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Author
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Topic: The Witch (2016)
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Mark Ogden
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 943
From: Little Falls, N.J.
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 02-24-2016 10:06 AM
New England, 1630: a Puritan family trying to make their way in the New Hampshire wilderness is beset by an old witch who has designs on the children. At the AMC Garden State Plaza 16, Paramus, New Jersey.
*****
Oy, do these people have troubles. The corn crop is lousy, they are out of money, the animals act strangely, the son likes to stare at his older sister’s boobs, their activities are being monitored by an apparently indestructible bunny rabbit, and there is a old witch in the woods who has made off with the baby. So it goes in The Witch, a serious attempt to make a period accurate horror film based, it is said, on New England folklore. The picture has a sort of History Channel vibe around it, there are several historians listed in the credits and everything looks very well researched, the dialog is spoken in what passed for English in the 17th century (which can be beautiful to listen to but is occasionally quite impenetrable), and the 1:66 cinematography renders all of this in a dark, ominous, kind of creepy washed out look that fits the picture pretty well. It’s not very scary, though, and the blood and guts horror crowd will be disappointed at the picture’s restraint. It’s still pretty well done, the ensemble cast of largely unknowns are all very good players, especially the two five-year-olds who play rambunctious twins who seem to be in cahoots with the dark side. It’s not a spoiler to say that there really is a witch, but left to the end is who she is acting on behalf of. If it sounds interesting to you, you’ll probably enjoy it like I did.
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Connor Wilson
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 190
From: Sterling, VA, USA
Registered: Jan 2011
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posted 03-05-2016 09:19 PM
Alamo Drafthouse One Loudoun, Ashburn, VA
March 5th, 2:25pm show
Theater #1
Presented in Sony 4K, Linear PCM 5.1
The VVitch is quite an interesting slow burner. My mom and her housemate were vocally disappointed with it as they were expecting a "scary" movie. I set no expectations coming in to this without seeing a single frame beforehand, and what I found was an atmospheric cold thriller that relies on mental horror over emotional horror. The interactions between the family themselves was more chilling than the Devil with the family. It tries to unravel why witch-hunting became an embarrassing past time for Massachusetts, as this was based on New England folklore. Unlike modern period stories like Arthur Miller's The Crucible where the paranoia is blamed towards its society, it's kind of cool to see a contemporary medium portray the Devil and Witchcraft as a real threat that you only have to experience to understand, so it takes it to a psychological level. This concept of subjective reality and its disconnect with outsiders is really interesting to me. It's more of a disturbing movie than a suspenseful one, that's true, but that's helped by the technological aesthetic it compliments.
The 1.66:1 aspect ratio was unexpected, Alamo didn't mask the image to that uncanny shape, which is odd because they properly masked Jurassic World to its 2.00:1 ratio, something your Regal won't even bother with. This movie has a plethora of dark moments that take me out of the movie due to the weak black levels of xenon-based digital projectors. Even with the wonderful Sony 515 the blacks are still the brightest blacks I've seen. I believe I'm spoiled with my professional Mitsubishi CRT monitor that I've been recently playing Undertale on. Because of this, in spite of being digitally-shot, I think a 35mm print would suit The VVitch much better. Laser projection is too expensive now but I'll bet you the blacks will be blacker if the DI was recorded on 35mm with the width of the frame being used to its full potential. Yes, this calls for 1.66:1 aperture plates.
Loved the sound mix, too. Very dynamic and not superfluous. It couldn't have sounded any better for this film. At points it sounded like 7.1, even though there only is a 5.1 mix. Since Ex Machina, I hadn't been that impressed with a sound mix for an indie film before.
For now I give it a 7 out of 10.
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