Seth Lamey
Independent film studio A24 has grown quite the reputation for taking chances on promising up-and-coming filmmakers, platforming their work and giving them the chance to show the film community their talents behind the camera. Ari Aster got his chance with his horror/drama Hereditary. Greta Gerwig made her solo directing debut with the quirky drama Lady Bird. A24 even nabbed a Best Picture with Barry Jenkins’ sterling Moonlight. Before these, A24 took the chance on a new emerging director in the mid-2010s with a background in theater/stage production, about to show the world a style of his own. In January 2015 Robert Eggers debuted his first feature film, the folk-horror fable The Witch at Sundance, impressing A24 and the studio would release it domestically in February 2016. Eggers would soon enter the conversation with other new auteur filmmakers on the independent film scene, demanding attention and acclaim.
The Witch was written by Eggers as somewhat of a passion project. Growing up in New Hampshire and in the New England area, folk tales and stories about witchcraft always peaked his interest and would work as the perfect spiritual and mythological backdrop of his feature debut. Trained as a stage and theatre director, his work with actors and sets would transfer quite nicely to that of film making. Authenticity would be vital for Eggers and The Witch in all aspects of film production. He wrote the script in the style of early modern English, true to the time of 1630s New England. He would market the film with a double VV as W after witnessing it on a piece of parchment pertaining to the actual witch trials. Although shot in Ontario, Canada production used a distinct outdoor landscape near a forrest and build a replica small homestead of meticulous design. Eggers and cinematographer Jarrin Blaschke shot only using natural light from the sun, moon, and candles to replicate the look of their films setting. Film composer Mark Korven crafted an unsettling use of atypical instruments with a waterphone and nyckelharpa to create a slow-build tension within the films narrative. Korven would go on to work with Eggers on future films, crafting a unique musical score to each film’s realistic needs.
The story in The Witch simple but effective, thanks to its filmmaker’s devotion to verisimilitude in its world building. A Puritan family of five is exiled from a community in Plymouth, MA after arrival from England for religious difference and forced to farm near a dark forrest. Incidents of witchcraft and dark magic via Satan slowly tear the family apart through their own questions of faith, morality, and deception. The Witch could be said to be Thomasin’s story, and emerging talent Anya Taylor-Joy plays the teenage girl with maturity and the right sense of character desperation. Her father William (Ralph Ineson), mother Katherine (Katie Dickie), brother Caleb (Harvey Crimshaw), and twin siblings Jonas and Mercy (Lucas Dawson/Ellie Granger) all battle their own challenges of faith as evil forces befall their family, and all question Thomasin’s role. Interweaving all the interpersonal melodrama of a family in a crisis of faith is interjections of evil witches in the forrest tormenting the family, as well as Satan in the form of the family goat “Black Phillip” tempting Thomasin with liberty and sin.
While other films have been set in the 17th century depicting either the trials and tribulations of new settlers or the horrors they would endure, few modern films have been as devoted to authenticity like The Witch. Eggers took great care to get the details all right within the films production, immersing the audience into a story where characters feel a slow, suffocating dread infect their family. Man vs. Spirituality (both God and Satan) and Man vs. Nature both play key themes in the films crisis. When baby Samuel disappears early in the film, a snatching wolf is to blame. Animals appear to be conspiring against William and his family, with a watchful hare taunting its would be hunters and Black Phillip conspiring to murder him in the films climax. The forrest contains a dark energy embodied by witches, who snatch the children and allure Thomasin towards a life of sin and temptation. Scenes showing a witch use newborn baby blood as a flying ointment backlit by the moon and luring young Caleb into the clutches of a disguised witch as young temptress increase the level of tension on the narrative conflict.
Isolation is a major theme, starting first with the family’s exile from the established colony. The physical and emotional demand of solo family homesteading is a given, with poor crops and hunting availability threatening their survival. Connected with said hardship is the spiritual challenge the family is forced to overcome when their children are picked off one-by-one and blame and fears turns inwards. Eggers would flesh out this theme in his further work. The Lighthouse pits two lighthouse workers against each other during the mundane work of manning a lighthouse in seclusion and mans struggle with power and identity. The Northman centers an exiled Viking who attempts to avenge the death of his father and rescue his mother from his treacherous uncle. Nosferatu examines the physical manifestation of a woman’s internal sin and desire in the form of an undead vampire. Not coincidentally, all of his feature work thus far is based on non-contemporary folktales and mythology. Some semblance of spirituality of good/evil forces play a part in all of his films to date, and with non-contemporary settings they give each film a symbolic and thematic keystone.
Like most auteur filmmakers, Eggers has established a look and feel to his films through collaborative efforts with his cast and crew. Actors he has worked with multiple times include Anya Taylor-Joy and Ralph Ineson from The Witch, as well as Willem Dafoe. Cinematographer Jarin Blaschke has helped shoot most of the first four Eggers films (besides The Northman). Their devotion to symmetrical compositions as well as natural lighting and non-typical aspect ratios (1.66:1 and 1.19:1) give their films a unique visual styling among their modern peers. Kubrick-like close-ups and editing techniques from his go-to editor Louise Ford combine to give his films a unique tension between storytelling and film making technique. Eggers, like most careful and methodical film makers, moves his frame at will. Appearances by the witches in this film usually heighten the already dramatic tension, and slow dolly into a character and reveal either a witch basking in babies blood, attacking a farm goat, are seducing young Caleb are met with precise framing and compositions. Eggers saves the best for last, when a nude Thomasin enters the woods and joins the witch coven for levitation around a roaring fire. Close-ups of Thomasin mix with wide shots of the witches ascending into the sky, culminating with an evil laugh by the new witch and fade to black.
Between the M.Night Shymalan thriller Split and her stellar performance in The Witch as Thomasin, Anya Taylor-Joy would be recognized as an emerging new star in Hollywood. She has since worked with Eggers again in The Northman, starred in a hit Netflix mini-series The Queen’s Gambit, and worked with blockbuster auteur film makers George Miller in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and Denis Villeneuve in Dune: Part Two. Ralph Ineson and Katie Dickie both portrayed smaller roles in Game of Thrones, building on their stage production resumes and taking character actor type roles in their careers. In his impending films after The Witch, Eggers would work with many top talents in the industry. Robert Pattinson, Willem Dafoe, Alexander and Bill Skarsgaard, Ethan Hawke, Nicole Kidman, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Nicholas Houldt, and Lily-Rose Depp would all jump at a chance to work with Eggers, who demands a certain level of professionalism and commitment to delve deep into his unique tales.
The Witch was received well both critically and commercially. The film’s small budget of $4 million returned $40 million at the box office, marking it a great success for Eggers in his debut and A24 upon distribution. Critics gave it a 91% approval rating with a 7.8/10 average. Many saw it as one of the best horror films of the decade and a showcase of talent from new writer/director Robert Eggers. He would work with A24 again for his second feature The Lighthouse, before growing his production value and budgets with Focus Features and his next films The Northman and Nosferatu. With four films under his belt, each film as grown and highlighted his unique visions of folktale and mythological storytelling down to authentic details and already mastery of his craft. His next feature Werwulf continues his fascination with non-contemporary folktales and creatures of the night. It also has numerous cast and crew members he has already collaborated with. The Witch started his film making career as an auteur, as with each passing film he cultivates his vision and establishes himself as an exciting and unique filmmaker in independent cinema.
