Wouldst thou like to live deliciously?

The Witch is a genuinely creepy film filled with religious paranoia and hysteria. Telling the story of a family of puritanical pilgrims in the early days of newly settled America, The Witch is a truly haunting and engrossing film.

When a family is kicked out of their village, for unexplained but clearly religious reasons, they're forced to create a settlement of their own in a clear field by the woods. Alone with only their crops, animals and each other, the family faces off against nature and the wild, clearly struggling to survive. Tension builds and when one of the family members suddenly disappears without reason or explanation fingers start being pointed and blame is shifted around... all of course leading to witch craft and devil worship.

This is a film that never for a second makes you question whether or not a witch is involved, but only who is in league with the dark forces. Newcomer Anya Taylor-Joy absolutely knocks it out of the park as the eldest child Thomasin who is the lead but also seems to take the brunt of the verbal and emotional abuse from her confused and paranoid parents. Thomasin's brother Caleb played by another newcomer Harvey Scrimshaw gives one of the best child performances I have ever seen in a film in my entire life.

Ralph Ineson steps in as the father of the family, William who's booming voice and stature make him an incredible force on screen. His presence shifts from a man who mighty strength to a man who's able to break down emotionally and question his world. Kate Dickie as Katherine, the mother, is stupendous, so ready to point fingers and cast blame on her own family, her own children for what's going wrong in their world.

This is a level of religious fervor and fear we've never seen in film before. Nowadays even the most devout christian has a hard time believing in demonic possession and witch craft as science prevails. Watching a film that immediately jumps to these ideas for answers so quickly is refreshing. If you did this film now there would be all this "is there or isn't there a witch" back and forth for the characters. There would be a "science can explain this!" moment where a geek steps up and starts to reason away the insanity. Not this film. And thank god for it.

The conclusion is one of the best I've seen in the genre. I loved this movie, I can't wait to watch it again. Director Robert Eggers has a huge career ahead of him.