|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
108.81.116.219
Not so much a horror movie as a Creep Fest. This naturally lighted film is very dark and gray with unsettling imagery with almost every swivel of the camera.
It's 1630 and the walled community of settlers don't agree with William's brand of preaching the Bible. The town council decides to banish William and Katherine with all their children from the safety of their walls to the wilderness outside.
They decide, after considerable travel, that they have found their place on the edge of a great wood. They settle, build, plant crops, and find time to make a few more kids. Then, things start to change. Subtly, at first, then horribly as the movie progresses. A witch in the wood starts to effect their lives first with the disappearance of their infant child.
The beauty of this film, if you can call it that, is the authenticity of costume, settings, housing, language, and thought. I had a few problems understanding some of the dialog and the circle of witches were speaking an Enochian language. This is where the "creep" factor comes in. The witch is creepy, the wood is creepy, their livestock goes creepy, and their teen-aged daughter (Any Joy-Taylor) goes creepy at the end. Horror is not the word I would use to describe this film. Good, sustained creepiness substitutes nicely for me.
Would I recommend this? Not sure. This film is far above the Blair Witch school of "horror" but won't give you nightmares. If a person likes a bit of a scare then see it otherwise wait for cable.
As an aside, this film show's the total immersion into religion Puritans practiced. It was amazing they could get anything done for all the reverence and praying. That was really creepy in itself.
3 outta 5.
Follow Ups:
...it seems slow but it is very well done and there are scenes that will resonate with you and haunt you afterwards .
The two messages I came away with are that religion is evil and that all girls become witches when they reach puberty.
Highly recommended.
I thought they were such idiots it diminished the effectiveness of the story.
Also, fwiw, the name The Witch implies (to me at least) that we see more than 5 minutes of the witch so I was let down by that.
Otherwise it was creepy and all the cliches were well done (despite my few quibbles)
SPOILER
it is unamerican to let the witches win!
Something of a letdown.
-Wendell
Interesting. I really like creepy atmosphere. I haven't seen decent creepy since the Asian wave of the 90s-2000s. Most horror falls flat with me.
Jack
You mean like The Audition? The Ring?
Yea, Ringu, Ju-on and a slew of others. None had much of a plot, but had lots of atmosphere.
Jack
Post a Followup:
FAQ |
Post a Message! |
Forgot Password? |
|
||||||||||||||
|
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors: