The second film in my 31 Days of Horror marathon is Robert Eggers debut film, The Witch, starring Anya Taylor Joy. Now, as someone that loves horror, I gotta say, most horror movies do not really scare me anymore. They just entertain. I can't say the same about The Witch. This was an astonishingly, spooky, evil, unset film, one that really chilled me to the core. I have to say. Robert Eggers is quickly becoming one of my favorite directors
And there were times where this looked that way even though it was shot in full color but done very, very intentionally. And I can think of this one scene in The Witch in which color is used to not only make something stand out against a backdrop of seemingly bleak colors, but to get across a feeling, a psychological conflict for the viewers. One where they question what is and isn't what is good and what is bad. Right? Because we have ideas of what beauty is
And you mentioned the acting from the younger brother and the fact that he and the other children are able to maintain the language. Even that by itself, I think is an impressive feat of acting for such young kids. And never once do I feel like they're spouting memorized lines. It all feels very fluid, like we're watching this real time family drama. And also the reliance on horror techniques other than jump scares