The VVitch / The Witch (2015) | a Review
originally published on 16/07/2022;
Hello everyone, I am the divine G.E.M.Simov, a cursed creature spoken of in hushed tones, followed by rapid prayers. I’m here to talk about a movie that bothers me. Is it called “The Witch”, with a “W”, or is it called “The VVitch”, with a double “V”? Either way, that’s what I’m talking about.
Simple review details - I rank games on an out of 10 basis, granting up to 3 points in 3 categories, as well as a last, single point from my own self, depending on my experience with it.
A disclaimer - the terms 'movie' and 'film' will be used interchangeably in this review.
Presentation
Straight off the bat, this movie does something interesting. Very interesting, I might say, and point at certain things, but instead I will simply speak at large. This movie lingers. There are some shots that seem very, very long, and I like that.
Let me explain.
In film, we are now used to seeing cuts. Many, many cuts. Perhaps far too many cuts. In any case, there is no single shot that remains for a long amount of time. If there is one such shot, it is equally as likely for it to have been an accident as it is likely for it to have been intentional. These lingering, longer shots bear with themselves a measure of slowness. The transience of the shots that are, by now, normal for cinema is associated with speed.
They pass by quickly, and their only relevance is that of continuing the thread left by the previous shot, which only has relevance because of its relation to the plot. The shot, in and of itself, is not important - the important thing is the conjunction of all the shots together. Right? Well, that may be so - and I do not deny the importance of the whole - but there is value in the shot, itself.
The VVitch goes about things slowly. Even if things seem to be happening quickly, they still take place slowly. Even if there’s urgency, the shots appear to be calm and collected, accompanied by a deliverance that aims to amplify whatever it is that finds itself on the screen.
In the case of the VVitch, that, which finds itself on the screen, is less important than that which might be off the screen. After all, this is a horror film - at least that’s what I reckon it is - and due to the fact that it is meant to be horrible, it takes aim at the audience, rather than the characters.
Everything is very subtle, but subtle in the sense that there is no follow-up to things, even if the audience might have become trained to get a moment of tension before sudden shock. That makes the expectations of the viewer work against them. One’s behind puckers up whenever things start getting ominous and uneasy, whenever a shot lingers, or whenever said shot finds itself being strange, whenever the music indicates that something is building up…
But there is never any great explosion of ‘horror’, there is no jump-scare, even if the situations that appear to present themselves seem to be very appropriate for a jump-scare, no jump-scare is forced upon the audience.
The one moment that seemed to be prone to be a jump-scare was definitely executed quite well. Slowly, the camera moves closer towards its focus, but the movements are faint and frightful. There is very little light, and the characters are shuddering in terror, gasping for air, observing the camera’s target with wide eyes. The string is so close to being torn, yet it does not.
And then there was no jump-scare. I suppose other viewers, who had dipped themselves deeper into the dread that this movie seems to convey, might have found that particular scene to be a jump-scare, but I was left pleasantly surprised. I almost could not believe the fact that there was no loud pang accompanying the turning of the head. There was, simply, a feeling of terror, preceeding and following, for the appearance of the camera’s target was unsettling.
Truly, this movie manages to grasp terror and present it engagingly. The audience is on edge, unsettled continuously, because there is no knowledge of what follows. Could it be that the family will tear itself apart, or will an external force be the killing blow? Or could there be a mix of those?
I like the way the movie was shot, simply put. The use of practical effects was also quite a welcome sight, especially considering the fact that things were well done, too. The only issue I had was the fact that, at the very end, the appearance of the actions was quite wonky. I could tell there were cables holding folks up.
One other little bit of confusion that washed over me came up in the beginning of the movie, and then it left me. There was a scene that featured the family riding its wagon on its way out of the town, followed by a shot of the forest. Nothing - at least nothing according to what I saw - appeared to be out of the ordinary. The sky was that of the day, the forest was green and friendly, and there were no figures trudging at the edge of my vision. Yet the music was putting in some obscene amounts of work, as if trying to convince the viewer that YES, there is some great evil, some boundless tension on display, you just need to know it’s there!
That was a very weird moment. Sure, on the one hand, you could argue the Witch’s presence in the forest is enough of a factor for tension to be built up, but the audience doesn’t know. It’s just a forest.
Other than that, the music was not very remarkable. I mean, it is a horror movie soundtrack, a recent horror movie soundtrack, so it sounded quite samey with a large number of what I had previously heard. That is to say that there was a great sense of indifference that washed over me as I heard the music. At one point, however, I thought to myself that the ‘song’ playing was intriguing, though I suppose that’s as far as it got.
Still, that’s no reason for me to rag on the movie. Actually, maybe it is, but what I meant to say is that it’s no reason for me to lessen the grade I’m about to present it with. 3/3
Acting
It wasn’t bad is one thing that comes to mind. The second thing that comes to mind is that it could’ve been better. One other thing is that some of it was pretty good, but… Well, there’s this weirdness to it all. Again - not an actór, not versed in these arts, and also I’m socially inept or something like that (I don’t know, am I?) as a result of which I can’t really tell if a person’s performance of a scene is displaying what ought to be displayed.
In any case, some moments in this were not very pleasant for me to observe. Child actors, perhaps, or maybe crying, weeping and bawling one’s eyes out without the presence of tears… That makes things a bit harder. Overall, the acting was satisfactory, maybe a bit better than that, but not outstanding. 2/3
Story
Finally, we get to the most impressive aspect of this movie. The story.
Throughout the entirety of this movie, everything is a mystery. It’s all a great question mark, left as a result of the splattering of blood, on the cover, and that’s very nice.
A Christian family leaves town and settles somewhere in the wilderness. The mother and father have another child, and it’s all quite quaint, though the way everything is shot and presented leaves the audience with this sense of unease. Something is not right.
The newborn is left in the care of the eldest daughter, and while doing the ‘peek-a-boo’ maneuver, having her eyes covered, the daughter has the baby taken from her. It happens instantly, so quickly that there’s no sign left.
This creates tension in the family. The mother spends the entirety of her days in prayer, for the baby had not yet been christened, which means it’ll wind up down in Hell (weird, but okay, Christianity). She hopes that her prayers may absolve the child’s soul, I suppose, but there’s no need to truly understand why she’s doing what she’s doing. It’s enough to know that she’s a mother who has lost her newborn child.
In addition to that, though, other problems start plaguing the family. Their harvest is horribly bad - barely anything’s actually worth something. Why is that, though? The audience doesn’t know… But we have suspicions. The baby was taken by what? Well, what’s the movie’s name? That’s right… It’s probably the witch. The family, however, doesn’t know. And, then again, we, too, are not too certain. It is the witch, right? But maybe it isn’t the witch, and things are just not going all that well.
Then stuff starts happening. Things that ought to work don’t work. Animals behave strangely, they stop obeying their owners - everything is going haywire, but slowly, in a seemingly controlled manner. The performance of the actor playing the father is very impressive, because I think he manages to really lay down this stability, this forced calmness.
He’s doing the things the father in a family supposedly does - keeping them fed, keeping them safe, providing guidance. But things slowly start slipping out of even that seemingly controlled state of decay. When the father is not present, the other family members bicker. The tension only rises, for more and more questions are presented.
The twins say that the eldest daughter is a witch, and that she is responsible. The mother is under the impression that the eldest daughter is somewhat guilty, but there’s no faith in the witch accusation. The brother is going through puberty, as is conveyed by the way the camera moves and from what it focuses on, which explains why he is on her side, claiming that it was a wolf. The father also claims it was a wolf, for dissent in the family is bad.
But, well, things keep escalating, while the amount of unease grows. Due to the fact that things are mostly seen through the point of view of the eldest daughter, the audience doesn’t really find the claims that she is the witch believable. What also fails to help is the fact that the twins do a lot of stuff, and say a lot of stuff, that makes them suspicious.
Then there’s a bit of fault on the father’s side, for, as it turns out, he’s a bit of a sneaky bugger. He, himself, can’t be the witch, but perhaps he has something to do with her? The mother doesn’t seem to be suspicious, in regards to her being connected to the witch at all, but she’s got other issues that contribute to the stew of uncertainty that’s stewing.
It is getting spoilery, but I’ll try to keep it minimal.
I really like the way we get some callbacks. The lie that’s almost good natured, the things said in association with it, and then the delivery that comes up in the form of regurgitation, coupled with a bit of blood. The possession, or rather bewitchment, was simultaneously incredibly interesting, but also very silly. Very silly were the things said by the bewitched, very interesting was everything else.
The resulting effect of the bewitchment was also fantastic, bringing us the ‘jump scare’ scene, but there’s the funky part of it - the audience knows, all along, that there’s a witch, and that it’s distant from the family.
After all, the bewitchment is performed in the woods, where the witch dwells and does her magics. We get to see it, we get to see the hare and the funky stuff that happens when the hare shows up, we, as the audience, know there’s an external force.
But the longer the movie goes on, the more conspicuous and messy does it get. At one point, even though I KNEW the witch was not from the family, I was really starting to think that maybe the witch was from the family. Then that gets resolved, when we get to the big nightly event, but then it gets brought back up!
HIM showing up at the very end, being who he is, appearing with the ‘crown upon his head’, the buildup being so and so… It’s fantastic. It left me wondering if things were, actually, such, or if they were different.
I feel the need to bring a bit of attention to the way the magic gets done by the witch. We don’t see any spell weaving, any wands or funky stuff. The most impressive spell that is cast would be the one that makes her appear beautiful, but then you can easily figure that, maybe, that’s easily explicable, perhaps through the application of herbs and some affectation of the mental state of the character, things can be made different.
The appearance of blood where blood isn’t meant to be, or the appearance of other things where they are not meant to be, is also a very sneaky touch. The destructive power of the witch is not directly shown to us, only the aftermath, which makes it even more frightening. I think this movie does that - the fear of the unknown and the unknowable - very well portrayed.
Overall, the story was really good. I quite liked it. 3/3
Legendary Point
Does this film get the legendary point, so craved and wanted by all and none at the same time? Well, I think it would not have not gotten it, but the way Ralph Ineson’s voice sounds is just astounding. YES, the movie gets the legendary point. 1/1
Conclusion
9/10. A surprisingly good horror film, mainly due to the fact that it makes use of mystery - which is something horror movies need to do, but most recent ones don’t - and doesn’t rely on jump-scares, but rather focuses on dread. I’d recommend it to any horror fan out there, as well as any fan of more historically themed things, or stuff relating to witches and magic. It’s a good watch, definitely.
I tuck it under my belt, another shining achievement that I proudly display. If only there were more like it…