New Homegirl; The VVitch

Finally got the chance to watch The Witch–or how I like to spell it, The VVitch. The acting in this is phenomenal; not just Anya Taylor-Joy but the whole family. Visually, the movie is stunning and the themes within the film can still be talked about today. YET, the story for this film very one note.

Spoilers

If you’ve seen this movie you already know Anya Taylor-Joy was great and is still going strong, so let’s talk about some other family members. Harvey Scrimshaw, the oldest son, takes it away for me. It’s tough for a child actor to portray depth of emotion when they haven’t lived a long life, but I was amazed during his monologue right before he dies. Everything before was alright, you can tell he put his all in that one scene. Kudos to him.

The father, Ralph Ineson, is amazing. For those who don’t know, he’s also a voice actor. If you played FFXVI recently, you might remember hearing him as Cid. If you’re only into movies, he was the voice of the Green Knight in, quite literally, The Green Knight. If you’re still unsure who he is, you will hear him soon as the voice of Galactus in the new Fantastic Four movie. His voice is so deep and memorable, definitely a voice that leaves an impact that lingers in the mind. Having him be a literal world eater…yeah I can believe it. He plays the father well, and he isn’t a one-note type of father. Yeah he believes in his religion whole heartedly, but he emphasizes his love for his family. Some could question this when he starts blaming his daughter for being a witch, but he’s willing to hear her out. His daughter tells him she isn’t the cause of the mayhem and he truly listens to her. Yes he’s upset in the scene, but after hearing her out, he goes inside the house and start to question the twins who the daughter believes are the real culprits of witchcraft. He leaves the sanctuary of town because of his religious beliefs and family, then the rest of the movie has him question his religious beliefs because of his family.

The mother, Kate Dickie, type casted. I, and probably most others, remember her from Game of Thrones as the mother who breastfeeds her son at an age that is…abnormal. Here, she is back to–breastfeeding her son. Luckily, it’s appropriately only the baby this time. She does the role well and for me, the most memorable was when they’re burying the oldest son and she goes inside the grave with him. Sons really were all the hype back then, so losing your youngest son to then lose the oldest soon after is heartbreaking. Losing any child hurts, but back then, the son was everything. Daughters were seen as helpers who would eventually leave to go to another family while the son would grow his own family, while also looking after the parents. Her descent into madness is justified and the blame towards her daughter is heartbreaking, but they just had no other explanation back then. Nowadays, if you blame your daughter for being a witch, you’re crazy. But back then? Yeah, that was believable.

The movie itself is a work of art. There are scenes that linger long enough to be mistaken for paintings of the time period. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were scenes from this movie that were recreations of artwork of the times. The themes in the movie hold up today. Religion, parental authority, and the way women are treated are all topics still relevant. You can’t say this is a bad movie in any way, but as time progresses, it’s hard for it to hold up as an exceptional movie. At the time, almost a decade ago, this was a phenomenal horror movie. This movie was needed for others such as Long Legs, could thrive.

Spoilers for Long Legs, but the overall bad guy in both films is Satan. They portray Satan differently, but they both have a presence that is real in the movie. They’re not just hinting at Satan, but Satan actually is a character that affects the plot. What works for me in Long Legs is that the paranormal is there from the start so when Satan ends up being a real threat, it’s not hard to fathom. For The VVItch, the movie plays out like any horror film dealing with people who believe in God. Satan is a threat, but are they real or just a looming presence that people believe in? At the end, Satan reveals themselves to the daughter and she literally becomes a witch. It threw me off, because I kind of liked believing that the family was descending into madness not because Satan was actually harming them, but they were just dealing with the actual hardships of the time and the witches were just a threat who believed in the dark arts.

Having Satan be the actual villain kills the vibe for me. From the start when the family moved to the middle of nowhere near the forest, they were going to lose. All the issues they had were out of their control because a powerful being was pulling the strings behind the scenes. As an overall movie, we needed it. Story wise, it pretty much is what it is. A movie about a Puritan family dealing with the devil.

Tis what tis.

Score - 6 out of 10