The Witch is the latest thing in horror films, with so much hype that you’d expect it to be amazing. Unfortunately, the film ends up being a more middle of the road film that feels like it’s a lot more style over substance. The film takes place in the happy days of the pilgrims and is shoot with heavy shades of grays that beguiles the natural setting the film takes place in. The Witch does indeed have a number of scares throughout, but more often than not the film nose-dived into these extended maudlin segments that derail from the core of the film. Just when something interesting/tense begins to happen the film breaks and deflates everything that has happened and throws another monologue at us.
At the end of the day The Witch just didn’t feel like much of a horror film, especially when all the tension the film tries to build gets negated with so many wide and sweeping shots of the landscapes, or needless scenes of dialogue that feels like padding. The Witch so thoroughly over-promised and under-delivered. We wanted more information on this witch that was out there stalking around instead of just talking about it for so long. The Witch is just a lot of pieces to a puzzle that never really ends up becoming a whole complete image. The film could have used some additional time in post, especially with edits and cuts, as it feels longer than it really needs to be. It’s a case of serious issues in the editing room and nobody wanting to cut any scenes that were just padding. The Witch needed to be a lot tighter than it was.
These long scenes in turn leaves so much negative space in-between major segments that the film becomes more a chore to watch, instead of being an enjoyable horror film -of horror film at all. The witch character would have really benefited from being more fleshed out, instead of being so non-specific without telling any sort of complete story about it. The Witch is any interesting concept, but the creators choose the most obtuse way of telling the film. The Witch just doesn’t have enough witch and would have benefited from being a short film instead of a full-length feature film. A lot of parts that don’t ever really come together in a satisfying way.
For a detailed review that dives much deeper in the film, as well as talking about better films about witches, check out “The Witch” segment of our horror podcast ‘I Scream You Scream’ below:
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