News

Despite the mixed reviews that Nosferatu has received from critics and audiences, there’s no denying the fact that it’s further cemented Rober Eggers’ reputation as a director who fully comprehends visual storytelling. It was a full decade ago when audiences were first made aware of Eggers’ ability to tap into visual presentation and atmospheric tone following the release of The Witch. Taking place in New England in the 1600s, a time period rife with religious piety where the concepts of god, the devil, and paranoia of those who made a pact with the latter of these two deities permeate every aspect of human life. The Witch tapped into folklore and a fear of the unknown that exists at the forefront of the human experience.

The Witch thrives on a combination of folklore and atmosphere not seen since Amando de Ossorio's Blind Dead films. Eggers’ narrative utilizes cinematic...

The goal of horror movies has always been the same: to entertain their audiences by scaring them. Fans of the genre love sitting back with a bowl of popcorn and letting these movies do what they do best. They may not be for everyone, but horror movies, especially the ones considered masterpieces, are among the most effective ways to get some satisfying chills whenever the mood strikes. However, as the genre has evolved over time, one fact has become increasingly clear: there is more than one way to scare people.

While shocking jump scares and gross amounts of gore may both be highly effective at scaring viewers, they can just as easily deter a large portion of their audience. Many film lovers enjoy the thrills of a good horror movie, but don't find pleasure in these particular elements whatsoever. Fortunately, many popular horror subgrenes implement a different device to scare their audiences: suspense.

Robert Eggersis a horror master who has proven his ability to masterfully weave a terrifying scene time and time again. First making his A24 horror movie debut with 2015's The Witch, the visionary director quickly earned a deserved reputation as one of the premiere modern voices in the genre. Following up his folk horror masterpiece with the Lovecraftian thrill ride The Lighthouse and the Viking age revenge flick The Northman, Eggers has continued to churn out some truly unsettling sequences.

Compared to most horror directors, Robert Eggers' best movies are able to do a lot with very little. Without showing all too much directly horrifying imagery, Eggers is able to stir up screams through his brilliant direction alone, using breathtaking performances and chilling cinematography to convey an unmistakable sense of dread and fear. Hopefully, Eggers' upcoming Nosferatu remake can continue to fill out his filmography with terrifying moments.

Sam Goes...

The highly anticipated third film in Ti West‘s X trilogy, MaXXXine is finally here, and the fans of the franchise are loving it. With a setting of the 80s when the real-life Night Stalker murders took place, the final film in the X trilogy follows the story of Maxine Minx as she finally gets her big break into the film industry, but when a mysterious serial killer begins to kill the starlets of Hollywood, Maxine’s future in the City of Angels comes into danger. MaXXXine stars Mia Goth in the lead role with Elizabeth Debicki, Halsey, Lily Collins, Sophie Thatcher, Moses Sumney, Kevin Bacon, Michelle Monaghan, Giancarlo Esposito, Chloe Farnworth, and Bobby Cannavale starring in supporting roles. So, if you loved the glitz, glamour, murder, and mystery in MaXXXine, here are some similar movies you could watch next.

Pearl (Prime Video) Credit – A24

Pearl is the second film...

The Devil's Bath combines historical period drama with folk-horror elements for a haunting psychological study. The film leverages its setting to create an atmosphere of looming tragedy over traditional scares. Fans of A24's best horror movies like The Witch and Midsommar will be enticed by The Devil's Bath.

After premiering at the 2024 Berlin International Film Festival, writer-directors Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala's The Devil's Bath secured an exclusive US streaming release on Shudder. Unlike many of 2024's other horror films I'm excited about the big-budget A Quiet Place: Day One or Ti West's trilogy-capping MaXXXine The Devil's Bath is a historical period drama that suggests a folk-horror bent. Starring Anja Plaschg, the Austrian artist behind the experimental musical project Soap&Skin, the film centers on an 18th-century Austrian woman named Agnes, who marries Wolf (David Scheid), a man she truly loves.

However, the couple's would-be marital bliss takes...

Quick Links The Witch Is the Performance of Ralph Inesons Career Ralph Ineson Can Capture Galactuss Authority and Malevolence The Best Possible Galactus Actor Ralph Ineson's experience playing menacing villains in past roles makes him a surprisingly perfect fit for the Marvel villain Galactus. Ineson's nuanced portrayal of the tragic villain William in The Witch demonstrates his ability to capture both authority and malevolence. The unlikely choice of Ineson for Galactus could potentially be the breakout role that propels him into the mainstream spotlight.

At long last, after several years of speculation, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has finally found its Galactus. This week confirmed that next years Fantastic Four will see the feared Devourer of Worlds make his debut, played by Ralph Ineson, best known as Chris Finch in the BBC version of The Office, Dagmer Clefjaw in Game of Thrones, and the titular character in The Green Knight. While...

Sydney Sweeney‘s second film of 2024 is finally here, let’s hope that it doesn’t turn into a disaster like the first one. Produced by Sweeney herself, Immaculate is a psychological horror film and it follows the story of a young nun who joins a convent in the Italian countryside. Her quiet life quickly turns into a nightmare because of the horrific secrets hidden in the convent. Directed by Michael Mohan, Immaculate also stars Simona Tabasco, Benedetta Porcaroli, and Álvaro Morte. So, if you loved Sweeney’s horror film here are some similar movies you should check out next.

The Convent

Co-written and directed by Paul Hyett, the 2018 film British horror film titled The Convent gives a similar atmosphere to Sweeney’s Immaculate. The Convent tells us the story of a group of young women seeking refuge from the turmoil of World War II in an isolated convent in the countryside.

Slow-burn horror movies require a delicate balance between revealing too much too early and keeping the audience waiting too long. Some of the best horror movies are slow-burn affairs that gradually build up tension and deliver stellar endings. The endings of slow-burn horror movies often provide shocking revelations that elevate the overall storytelling and leave a lasting impact.

While a lot of slow-burn horror movies receive rave reviews, only the sub-genre’s strongest efforts build up to a revelation that is worth the wait. Slow-burn horror is a tricky genre to pull off. If a horror movie foregrounds its supernatural elements too early, it will lose any ambiguity and no longer feel like a subtle story. Conversely, if a slow-burn horror movie keeps putting off its big reveal for too long, viewers will inevitably get their hopes too high, and the eventual revelation won't be worth the wait. This means...

It’s that time year again—when one might, upon their daily neighborhood perambulation, casually stumble upon a man dressed in a blood-splattered full-body jumpsuit and think to themself, this is perfectly fine and normal. But that’s the Halloween season for you, when the ghosts and goblins and AMC-obsessed Nicole Kidmans are out in full force for their yearly Halloween rituals.

Aside from meticulously inserting razor blades into the apples we all intend to hand out to local children, everyone’s favorite part of the Halloween season is—of course—the excuse to binge-watch our favorite horror movies, from the silly-scary (Hocus Pocus), to the fun-scary (Trick R Treat), to the scary-scary (The Evil Dead) or the really scary-scary (any news channel). In fact, horror movies have long been an integral part of the indie film ecosystem—turning minuscule budgets into huge box office numbers and launching the...

In the movie "The Witch," the quote "Wouldst thou like to live deliciously" is the Devil's offer to Thomasin to join a witch's coven in exchange for simple pleasures like butter and pretty dresses. While these pleasures may seem simple to the audience, they would have been impactful luxuries for Thomasin in the 17th century New England setting. Director Robert Eggers based this quote on real-life cases of people accused of witchcraft who were tempted by similar simple desires, showing the historical context and significance behind the Devil's offer.

What does The Witch quote “Wouldst thou like to live deliciously” mean? Director Robert Eggers wowed horror audiences and critics alike when his first feature film The Witch was released in 2015. Set in early 17th century New England, the folk horror follows a family of English settlers ousted from their Puritan colony over a religious dispute who take up residence on...

Robert Eggers‘ 2015 feature directorial debut The Witch (watch it Here) was a major breakthrough for the film’s star Anya Taylor-Joy, who has been hugely in demand ever since and just recently finished working on George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road prequel Furiosa, where she plays the title character. Speaking with Harper’s Bazaar, Taylor-Joy revealed she had a difficult decision to make when she signed on for The Witch, as she had also been offered a role in a Disney Channel pilot at the same time. She chose the low budget horror movie over the Disney Channel show… and it proved to be the right choice.

Thinking back on getting the offer to star in The Witch, Taylor-Joy said, “I remember it was the same day I got asked to be in a Disney Channel pilot, and it was so exciting to be offered anything at all that...

Anya Taylor-Joy reveals why she rejected a potential role in a Disney Channel pilot to star as the lead character in Robert Eggers' hit 2015 horror movie, The Witch. Eggers' directorial debut saw Taylor-Joy star alongside Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie, Harvey Scrimshaw, Ellie Grainger, and Lucas Dawson in the A24-distributed film. The Witch centered on Taylor-Joy's Thomasin, the eldest daughter of a puritanical family who settle in 1630s New England and falls victim to the titular force, suffering a number of surreal and disturbing occurrences that gradually claim the lives of the family members.

In an interview with Harper's Bazaar, Taylor-Joy reveals that on the same day that she was cast in her breakout role of Thomasin in The Witch, she had also been offered a role in a pilot episode for an undisclosed Disney Channel series. While she was excited about both opportunities, the star states that she chose...

Folk horror has undergone a revival of sorts in the past few years, with more narratives turning to unsettling folk mythos and traditions to create tense, layered storylines. We fear what we do not understand, and this innate human sentiment acts as fuel for compelling horror stories about temptation, sin, and paranoia. Robert Eggers has cemented himself as a master storyteller with his black-and-white isolation horror, "The Lighthouse," but it's his directorial debut, "The Witch," that still manages to shock with its beautiful, horrifying ending.

Eggers' "The Witch: A New England Folktale," stylized as "The VVitch," relies purely on atmospheric tension and human folly to etch a terrifying tale about a doomed Puritanical family in the woods. Set in 1630s New England, the film follows family patriarch William (Ralph Ineson) and his wife Katherine (Kate Dickie) who, along with their kids, are excommunicated from their village and forced to fend for themselves in the woods.

Robert Eggers' 2015 film "The Witch" is about a family of Puritans who are too puritanical for the Puritans. The stern father (Ralph Ineson), the stern mother (Katie Dickie), and their five stern children are kicked out of their colony and forced to move into a cabin near the edge of the woods, miles away. The area is cold, wet, and muddy, and eerie things are afoot. Their pet goat, Black Phillip (Charlie), begins behaving strangely. One day, when the Taylor-Joy character is playing peek-a-boo with her infant brother, the baby vanishes, seemingly into...

The post Modern Tech Couldn't Capture Robert Eggers' Vision For The Witch appeared first on /Film.

“False Positive,” which hit Hulu on Friday, sees Ilana Glazer terrorized by a sinister pregnancy and an even more sinister fertility doctor (Pierce Brosnan). The “Rosemary’s Baby” vibes have us reminiscing on not just that classic film but on all of the villainous children of horror history.

Let’s countdown film’s best cases for birth control, Aka the creepiest kids of cinema.

A24 10. Charlie, “Hereditary” (2018)

While young Charlie is ultimately a victim in Ari Aster’s instant-classic debut feature, “Hereditary,” she sure does make an eerie impression. Actress Milly Shapiro, in her first film role, imbues the troubled teen trope with a sense of otherworldly dread, rendering the character’s thousand-yard stares and periodic tongue-clicking genuinely creepy instead of comical. Although she is absent for the film’s off-the-walls final act, Charlie’s untimely demise remains one of the most shocking movie moments of recent memory.

Warner Bros 9. Rhoda,...

Each year one of our awards traditions is to help fellow Bfca members choose more wisely when it comes to the "Young Performer" category by sharing an eligibility list. The lazy nominations each year prove that help is needed. Here's the thing: it can be difficult to even think of who is eligible when you're filling out a ballot because you don't get a list of choices and it's not a category people campaign for or one that the internet talks about. So we solve that problem right here. Our other belief, which is why we do this, is that if you actually pay attention there are enough worthy performances each year to divvy this category up into male and female as the other acting categories are divvied up. But, yes, you have to be paying attention beyond 5 or 6 movies and leading roles to notice the truly special work. 

Ballots...

Ryan Lambie Jul 21, 2016

As horror drama The Witch arrives on disc, Ryan looks at the modern themes beneath its period setting...

Nb: The following contains spoilers for The Witch

When Robert Eggers’ debut movie The Witch screened at Sundance last year, the critical response was rapturous. When wider audiences saw it on its wider cinematic release, the reaction was far more ambivalent. It isn’t difficult to see why; like Gareth Edwards’ breakthrough movie Monsters from 2010. which was a road trip drama with kaiju as its backdrop, so The Witch is a period drama delicately laced with a crimson thread of terror.

In pacing and atmosphere, The Witch is closer to an arthouse film than a mainstream horror, where the jolts and scares are precision-milled to leave viewers throwing boxes of popcorn around their local multiplexes. Eggers’ film is generously steeped in history and years of research; its characters speak a molasses-thick northern British dialect,...

Robert Eggers‘ directorial debut followed a 17th-century Puritan family through a nightmare of Grimm proportions. Hailed by many critics as a new modern classic (read our review ), the film has already garnered close examination by essayist and scholars. Before Eggers’ foray into television with a mini-series following Rasputin and a feature remake of Nosferatu, delve into a video essay exploring the themes of The Witch.

Created by Renegade Cut, the essay covers many topics related to religion embedded in The Witch in its ten-minute runtime. Particularly of interest is its study of the inherent contradictions within a fundamentalist approach to religion, one which the father William learns the hard way. This, the essay states, leads to inescapable sin of which the family is all guilty of.

Also of note are parallels discovered between Adam and Eve and the familial exile that opens the film, as well as a particular use of an apple. Another wonderful parallel is drawn that explores William’s masculine pride (a sin, after all) and a stack of wood, created by his own hand, that leads to his downfall. It also briefly touches upon the themes of feminism and empowerment that director Eggers himself have said rose to the top despite his efforts to remain objective with the material.

See the video below but be careful, he summarizes and spoils the entire film within the first two minutes, so stay away, ye sinners who have not yet sinned. One can also see another video essay here and our discussion below.

Additionally, watch Eggers’ 2014 short film Brother, featuring The Witch’s own Harvey Scrimshaw (Caleb), courtesy of Le Cinema Club, available to stream until June 18th.

This is not your garden-variety horror picture -- its scares stem from primal guilt and fear of supernatural demons and devils that we can't entirely dismiss because people still believe in them enough to do terrible things. Robert Eggers' first film is the best-reviewed horror picture of its year, and quite an achievement. The VVitch: A New-England Folktale Blu-ray + Digital HD Lionsgate/ A24 2015 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 92 min. / Street Date May 17, 2016 / 24.99 Starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie, Harvey Scrimshaw, Ellie Grainger, Lucas Dawson, Bathsheba Garnett, Sarah Stephens. Cinematography Jarin Blaschke Film Editor Louise Ford Original Music Mark Korven Produced by Daniel Bekerman, Lars Knudsen, Jodi Redmond, Rodrigo Teixeira, Jay Van Hoy Written and Directed by Robert Eggers

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

I don't find most modern horror pictures scary. The ones that scare usually do so with ideas, reaching beyond our defenses to find and exploit a personal weakness.

'Wouldst thou like to live deliciously... again?' The possessions. The raven. The twins. And Black Philip! Like a nightmare you just can't shake, The Witch is back in theaters nationwide, this weekend only! That's right, starting Friday, April 1st, you can relive all the terror with this year's scariest movie! "A film so f*cked up, Satan would see it twice," comes back into theaters nationwide for a limited time. Once more, experience the unnerving terror of Robert Eggers' instant horror classic.&#160To celebrate this eerie occasion, a new trailer has been unleashed from the depths of hell.&#160

New England, 1630. Upon threat of banishment by the church, an English farmer leaves his colonial plantation, relocating his wife and five children to a remote plot of land on the edge of an ominous forest - within which lurks an unknown evil. Strange and unsettling things begin to happen almost immediately - animals turn malevolent,...

If you missed out on seeing The Witch in theaters but wanted to experience the evil in the woods on the big screen, then you’re in luck, as A24 revealed a new trailer announcing a theatrical re-release of Robert Eggers’ acclaimed horror film this Friday:

Press Release: Wouldst thou like to live deliciously… again? You’ll have your chance this Friday, April 1 when A24’s The Witch, “a film so f*cked up, Satan would see it twice,” comes back into theaters nationwide for a limited time. Once more, experience the unnerving terror of Robert Eggers’ instant horror classic.

To celebrate this eerie occasion, a new trailer has been unleashed from the depths of hell.

Written and directed by Robert Eggers, The Witch stars Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie, Harvey Scrimshaw, Ellie Grainger, and Lucas Dawson.

Synopsis: In this exquisitely made and terrifying new horror film, the age-old concepts of witchcraft,...

With no new major movies going into wide release this weekend, A24 is using the opportunity to bring one of their biggest hit films ever back to the big screen. Yep, "The Witch" is returning, so get ready, because Black Phillip is fucking back. Starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie, Harvey Scrimshaw, Ellie Grainger, and Lucas Dawson, the film about a colonial-era family living in exile who are beset by terrifying happenings was both a critical smash and box office hit. In February, "The Witch" scored the biggest wide release opening ever for A24 with $8.8 million, and has since tallied up $24 million, putting it a shade behind the $25.4 million haul of "Ex Machina" for the studio's all time record. Here's the official synopsis:  In this exquisitely made and terrifying new horror film, the age-old concepts of witchcraft, black magic and possession are innovatively brought together to tell the intimate...

Director/writer: Robert Eggers. Cast: Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie and Harvey Scrimshaw. The Witch is a small, indie film from first time director Robert Eggers. The film has been screened at Sundance, in 2015. And, the film is currently receiving a wide release in North America. Set in New England, in the 1600s, The Witch focuses on a Puritan family and a supernatural denizen, which inhabits the nearby woods. Minimalist in nature, the film's conflict is reduced to accusations; the actual witch is mostly off-screen. Also, the Devil makes an appearance, but all of his sinful seductions are saved for a single scene. Characters are powerless to resist and their lack reduces any real tension. While entertaining and dark, The Witch reduces any possibility of real terror, by keeping the major players in the distant background. A family of seven is cast out from their local, religious community. Once out in the wilderness,...

I will never love The Witch but I absolutely respect it. It’s a horror movie without jump scares, without the score leading you to every moment; instead it’s a slow build and a more psychological form of terror. It feels earned, and that goes a long way in a landscape bogged down by a wave of films going for the cheapest scares available. I’m never going to be the kind of person who genuinely loves horror movies, I just don’t like being scared that much in these ways, but I appreciate the craft here and hope (likely in vain) that this is a step towards a better path.

In the end credits the makers of The Witch claim that the film was compiled from contemporary reports, diaries, and official records and that the majority of the dialogue is from those real sources. While that’s a...

Even before any form of narrative kicks in, The Witch wastes no time establishing a mood that’s toxic for the faint of heart. Unsettling close-ups, a banishment of undetermined nature, and a disgraced Puritan family make for the forest under the frightening stillness of a looming long shot. Matters are made worse by the wailing choruses that undercut each of the film’s opening images, drizzling dread over the viewer as if in preparation for a ritualistic embalming. “We will conquer this wilderness!” says patriarch William (Ralph Ineson), in the midst of incessant wood chopping. But, neither he, his wife (Kate Dickie), nor his four children are prepared for what these New England woods have in store.

Things manifest pretty quickly. The script does away with any preconceived notions of when a scary movie is “supposed” to become truly scary, instead opting for infant atrocities nearly ten minutes into a ninety-minute runtime.

Stars: Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie, Harvey Scrimshaw, Ellie Grainger, Lucas Dawson, Bathsheba Garnett, Sarah Stephens, Julian Richings, Wahab Chaudhry | Written and Directed by Robert Eggers

“Dost thou remember that I love thee?”

The Witch is a searing emotional calamity of a film. Its scope is at once frighteningly vast and achingly intimate, its themes of societal violence and perversion borne out in miniature through the collapse of a desperate Calvinist family struggling to survive their self-imposed exile on the American frontier. While religious hysteria drives the sense of inevitable doom and insecurity on which the film trades, it feeds in turn on a surprising source. Love, the genuine love that exists between members of a close-knit family, and a sense of flawed but deep-seated goodness in the film’s driving personality, give The Witch its particular heartbreaking strength. Horror thrives on violations of the status quo, and this...

David Crow Oct 31, 2019

Just in time for Halloween, we re-examine The Witch ending, and how it is a macabre triumph in storytelling and theme.

This article contains The Witch spoilers.

The Witch is one of those special kind of moviegoing horror experiences. Rather than relying on jump scares, copious amounts of gore, or the kind of cheap thrills that mirror being at an amusement park, director Robert Eggers in his stunning debut picked up unsuspecting audiences and transported them to 1630s New England. As deliberately paced as the modest lives of its Calvinist protagonists, The Witch takes its delicious time stirring the cauldron and, ever so slowly, increasing the demonic heat until only in the last moments do you realize how monstrous things are about to turn.

While the film may not ultimately be for everyone, it is an undeniably unique cinematic experience that feels authentically archaic in its superstitions,...

The horror genre has seen a variety of evil beings throughout its illustrious history. The living dead, vengeful spirits, stalking slashers, and giant monsters have all had their day to scare onscreen. But there is one monster that consistently holds a place in nightmares: the witch.

More than a few people were creeped out as kids by The Wizard of Oz’s cackling green wicked witch and the decrepit, cloaked witch offering an apple in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. While the mythology behind witches has become restrained by kid-friendly renditions seen in the Harry Potter franchise, the reality is that the historical nature of the witch is far more dark and malicious. The Witch is an impressive directorial debut from Robert Eggers, who transforms folklore into a mature examination of fear on numerous levels, fashioning one of the most stunning and unsettling horror films of the last decade.

A24 dropped their new horror/thriller movie, "The Witch," into theaters today, February 19th, 2016 and all the major, top critics have revealed what their opinions are, and it turns out that their opinions are extremely positive when it comes to this flick, giving it an overall 84 score out of a possible 100 score across 37 reviews at the Metacritic.com site. The film features: Anya Taylor-Joy, Harvey Scrimshaw, Julian Richings, Kate Dickie and Ralph Ineson. We've posted comments from a couple of the critics, below. Bill Zwecker over at the Chicago Sun-Times, gave it an 88 grade. He stated: "This is a very promising first feature by Eggers and showcases some exceptional acting." Robert Abele over at the Los Angeles Times, gave it an 80 grade, stating: "In a way, the movie is a tug of war between the fruits of exhaustive research into old-world madness — which plays out most prominently in the richly...

Chicago – We perpetuate our fears through many sources. All mythology, religion and politics are based on what is “unknown” in our lives, and the desire to placate what frightens us is how we invent and worship those entities. This is all explored in the new film, “The Witch.”

Rating: 4.5/5.0

There is horror in this story, a mix of natural and supernatural elements that plague a family of British Puritan settlers in the 17th century, in the New World of America. But the horror is also based in doubt, when the land and nature conspires against survival. This doubt morphs to darkness, and that lack of light is not healed through the extreme Christian faith of the family. “What is in the woods?” “Why is my body changing, and why is that accompanied with feelings previously not known?” “Where is our God?” It must be a supernatural power, it must be a witch.

A stunning feature film debut from writer/director Robert Eggers, The Witch feels like absolutely nothing else right now in the horror genre, which is only one of its many strengths. Taut, ripened with tension from start to finish, and anchored by a star-making performance from Anya Taylor-Joy, The Witch is a nightmarish exploration of female suppression and familial strife in pre-Colonial America that will have you thinking twice about ever having kids (or perhaps even goats).

At the start of The Witch, we are introduced to a devout family who has been ostracized by the small colony they reside in and must now move outside the safety of its confines. We watch as stalwart patriarch William (Ralph Ineson) and his wife, Katherine (Kate Dickie), pack up their kids to make a new life on the cusp of a sprawling forest. Their eldest daughter, Thomasin (Taylor-Joy), is left to care...

[Editor’S Note: Since The Witch is opening up this weekend, we are reposting Mike Hassler’s review from Fantastic Fest 2015.]

The Witch is not what you’re expecting, this I can guarantee. Robert Eggers’ debut feature is most certainly not a horror film, though the themes are dark as coal. As the title card states this is a “New England Folk Tale” which is set sometime in the 1600s. William (Ralph Ineson) and his family are exiled from their community and forced to move to a secluded ranch near the forest. His five children range in age from 16 down, the oldest of which being Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy). While watching the infant, a game of peek-a-boo ends abruptly when the child disappears. A hunt for food draws William and his oldest son Caleb (Harvey Scrimshaw) into an area of the woods which is not to be ventured into, wherein lives at least one of the titular witches. A series of events leads the family to believe Thomasin is herself a witch...

When the title of a film basically tells you what to expect, it’s sometimes hard to be surprised or shocked by the content of a film. This is both an advantage and disadvantage in The Witch. Yes, there’s a witch(es) but how they function in the story is different than what you might expect. The Witch is less interested in showcasing occult rituals and cackling hags – though a few scenes brilliantly showcase this. It’s more interested in using the fear of a witch to illustrate paranoia and mistrust within a family. Robert Eggers strives for more than just straight-up horror in his directorial debut. Therein lies a minor problem for genre fans. Yes, as the title states, there is a witch(es). You just might be surprised that The Witch isn’t necessarily a terrifying tale of she-devils on the prowl. Then again… that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Back in December, part of the marketing campaign around the Tina Fey-Amy Poehler comedy Sisters involved the hashtag #YouCanSeeBoth, which reminded audiences that despite opening opposite the biggest movie of the year (ahem, Star Wars: The Force Awakens), there was still enough time for moviegoers to check out Sisters during its theatrical run. Ignoring the fact that seeing two films in theaters within the span of a single week (or even a single month) is not the financial reality for a sizable portion of the moviegoing audience, it was a winning slogan that seems to have worked: Sisters turned in a solid performance at the box-office, taking in a very good $86 million domestically on a budget of $35 million despite opening opposite J.J. Abrams' four-quadrant behemoth. This weekend I would like to co-opt the #YouCanSeeBoth hashtag for another title: writer/director Robert Eggers' fantastic, dread-steeped horror film The Witch,...

Better the Devil You Know: Eggers’ Debut Marinates with Menace

Easily the most profoundly unnerving film to play at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, the directorial debut of Robert Eggers is a historical horror film set in 1630 New England, predating the infamous Salem Witch Trials, one of this young country’s earliest grotesque evil chapters. But unlike, say, the dramatic sensation of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, Eggers’ makes The Witch an odd mixture of fanatical religious paranoia and actual supernatural horror, which creates a fascinating, successful hybrid. Much has been made of the film’s close attention to period detail, enriching the climate as the film slowly tightens into a constricted trap, but impressive performances and just the right touch of the otherworldly make this infectiously effective.

Opening with a close-up of Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy) in her Sunday best, we find her father William (Ralph Ineson) facing some sort of...

While the studio system has more or less given up on truly attempting to put out thought provoking horror films, the independent circuit has really picked up the slack over the past handful of years. As many of you know, I raved often last year about It Follows, with many being huge fans of The Babadook the year before that. This year, we’re getting a top tier title early, as Robert Eggers’ movie The Witch is coming to theaters this week. Truly a horse of a different color, this is likely to do very well, finding a potential sweet spot between period character study and overt fright flick. Ever since it debuted at the Sundance Film Festival, it’s been building a solid core of strong reviews and fandom, so don’t expect this one to disappear quickly. The film is a period piece set in 1600’s New England,...

In the 17th century, a Puritan family lives alone on the edge of a New England wilderness. Soon after their infant son disappears, their daughter is suspected of witchcraft, and the family begins to break down in the face of an unknown evil. The new horror movie stars Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie, Harvey Scrimshaw, Ellie Grainger, and Lucas Dawson. “The Witch” hits theaters everywhere on February 19.

The post The Witch Gets A New Featurette appeared first on Shockya.com.

A potential possession is teased in the latest clip from The Witch, while writer/director Robert Eggers talks about his film being like "a nightmare from the past" in a new featurette.

Written and directed by Robert Eggers, The Witch stars Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie, Harvey Scrimshaw, Ellie Grainger, and Lucas Dawson. The film will be released in theaters on February 19th from A24.

"In this exquisitely made and terrifying new horror film, the age-old concepts of witchcraft, black magic and possession are innovatively brought together to tell the intimate and riveting story of one family’s frightful unraveling in the New England wilderness circa 1630.

New England, 1630. Upon threat of banishment by the church, an English farmer leaves his colonial plantation, relocating his wife and five children to a remote plot of land on the edge of an ominous forest — within which lurks an unknown evil. Strange and...

Children chase a goat as an uneasy feeling intensifies in the latest brief clip for The Witch.

Written and directed by Robert Eggers, The Witch stars Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie, Harvey Scrimshaw, Ellie Grainger, and Lucas Dawson. The film will be released in theaters on February 19th from A24.

"In this exquisitely made and terrifying new horror film, the age-old concepts of witchcraft, black magic and possession are innovatively brought together to tell the intimate and riveting story of one family’s frightful unraveling in the New England wilderness circa 1630.

New England, 1630. Upon threat of banishment by the church, an English farmer leaves his colonial plantation, relocating his wife and five children to a remote plot of land on the edge of an ominous forest — within which lurks an unknown evil. Strange and unsettling things begin to happen almost immediately — animals turn malevolent, crops fail, and one child...

In just two weeks, Alamo Drafthouses nationwide will host screenings of A24's The Witch. More details on that story after the jump. Also in this round-up: a trailer for Night Terrors, Angelica release details, a new clip from The Final Project, and four images from The Terrible Two.

The Witch: Press Release: "Austin, TX - Feb 3, 2016 - The Alamo Drafthouse is excited to announce A24's chilling new horror film The Witch as the latest Drafthouse Recommends title. The film will open at Alamo Drafthouse locations nationwide with "sneak preview" screenings on the night of Feb. 18th, 2016. In the lead up to that opening date, select Alamo locations will also host free retrospective screenings of witchcraft horror classics to get audiences in the, er, spirit and to set the stage for director Robert Eggers' debut feature and groundbreaking new take on the genre.

And, for a limited time this month,...

A year after it terrified audiences at the Sundance Film Festival, and spent the following twelve months building up serious on the festival circuit, Robert Eggers' "The Witch" comes to theaters this month. And we've got a wicked treat to share with everyone looking forward to the movie — the film's spooky soundtrack by Mark Korven. Read More: Sundance Review: The Exquisite Holy Terror Of 'The Witch' Will Chill Your Bones & Haunt Your Soul Starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie, Harvey Scrimshaw, Ellie Grainger, and Lucas Dawson, the film is set in 17th century America, and follows a family banished to live in exile outside a community in New England. And soon, they face an unnamable terror, in a series of events that begins to tear apart the family, and make them fear for their very soul. It's chilling stuff, made all the more potent by Korven's work.

Evil takes many forms. A24 has conjured up the third and seemingly final trailer for Rogert Eggers’ minimalist horror film The Witch, building upon the relentless atmosphere of previous trailers and on this occasion, playing peek-a-boo with our nerves.

Ditching a lavish budget and the CG-laden scares it entails, the director’s much-anticipated genre piece is rooted in the New England wilderness of the 1600s where, after being cast out from the church, a rural farmer sets about building a new life on a plot of land for him and his family. But what he doesn’t realize is that his newfound home is situated on hallowed ground, evoking the wraith of an ancient, malevolent spirit.

Much like the teasers that have come before, today’s snippet is an excellent vertical slice of the thriller, opening with shots of calm and serenity before gradually culminating in deeply disturbing horror. Favoring a less-is-more approach,...

Don't take your eyes off the new trailer for The Witch! We have the chilling and disturbing third trailer for writer/director Robert Eggers' masterful exercise in terror, in theaters nationwide on February 19.&#160Also, you can visit the newly launched "Face of Evil" site and design your own Evil Takes Many Forms poster at &#160EvilTakesManyForms.com.

New England, 1630. Upon threat of banishment by the church, an English farmer leaves his colonial plantation, relocating his wife and five children to a remote plot of land on the edge of an ominous forest - within which lurks an unknown evil. Strange and unsettling things begin to happen almost immediately - animals turn malevolent, crops fail, and one child disappears as another becomes seemingly possessed by an evil spirit. With suspicion and paranoia mounting, family members accuse teenage daughter Thomasin of witchcraft, charges she adamantly denies.

As circumstances grow more treacherous, each family member's faith,...

An innocent game of peek-a-boo takes an unsettling turn in the latest trailer for The Witch.

Written and directed by Robert Eggers, The Witch stars Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie, Harvey Scrimshaw, Ellie Grainger, and Lucas Dawson. The film will be released in theaters on February 19th from A24.

"In this exquisitely made and terrifying new horror film, the age-old concepts of witchcraft, black magic and possession are innovatively brought together to tell the intimate and riveting story of one family’s frightful unraveling in the New England wilderness circa 1630.

New England, 1630. Upon threat of banishment by the church, an English farmer leaves his colonial plantation, relocating his wife and five children to a remote plot of land on the edge of an ominous forest — within which lurks an unknown evil. Strange and unsettling things begin to happen almost immediately — animals turn malevolent, crops fail, and one child disappears...

In the 17th century, a Puritan family lives alone on the edge of a New England wilderness. Soon after their infant son disappears, their daughter is suspected of witchcraft, and the family begins to break down in the face of an unknown evil. The new horror movie stars Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie, Harvey Scrimshaw, Ellie Grainger, and Lucas Dawson. “The Witch” hits theaters everywhere on February 19.

The post The Witch Gets A New Movie Trailer appeared first on Shockya.com.

A24 has released a third trailer for writer/director Robert Eggers’ feature debut The Witch starring Kate Dickie, Julian Richings, Ralph Ineson, anya taylor-joy, Harvey Scrimshaw, Lucas Dawson, and Elie Grainger. You can also check out our review of the film Here.

In this exquisitely made and terrifying new horror film, the age-old concepts of witchcraft, black magic and possession are innovatively brought together to tell the intimate and riveting story of one family's frightful unraveling in the New England wilderness circa 1630. New England, 1630. Upon threat of banishment by the church, an English farmer leaves his colonial plantation, relocating his wife and five children to a remote plot of land on the edge of an ominous forest - within which lurks an unknown evil.

Strange and unsettling things begin to happen almost immediately - animals turn malevolent, crops fail, and one child disappears as another becomes seemingly possessed by an evil spirit.

While we’re just about done wrapping up this year’s Sundance Film Festival, this month we’ll get one of the best from last’s year festival. Set for a nationwide release in February, Robert Eggers’ directorial debut The Witch is an unforgettable feat of spiritual horror and today we have a new trailer which shows off a colonial game of terrifying peek-a-boo.

The story follows a God-fearing Puritan family banished from their settlement in a colonial New England, only to have their deep sense of faith uprooted when our title character has her way with their fate. I said in my review that the film’s “a delightfully insane bit of 17th century devilish fun…as if Ingmar Bergman and Ken Russell co-directed Kill List.” Starring Anya Taylor Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie, Harvey Scrimshaw, Ellie Grainger, and Lucas Dawson, check out the new trailer and poster below.

There's "old school," and then there's Robert Eggers' "The Witch." The distinct horror film uses 17th century colonial America for its setting, and conjures up a scare film unlike any other. And a new trailer is here to play peek-a-boo with you. Read More: Sundance Review: The Exquisite Holy Terror Of 'The Witch' Will Chill Your Bones & Haunt Your Soul Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie, Harvey Scrimshaw, Ellie Grainger, and Lucas Dawson star in the film that follows a family banished to live in exile outside a community in New England, who are soon plagued by a series of terrifying events. It's an eerie tale, told in old tyme tongue, that offers plenty of eye-opening moments. Here's the official synopsis: In this exquisitely made and terrifying new horror film, the age-old concepts of witchcraft, black magic and possession are innovatively brought together to tell the intimate...

A lantern lights the way to an eerie sight on a rainy night in the first clip from The Witch.

Written and directed by Robert Eggers, The Witch stars Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie, Harvey Scrimshaw, Ellie Grainger, and Lucas Dawson. The film will be released in theaters on February 19th from A24.

"In this exquisitely made and terrifying new horror film, the age-old concepts of witchcraft, black magic and possession are innovatively brought together to tell the intimate and riveting story of one family’s frightful unraveling in the New England wilderness circa 1630.

New England, 1630. Upon threat of banishment by the church, an English farmer leaves his colonial plantation, relocating his wife and five children to a remote plot of land on the edge of an ominous forest — within which lurks an unknown evil. Strange and unsettling things begin to happen almost immediately — animals turn malevolent, crops fail,...

In the 17th century, a Puritan family lives alone on the edge of a New England wilderness. Soon after their infant son disappears, their daughter is suspected of witchcraft, and the family begins to break down in the face of an unknown evil. The new horror movie stars Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie, Harvey Scrimshaw, Ellie Grainger, and Lucas Dawson. “The Witch” hits theaters everywhere on February 19.

The post The Witch Gets A New Trailer appeared first on Shockya.com.