The Witch

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2:31

The Witch

R

Released Feb 19, 2016

1h 32m

Horror

History

Drama

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Popcornmeter

91%

Tomatometer

337 Reviews

61%

Popcornmeter

25,000+ Ratings

In 1630 New England, panic and despair envelops a farmer, his wife and their children when youngest son Samuel suddenly vanishes. The family blames Thomasin, the oldest daughter who was watching the boy at the time of his disappearance. With suspicion and paranoia mounting, twin siblings Mercy and Jonas suspect Thomasin of witchcraft, testing the clan's faith, loyalty and love to one another.

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Critics Consensus

As thought-provoking as it is visually compelling, The Witch delivers a deeply unsettling exercise in slow-building horror that suggests great things for debuting writer-director Robert Eggers.

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Britt Ashley

Bitch Media

Like any good horror film, The Witch is rife with opportunity for allegorical interpretation, and one of the most compelling narratives bubbling beneath surface is the origin story of America itself.

Feb 10, 2021

Full Review

Steven D. Greydanus

Catholic Digest

The stakes are real. The Devil is real. All roads do not lead up the mountain. Some lead to the heart of darkness, to the depths of a witch-haunted wood.

Rated: A

Apr 28, 2017

Full Review

Nigel Andrews

Financial Times

The film starts with wordy wittering and ends by trying to woo our shrieks -- from Arthur Miller to Dennis Wheatley in the shortest time possible between two blunt points.

Rated: 2/5

Dec 27, 2016

Full Review

JD Duran

InSession Film

Elevated symbolically with Eggers’ commentary on how fanatical faith is impossible to live up to, and how that churns out something evil, despite its good intentions. All of that is delicately crystallized in the final moments of The Witch...

Aug 8, 2024

Full Review

Brendan Cassidy

InSession Film

The Witch has been aesthetically compared to that of The Shining and The Crucible, and it is easy to see why. But that fails to give enough credit where credit is due: Eggers has a unique direction style...

Rated: A-

Jun 17, 2024

Full Review

Eddie Harrison

film-authority.com

…finishes on a few memorable flourishes, even if it ends roughly where one might have hoped that it would start. Nevertheless, the slow burn is effective, and Eggers deserves credit for ploughing a fresh furrow in the annals of witchcraft film-making…

Rated: 3/5

Feb 10, 2024

Full Review

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Mz. Ghostly

A film terrifying in its visuals alone, the Witch will isolate the viewer in the darkest pits of the human spirit through the tragic loss of a colonial family's innocence.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

02/16/25

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Owen S

Super macabre, very well done, even my dad found it creepy. deserves higher on the popcornometer!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/31/25

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Chada C

The parents are Too intense

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/29/25

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Steve S

Great performances by the cast, but it lacked that touch of horror. I think it’s more suspenseful.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/27/25

Full Review

Audience Member

Don't trust the critics score on this one. This is a stage drama with underwhelming direction for a horror.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

01/25/25

Full Review

r96 s

'The Witch', Robert Eggers' feature directorial debut, is very good! I enjoyed all of these 90 minutes, I could've watched it go on for a little longer in truth. I really liked the atmosphere throughout, as well as the look of the film. The dialogue is particularly excellent, too. Everyone on the cast gives a terrific performance, shown perfectly by that final scene with them all together onscreen. Harvey Scrimshaw is super convincing in the aforementioned, I was almost questioning if they had got an adult actor and morphed him into Caleb, such was his high performance. Ellie Grainger and Lucas Dawson are class in that scene too, one of the most unsettling moments in this is as their characters convulse on the floor - that sorta thing with kids always creeps me out. I've gone too far into my review to not note Anya Taylor-Joy, who is quality from beginning to end. Ralph Ineson and Kate Dickie merit props as well. I mentioned in my recent review of (the good) 'Nosferatu' that I was unsure how this one was going to fare in my personal ranking of this director's work, given the stark contrast with my thoughts on 'The Lighthouse' (4/10) and 'The Northman' (9/10). In actuality, this falls a notch below the latter; not far off the same rating, fwiw. It'll be fascinating to see what Eggers conjures up next, as long as it is not another piece in the ilk of that from 2019 then I'll excited to check it out.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/16/25

Full Review

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Robert Eggers

Director

Anya Taylor-Joy

Thomasin

Ralph Ineson

William

Kate Dickie

Katherine

Harvey Scrimshaw

Caleb

Ellie Grainger

Mercy

The Witch: Official Clip - Black Magic Madness

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The Witch: Official Clip - Take Me to Thy Lap

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The Witch: Official Clip - The Apple

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The Witch: Official Clip - Black Phillip's Revenge

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The Witch: Official Clip - Peek-a-Boo

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The Witch: Official Clip - Witch's Lair

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The Witch: Official Clip - Witch of the Wood

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The Witch: Official Clip - Matricide

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The Witch: Official Clip - Black Phillip

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The Witch: Trailer 1

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Synopsis

In 1630 New England, panic and despair envelops a farmer, his wife and their children when youngest son Samuel suddenly vanishes. The family blames Thomasin, the oldest daughter who was watching the boy at the time of his disappearance. With suspicion and paranoia mounting, twin siblings Mercy and Jonas suspect Thomasin of witchcraft, testing the clan's faith, loyalty and love to one another.

Director: Robert Eggers
Producer: Jay Van Hoy, Lars Knudsen, Jodi Redmond, Daniel Bekerman, Rodrigo Teixeira
Screenwriter: Robert Eggers
Distributor: A24
Production Co: Parts and Labor
Rating: R (Graphic Nudity|Disturbing Violent Content)
Genre: Horror, History, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Feb 19, 2016, Wide
Rerelease Date (Theaters): Apr 1, 2016
Release Date (Streaming): May 17, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $25.1M
Runtime: 1h 32m

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