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"The Witch"
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U.S. Dramatic
"The Witch" is a well-crafted horror drama that's disturbing in all the ways a scary movie should be. A Puritan family in 1630 New England is cast out of their village because the father (Ralph Ineson) stubbornly refuses to submit to the town leaders. As the family resettles at the edge of a dark forest, eldest daughter Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy) feels something sinister nearby — something that steals her baby brother while in her care. Fear, recrimination, and charges of witchcraft are tossed around, mostly from the stern mother (Kate Dickie) toward Thomasin. Writer-director Robert Eggers draws on New England folktales, and writes authentic colonial-era English, to create an alien setting to keep the viewer off-balance. What's really impressive is Eggers' ability to craft a whole new iconography of chilling and eerie horror images.
- Sean P. Means
"The Witch" is screening in the U.S. Dramatic competition of the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. It screens again: Wednesday, 5:30 p.m., Library Center Theatre, Park City; Thursday, 11:30 p.m., Prospector Square Theatre, Park City; Friday, 9 p.m., Tower Theatre, Salt Lake City; Saturday, 2:30 p.m., Library Center Theatre, Park City.