I posed in my 2015 Sundance review of The Witch, “What do 1630, a silver cup, Christian fervor and a goat named Black Phillip have in common?” You’ll soon find out. Directed by Robert Eggers, who won last year’s Sundance prize for Best Director, The Witch tells the story of a New England settling family who’ve up and moved to the thick of the woods. There evil dwells. We absolutely loved the film out of Sundance and have been pining for a chance to revisit Egger’s dark tale of witchcraft and woe. Fortunately, The Witch has moved up a week, so it will see the light of day even earlier than anticipated. It’s now to be released on February 19th.
Have a look at this new trailer that showcases one of the film’s best characters, Black Phillip. Though it is somewhat revealing of some of the bigger turns of the film, it showcases both the Olde English accents and the overwhelming sense of dread that populate the film. And Black Phillip. Though it’ll be hard enough to temper your expectations with all the hyperbole surrounding this genre-savior in-the-making, take note that what makes The Witch work as well as it does is its cautious, deliberate, foreboding pace. So a trailer with all the fixin’s stuffed in doesn’t quite do the audience any favors because it’s not really representative of the film at yet. Not that this complaint isn’t one shared with pretty much any trailer cut nowadays. Still yet, we do quite enjoy this cut of The Witch so let’s get right to it.
The Witch is written and directed by Robert Eggers and stars Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie, Harvey Scrimshaw, Ellie Grainger and Lucas Dawson. It hits theaters February 19th.
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By: Matt Oakes
Started blogging about film in college when the university paper wouldn’t have him. Dislikes your consensus film Twitter favorites. Devotee of horror movies that make him die a little inside. Catches films at festivals when he can. Proud SFCS and OFCS member and Tomatometer-approved critic. Editor-in-chief of Silver Screen Riot.
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