The Witch

The wilderness of 1630s New England proves a terrifying place for one Puritan family in this spellbinding horror that drips with dread. Ralph Ineson and Kate Dickie play the God-fearing settlers living on the edge of a forest with their five children, whose peaceful existence is ripped asunder when a child vanishes from under the nose of adolescent Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy). Unknown to the locals, a sorceress is lurking in the woods, but panic and grief soon shift to condemnation of Thomasin - and childish tittle-tattle about witches and curses only adds to the insidious paranoia that blights the family. Ineson, as the zealous but fallible father, shows there's more to his jib than doing TV voiceovers, while Taylor-Joy as the put-upon voice of reason is a talent to watch. First-time director Robert Eggers does a terrific job of adapting the folk tales and journals of the time to create an authentic-looking chiller seamed with oppressive atmosphere and impending doom, and sustained by Mark Korven's foreboding choral score. Indeed, the eponymous witch is barely seen; it is all-too-human superstition, suspicion and hysteria that undoes the godly as much as any evil enchantress.