The witch is a throwback to the classic horror movies of the 1970’s where atmosphere, tension and a sense of impending doom are the factors that get under your skin. It may be sold as a New England folktale but this is one which has a very dark and disturbing theme and first time director Robert Eggers has put together one of the more chilling movies of recent years.

Colonial settler William (Ralph Ineson) is not pleased with his village elders religious beliefs and he is of the opinion that they are not correctly following the world of God so he and his family are banished from their village and need to start a home for themselves on nearby land beside a forest. At first things are going okay, it’s tough but they are getting by, although the cracks are already beginning to appear when their baby disappears while in the care of their eldest daughter Tomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy), they believe it was taken by a wolf into the nearby forest.

This is the catalyst for things to really take a turn for the worse as Williams wife Katherine (Kate Dickie) becomes inconsolable and spends most of her time in bed crying, leaving the running of the household to Tomasin who is becoming more and more resentful of the addition burden and chores which are being pushed her way. While her twin siblings are constantly goading her with taunts that the black goat on the farm, Black Phillip, that they seem to have an eerie bond with keeps telling them that she is a witch and it was she who took their baby brother.

William and his eldest son Caleb (Harvey Scrimshaw), try to distance themselves from the growing drama on the farm by burying themselves in chores and take to the forest, laying traps to try and catch both the wolf and any other game as the crops on the farm are failing and food is becoming sparse. All the while the atmosphere on the farm is building into an impeding crescendo of doom, it’s just a matter of seeing who will snap first. All the while William and his family try to stay true in their faith that God will put things right once they believe, pray and stay free from sin.

Eggers has stated that The Shining was inspirational to him and the similarities between the demise of William in this movie and Jack Torrance in The Shining are in plain view. Without giving too much away it is with eventual reluctance that William and his family have no choice but to accept that something unnatural is occurring on the farm and the movie then shifts to a plethora of finger pointing, deceit and lies as the families original pious nature is torn apart by self preservation.

The authenticity feel of the dialogue and the bleak setting all add to the atmosphere of the movie. It’s a slow burner but with the use of some jarring music and lots of foreboding it’s far more of a psychological horror than most of the modern movies of it’s genre and this is what elevates it above the rest. Couple that with the fact that it’s also a peek into the human psyche, how faith can be blind, how decision making gets warped under undue pressure and how the family unit, no matter how close it may seem on the outside can be ripped apart by traumatic circumstances.

DJ Speaks Rating: 7.5 Out Of 10