Hey, everyone! It's Marianna, and today 
I'm going to be talking about "The Witch".
This was in my top 10 most anticipated 
films of 2016, and you guys know I like
a good horror film, and this one
was definitely a good one.
"The Witch" is written and directed by
Robert Eggers, and it's about a Puritan
family in the 1630s. After being
forced to leave a New England
plantation, these people have to start a
new life on a remote farm, and when their
youngest child is kidnapped by a witch
they are set on a self-destructive path.
There is a reason this film is described
as "a New England folktale" - it's very
rooted in folklore, and it is very much a
period piece with horror elements in it
rather than being a straight up horror
film. You know how many of those cliché
jump scares are in this film? Zero.
Instead, it relies on building up the suspense,
and inserting disturbing imagery, and
it's very effective at making the
viewers feel uncomfortable about what
they're watching. The acting in "The Witch"
is very good as well.
Anya Taylor-Joy as Thomasin (the oldest
daughter in the family) is definitely the
standout performance here, and I think
we're going to see a lot more of her in
the upcoming years.
But also Ralph Ineson and Kate Dickie (you may
remember them from "Game of Thrones")
are great as the parents, and all of the kids
kind of bring it to this film - the acting
overall is very solid. Something else
that I enjoyed about this film is that
there is an interesting theme that has
to do with faith throughout the whole
thing. This family is very religious, and
they are very focused on their faith in
God. But ironically, they don't have much
faith in each other, and this lack of
faith in each other
grows throughout the film gradually, and
starts tearing them apart. And of course,
I loved the way all of the folklore was
incorporated. This film made me want
to learn more and do some research about
the folklore, and this is always a good
sign when a film makes you want to
learn more about the subject. And by the
way, if you guys have seen this film and
you have some recommendations of books,
or documentaries, or other films that you
think I might like based on this -
I would love to know
what you have to recommend. I only have
two small issues with "The Witch". The first
one is that the dialect can be a little
bit difficult to understand sometimes
because the dialogue was based on the
texts from that time period, and also
because of accents. And then the second
issue is that the pacing can be pretty
moderate at some places, and it's definitely
deliberately done that way...
But this is how it goes:
the beginning of the film is great, then
there's about 20 minutes of this really
moderately paced kind of development
that is just showing the life of these
people and what's happening to them.
Then afterwards it starts picking back up, and
then the last 20 minutes are amazing - I
loved the last 20 minutes of the film.
Overall, "The Witch" comes together really
well - it's a very atmospheric film, and it
definitely pulls you into that time period.
The score is very fitting - it is
eerie when it needs to be, and there's a
lot of dissonance in it as well.
You have beautiful cinematography, and
the color palette is very fitting with the
tone because it's a very grey and earth-toned.
And then of course, the folklore
and the religious aspect, and Black
Phillip... it's something I can't really
talk about because of the spoilers, but
if you've seen it you know that Black Phillip
is brilliant in this film. As you can tell,
I really enjoyed "The Witch", and
I am going to be giving out 4.5 out of 5 stars.
It is NOT your typical cliché horror
film, it is so much more than that. It is
layered, it has interesting themes, the
performances are great. And I think even
if you're not the biggest fan of horror
as a genre, I think you should still give
it a chance because it's definitely
primarily a period piece with horror
elements in it, so if that sounds like
something that could be interesting -
I would definitely check it out. That's it
for my review of "The Whitch". Let me know
if you guys have seen this movie already,
and what did you think of it - I would
love to talk to you about it in the
comments below.
Thank you so much for watching, as always,
and if you enjoyed this video please
don't forget to give the thumbs-up, and
subscribe to my channel if you haven't
already. I hope you're having an awesome day,
and I will see you soon in my next video!
Bye!
