The Witch is a 2015 film directed by Roger Eggers and starring Ana-Taylor Joy. This film follows a Puritan family who is troubled by a witch during the 17th century. It tried to be as realistic as possible, and this is both the movie’s greatest strength, and weakness.

The Witch follows Thomasin, a young girl in an isolated Puritan family living in 1630s Massachusetts. After her brother disappears while she is supposed to be watching him, she becomes blamed for a string of bad luck that happens to the family. Her mother and father believe she’s a witch, when in reality, there’s a real witch that is cursing the family.

This movie’s most unique aspect is the historical element. Characters speak realistic 17th century dialogue, constantly saying thee instead of you, and using religious declarations literally every other sentence. The setting of New England is also very bleak and desolate, and tied with the fact that the audience never sees anyone other than the main family, it makes the whole movie feel very lonely and cut off. This movie also has some extremely disturbing scenes, even by horror movie standards. If that’s something you’re into, then this movie if for you.

Ironically, the Witch’s greatest asset is also it’s greatest weakness. The historical aspects and setting is very interesting, however it gets old after a while. This movie is very scary, but the actual horror elements are sorely lacking throughout most of the film. There’s really only three scenes that are really scary. The rest of the film is just bad Puritan parents yelling at their daughter for things she didn’t do, and it simply gets boring after a while.

The Witch, although good, really could’ve used more horror elements. The historical setting is good, but it’s not enough to carry the entire film. Despite that, although I wouldn’t recommend it over a lot of other horror films, if you really wanted to see this film it’s available online.