powerful acting. Anya-Taylor-Joy is really sets her mark as rising actress, with lead roles in Split, Thoroughbreds, and soon to release Glass.

It is a great directorial debut for Robert Eggers. His direction was great, I loved his effective approach to scare the audience using tone and tension, rather than the usual misuse of jump-scares. The tone was eerie and creepy, and the music helps amplify the tone, keeping you uneasy as you continue the film. The theme of religion plays a huge part in the film, and one that is often thought of, before any action is taken in the film.

The cinematography was great. The lighting and production design instantly immersed me into the film. There is a lot of symbolism and disturbing imagery in the film, which is a nice touch and great attention to detail, which can make the movie better on a 2nd watch. The language can be distracting (not for me, personally), but i still I suggest using subtitles, if you are going to watch it, so you won't be spending most of the film trying to decipher what they are saying instead of seeing what's in the frame.

Similar to Hereditary, it had an intense finale, but I felt the ending was a little unsatisfying. The film does really well to build up to the final 20 minutes, but after that, it kind of does fall flat and feels too predictable. It's a personal opinion, it is a lot similar to the feeling I had after I finished Hereditary, maybe I need to watch it multiple times, maybe my expectations were too big after seeing Hereditary.

People will have a problem with this film, because of it's slow pacing and how they claim it's "boring". Honestly, personally I did not find a moment of this film boring. Yes it's slow, but it's effective. It's similar to The Shining, or Rosemary's Baby in that regard. That is why I love Hereditary and The VVitch, not only are they original and innovative, they are effective at scaring an audience without the frequent overuse of jump-scares. If you are the kind of person who thinks this isn't a horror film, then be my guest and praise The Nun while your at it. I 100% rather watch films like Hereditary and The VVitch then watch cheesy cliched garbage like The Nun and the usual horror films that come out every other week.

In conclusion, it's actually a good film, and it's effective, but definitely people will find it slow and will expect to much from it, so it's really going to be a mixed bag amongst audiences. To really enjoy the film, I recommend not researching too much on the film, and not expecting too much from it either, it's not your usual Paranormal Activity or The Conjuring. Hereditary and The VVitch surprised me with it's fresh take on effective horror, and I am definitely excited for future A24 horror projects. A good film, if you don't expect too much out of it.

My rating: 7.5/10

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