The Witch

This review may contain spoilers!

This is quite possibly the worst horror film I've ever seen. I would give The Witch a 1/10.

If there's one thing worth noting about this film it's that there is some good displays of an artistic style here and there, it felt like a really good student film made by someone who could break out as a director one day.

Kate Dickie, who played Katherine, portrayed an agonising feeling of grief really well; her slow descent into madness was done really well by Dickie. Ellie Grainger, who played Mercy, had a rather strong screen presence for a child actress; I felt like Grainger stood out really well in this film and delivered her lines excellently.

However the best performance came from Ralph Ineson, who played William. Ineson really crafted a character that felt of the time period, his thick accent and weary attitude made his performance feel very realistic. I like how Ineson showed the inner conflict of his character, he was visibly trying to hold himself and his family together throughout the entire film.

The plot for this film made very little sense; the revelation of the witch was ridiculous, the way events just seemed to happen without any explanation, and the way the film's plot would drag and accelerate at an unpredictable rate. The writer didn't seem to have any idea of what they were doing and the story felt like a first draft that had miraculously found it's way to screen. The cinematography was too simplistic at times, there were scenes where the choice of shots were downright bizarre. The editing was slow, when the cuts weren't too slow they were happening far too abruptly. The score for this film was stereotypical for a horror film, worse than that the were the scenes where horror music was playing without anything horrific taking place.

Anya Taylor-Joy, who played Thomasin, had the unfortunate job of playing a really poorly written character; this would have been role that seasoned actress would have struggled with so it's no wonder Thomasin is one of the worst roles in the film. Harvey Scrimshaw, who played Caleb, needs a masterclass on how to act desperately; the amount of cringeworthy scenes involving Scrimshaw are ridiculous. Lucas Dawson, who played Jonas, didn't really have a lot of screen presence in this film; most of the time he was overshadowed by the rest of the cast.