2016 October Horror Challenge #90: "The Witch"

Right after this movie came out, people were calling it the scariest movie they'd ever seen. I didn't expect it to be the scariest movie I'd ever seen, since I've seen so many horror movies, but I was looking forward to a good scare. Of course, it's now become cool to hate this movie, so everyone says it's terrible now, but I was still hopeful.

I avoided spoilers with this one, so I knew nothing about this movie going in except that it took place back in the time of pilgrims and that there was presumably a witch involved. It's about a family who are banished from their village due to a dispute over an interpretation of theNew Testament of the Bible, which causes the family to be labeled blasphemers, though the father insists that they are innocent. These are the kinds of things Christians fight about, folks. They leave and must build their own house and work to survive on their own through many hardships. Through a series of mysterious events, they come to believe that there is evil surrounding them, and that someone in their family has made a pact with Satan that cursed their family. I hate it when that happens.

 This movie is a slow burn if I've ever seen one, and it takes forever for anything really spook  to happen, though I did find their lives interesting, so I wasn't bored. The teenage daughter of the family, Thomasin,  is the most interesting character. She's the one who was all over the movie posters, so I expected her to feature more prominently in the movie, but like I said, the movie dinks around and takes a long time to get to the point. The religious ferver of the family, and their belief that damnation is constantly lurking around the corner waiting for them to slip up, is scarier than anything supernatural that happens, which I think is the point.

Supernatural things do eventually start happening, though, and it does get pretty tense after that. I feel bad for these people without modern conveniences or weapons, trying to fight back when they are attacked by evil.  I don't know about those people who thought this movie was so much more terrifying than anything else they've seen. I suppose the religious ferver bordering on insanity might scare some, but I've seen so much of that in real life that it just makes me depressed now. Like I said, the movie does get tense, and it's interesting for the most part, but it made me tired more than anything else, and the ending made me roll my eyes into the next century. I wish I'd liked it better. Sigh.