One of the most haunting and original horror movies has landed on DVD and Blu-Ray after terrorizing audiences in theaters this past February. The Witch, which won the 2015 Sundance Film Festival Directing Award has come home to spook audiences in the comfort of their own abodes.
The film is from writer-director Robert Eggers and takes us back to early Puritan days in Massachusetts to tell the tale of a staunchly religious family who is ostracized from their village for being “too religious” and then suddenly amongst the silence of the forest, finds their own version of horror.
After a child disappears (as seen in The Witch trailer), the family patriarch (Ralph Ineson) suspects that a witch may be at work in the wilderness that surrounds his home. Once siblings start to point their accusatory fingers at their sister (Anna Taylor-Joy), things truly start to get witchy.
As you can tell by our theatrical The Witch review, this film is a stunner. For more on the film itself, check out our in-depth analysis of this stunner.
The Movie Mensch has always been fascinated by the early days of Puritans in Massachusetts and of course the Salem witch trials and the events that led up to them. So, for us, The Witch is right up our alley. But, we believe the audience as a whole, especially non-horror fans, will find delight in the scares of this film. It has a subtlety to its terror that works as a slow boil, than when evil finally reveals itself, it’s all sorts of shock and awe.
The bonus features are but a few, but this is one of those films that belong in your library based solely on the picture itself.
We have to start with a salute t The Witch: A Primal Folktale. It features some fascinating interviews with the cast and Eggers, who take us inside the origins of the story, as well as how the film was put together. As we stated, there is a quiet haunting-ness to The Witch, and it’s easy to see how that was achieved with this featurette.
Also an interesting view is the Salem Panel Q&A, which took place in the titular (and notorious Massachusetts hamlet) and features Eggers, other filmmaking contributors, as well as several cast members as they have an old-fashioned question and answer session, with the backdrop of the iconic New England locale.
Production design is always an important and unsung element of any filmmaking process. Design Gallery is a true treat. There is something truly treasure-able about the simplicity of the set of The Witch and Design Gallery shows how it came together and why even a simple photo from this film could and should give you nightmares.
Lastly, we cannot recall a horror movie debut as explosive as what Eggers has given us with The Witch in years. So treat yourself to his audio commentary in a future watch to glean further insight into the making of a modern classic.
Film: A
Bonus Features: B