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satan: "would'st though like to live..." "...deliciously?" from its very first moment it’s clear 'the witch' is a film with a dark heart. with its style, tone and excellent script it has crafted a story that reveals more and more the deeper you go. i’m neary and this series takes an in-depth look at films
and the process behind them. an effective horror in 2016 'the witch' was from first time writer and director robert eggers who spent 5 years and a lifetime of interest researching every aspect of puritan life from clothing and housing to the religious foundation of their world, its authenticity and commitment to the time period are to be admired.
but beyond all that 'the witch' has one of the finest and most intricately crafted scripts in the modern era. i’m not commenting how effective it might be as a horror, i found it much more fascinating to look at the layers and interpretations that the film throws up. after years of writing it is no surprise the film is rich in ideas and depth.
and there are at least two ways of looking at this film... tale 1 is the film most people went to see. a family beset by a witch. (like so many modern horrors) it stood out through its original setting, patience, and determination to create fully formed characters. it avoided cheap tricks or scares
and focused on suffering characters and their believable emotions to the realistic situation like any good story should which elevated it past the usual shock fare that passes for horror these days. but it’s failure to be as effective in scaring modern audiences is in part because of the second layer of the film’s interpretation. but for now what we're looking atis a story centers on william and kate, members of a puritan plantation in new england in the 1630s.
forced to find a new home living in the wild outside the walls the family is quickly terrorized by a supernatural force in the woods. (so far, so typical) the eldest daughter thomasin is trying her best to uphold her pure mindand not give into sin. but after the loss of baby samuel on her watch she feels a growing isolation from her family.
a dark witch in the forest is picking off the children one by one. from the unbaptized baby stolen away... ...to the pubescent caleb lured to his doom. and as the real insidious threat comes to light, thomasin realizes that all of this has been under the hand of the devil, who has taken the form of black philip, the family goat,
who secretly whispers to the young twins driving a wedge between thomasin and her family. by the end the witch has killed all the other children, black philip has murdered her father, and thomasin must kill her own mother in self-defence. (tense stuff!) but then
to top it all off she gives up her soul in exchange for gifts from black thomas. retreating into the deadly woods to join a coven of witches. and we see that all along the “witch†was her. *rewind sound*a solid enough story and coherent but why be so focused on puritan values?
the same story could be told in this age surely? (don't call me shirley!) and when each of those elements is broken down we begin to see something far more complicated has taken place. like 'the exorcist' or any ongoing horror film evil has won, and hasn't been completely defeated. (scary times!) and if you chose to leave it there you would have a straightforward film. but clearly the writer-director did not.
as eggers admitted, his goal was trying to create a puritan nightmare. deeper into its darkness we see 'the witch' begins its story with the father excommunicated from the church. the puritans were obsessed with living a good life, believing all sins should be punished. they were one of the most literary societies in the 17th century,
wanting to read the word of god, which is why the film sounds like it does it uses actual transcriptions from that era. imagine this world. where god is real, and the devil a true force in people’s lives, and all of it in a new land where there was no help coming, and the only protection
between you and a continent of danger was a thin wall of wood and the collective will of your society. william is a parallel of the puritan’s own journey. a man so determined to believe the way he wants, he leaves the society he knew behind, forging his own "new world" where he can live and worship as likes. the family has already left england, and as they leave again,
thomasin is the only one of the children who remembers the old world. it is her simple desire that first cracks open a study of sin, god redemption and the impact of human desire on people’s lives and faith. the story from start to finish can now be seen as the corruption of a pure girl who had the sinful wish
to go home. the director has stated that thomasin being evil all along was not his intention, so instead we have a slow descent as things spiral out of her control. thomasin: "get up!" kate: *sobbing* she is the only child who remembers her beloved home. thomasin: "you must remember that?"
caleb: "i remember that day..." "...but no glass" caleb has forgotten and through no fault of her own she is slowly driven away from her family. thomasin: "it was pretty" the horror of losing the baby is catastrophic to her mother and doubly horrifying for a devout family because the soul of the unbaptized child
must now surely be damned. something that eats at caleb, which the father cannot refute because he was the one who raised them to be such committed believers. the reckless and wild twins are being manipulated by black philip and accuse thomasin of a sin she has not committed, which comes back to haunt her. and likewise she is accused of stealing the mother’s cup...
kate: "how thou could loseme father's silver wine cupin this hovel i cannot know." ...thought it was the father. piece by piece we see her world collapsing, and with it the family structure, and the very ideals of puritan life. for kate, she loses her baby, a horror for any mother, and she must further suffer knowing it is doomed. this fear seeps into caleb,
who’s manifest horror is the sexual desire growing inside him. sex is a vital element in the film and one that plays out as a reflection of the puritan mindset where nudity itself was a sin. it is this lust that takes the son into the arms of the beast. there is hunger, which leads to lies, there is grief,
which leads to mutilation, and there are deceptions which lead to death. 'the witch' carefully examines so many elements of dread weaving them together that eggers’ desire to create a puritan’s nightmare is clearly successful the more its explored. the seven deadly sins are marked out in the family and reinforced later when thomasin joins the coven becoming the seventh member of the devil’s collection.
and it is in this finale that a keystone in the myth of witches comes to light. for they are naked, and orgasmic, bright and bloody, and filled with a sense of life. a far cry from the life thomasin we once knew. now more lovely and vibrant than ever. in the puritan world witches were invariably women,
and this persecution of women is a common theme among the religious scriptures of that people. it was eve that tempted adam with an apple, a woman who broke the connection with the garden of eden and god, leading man astray when he realized he was naked and became ashamed. the naked baby is used as ointment, and the virgin thomasin sheds her clothes as she sheds her old life. this fall into the arms of the devil
depicts the harsh puritan world view, that all sins must be punished, even thomasin’s. who becomes the new eve, leading adam away through lust and promise of food, though they are already cast from the garden of eden, the paradise that was the world she left behind, first in old world and then the plantation.
with her father william, buried beneath the masculine sign of his works as a failed father the film has the new convert to the coven kill her own mother, the last sign of authority and the old world, the last female, leaving thomasin - the survivor - bathing in blood, the source of witches power and open to the temptations of black philip those of food, clothes
and a delicious life... thomasin: "what can'st thou give?" eggers’ puritan nightmare touches on every conceivable terror for the family, starvation, loss of innocence, betrayal, lies, children disrespecting their parents, the natural world,
animals, puberty and so many fears for women - those most persecuted by the salem trials a generation later - the repeated symbols of sexuality and childbirth from the bloody milk to the suckling crow, to the bloody egg, and child against parent. the director researched heavily
and one aspect was how women were the main accusers of other women, girls were rarely seen as being a problem. thomasin has blossomed into a woman and so suspicion easily falls on her from her mother, but none toward mercy. the men, caleb and william, are close, hunting together and sharing their sin, but thomasin’s instincts as mother are questioned. and in this dark layer of sin
sinner and punishment we see the failings of william, at a time when men weresupposed to be providers letting his family starve, and how it hurts his pride, as he acts, and is called thomasin: "you are a hypocrite!" and most telling of all is kate another woman who speaks of her love for another man,
and in her telling comes a yearning and a underlying sexual tension only seen again with thomasin’s connection to black philip’s temptation later. kate: "oh...i was so very near him" "and in many tears for the assurance of the pardon of my sins" "and i was so ravaged with his love towards me." is kate touched by the devil already? and has passed it onto her daughter? her other child, the female twin mercy, is able to communicate with the devil through black philip
and it is caleb, the eldest boy, who is tortured and punished the most through his lust of his sister. and of course baby sam, who was taken first and would be the purest of all of them. this act, solidifies the film’s bravery and savagery, for what could be more brutal for the audience or the family of that era, than seeing the most pure and defenceless child taken?
and we see it killed viciously, in no uncertain terms, leaving us feeling kate’s pain all the more. there is a dark world here and 'the witch' explores it head on. but there is another tale to tell. and this is why the film excels for me, 'the witch' has even deeper levels i want to explore. i know i said there was two, i lied
i am a sinner as well. this tale transcends the story itself and begins all the way back at the very first moment of the film. the first thing we see a new england folktale and yet we never see anyone again after the gates are shut. not the natives or the newcomers or the traders that are mentioned by the family. remember, this family is a microcosm of the puritans themselves,
and layered with symbolism to confront the very idea of truth, lies, and storytelling. this entire horrible nightmare might be nothing at all what it seems, and everything like it appears. determined believers, cast out into a strange new world, with only each other and their beliefs to keep them strong from the savage wilds and the unknown darkness of the world, all of which is ruled by that most terrible creature, the devil himself.
the family represents the puritan struggle in america. it is no coincidence that the very first child to disappear is samuel, the first one who was born in the new world, the first real american and the symbol of this new land and a new start. and soon one by one the rest of the children are killed. and we see,
is there really any need to see a supernatural element? the baby went missing while thomasin was watching, breaking kate’s will, undermining her as the matriarch. building upon this are the undertones of closeness between william and his daughter, thomasin is the only competition for her husband opening a rift between mother and eldest daughter. the men love her
and lust after her, they protect her, and the signs of beauty are clear, and the signs of fertility means she is no longer protected like a little girl. is thomasin the witch without any need for supernatural explanation? at no point is there a witness to anything magical in this realm, none that survive at least. eggers has already stated one of his favourite films is 'the shining'.
is this tale about a girl driven mad by all too real factors? the distrust and resentment of her mother, her fear about being sent away, her desire to become the leader of the family, or her disgust or enjoyment at her new sexuality or her sense of longing for home? how much of this played on thomasin? on top of all the real dangers that are out there? away from the safety of home
and the comforts of their 'glass'. thomasin doesn’t want to be sold to some other family or starve. she doesn't want to be cast out. and yet she’s persecuted for something she didn’t do. she's labelled a witch through no fault of her own, kate: "what horrible fancy is this?"mercy: "she told me she stole sam." william: "silence" mercy: "she gave him to the devil in the woods!"
thomasin: "they lie." now we can see that she might represent the very real cases against real women accused of the same. william: "love you the bible? love you prayer?" thomasin: "yes. yes." what course remains for her? she killed the baby, or lost him, or a wolf took when she was not looking. and in the resulting grief and starvation
she couldn't bear to become a servant against her will, to confront the adult life forced on her by her failing father and unforgiving mother… kate: "did you not think i saw, they sluttish looks to him?" ...so she poisoned her brother. then the twins. then the father. and finally, on screen and without interpretation, she murders her own mother,
the one who called her liar, who resented her, who wanted to cast her away like so many evil stepmothers. the one who accussed her of being a witch. kate: "devil!" the film ends with thomasin slightly disrobing, shedding a part of herself, and then it goes black.
more than one viewer saw this brief moment as the finale of the film, until she awoke and made her pact. *rewind sound* but if we ignore that epilogue we see a film about a girl who found herself without a family, without food, lost in the wilderness alone with nothing. perhaps the corn was infected with a grain fungus known as ‘ergot’,
which causes hallucinations, paranoia, and convulsions, symptoms that could explain the witch trials of the era. could it explain what the twins claim to hear? and what appeared to happen to caleb? depression, epilepsy, personality disorder, all modern understandings that most audiences would accept, a divide between us and the puritans that is driven home by the momentthey try to heal caleb. we know this is quackery,
we see how primitive they were, and can now understand that everything that happened, in the eyes of such people, might have rational explanations to us, the modern audience. so the film might just be showing us a daughter driven mad by any number of reasons. that ends up killing family. and all of this uncertainty
leads to the darkest depths of this film, beyond a story of a witch attacking a family, beyond the lure of sins in a deadly world, and beyond the ambiguity of whether thomasin was entirely to blame. there is the layer that the first title card, the cover of this tale, brings to mind... it is all a folktale. 'the witch' has many layers,
complicated and rife for interpretation. but who is telling the story? the film never strays from the family, and seems to be thomasin’s journey. yet from the moment of killing her mother there are no witnesses, no one who can verify what happened. the film has deliberately made sure we see what the family see, leading us to believe it is happening. but the director doesn’t always do this,
and in those moments the final complexity of this film comes to light. the idea of storytelling. from william explaining god to his son to how the family create the story of the wolf to explain the baby’s disappearance, we begin to realize the other symbols in the film coming to light the fairytales we know of today. little red riding hood and the poison apple of snow white.
the wolf and crow, familiars of the witches and often symbols of death in the tales that scare little children while teaching them morality. hansel and gretel cruel mothers, the put upon daughter, all of these begin seeping into our minds. thomasin tells stories of home, and mercy tells stories of the witch.
(arriving on a broom no less) caleb tells a story: caleb: "i thought i saw an apple tree in the valley" and kate has her story of a loving god. and all their prayers are stories they are telling themselves. the wider world is almost ignored. caleb: "what did you trade?" almost they mention others who trade with them.
they mention families in town. and of course the plantation itself, though it is never seen again. but if we move past the moment the film ends, we see what may have happened. that the family home was discovered with dead livestock, and two dead bodies. caleb buried. and the twins and thomasin missing.
what would that do to a puritan mind? how would the town react to such events? would they go searching for the missing children? and if they were not to be found then what? like the family itself, the puritans believed their sins would be punished by god and that the devil is real. and it is through that same understanding of the world such a scene that we encounter
would be explored by the puritans. the excommunicated william would be painted as having got what he deserved, the baby dying horribly for being unbaptized, the families attempt to go against the system, to rail against their true faith, ending with being punished by a vengeful god. is that not what they would say? and so they could blame the devil, and who better to pin it all upon than that most foul of creatures...
a woman. the church has its tale of sin, it has its warning to others who might go beyond the walls and try to go against god, who they represent and so they must be obeyed. their power becomes consolidated and never to be questioned again. the tale of thomasin can now be seen
as the convoluted explanation of a scared plantation. the idea of it all being a story assembled from the remains of a dead family that abandoned the truth faith. it is a warning to children to keep them safe in their homes at night, not stray into the woods alone, not to accept the gifts from strangers, not to anger they parents, not to disobey the church.
don't give into temptation. accept this new world. but always be wary of it. in this dark light 'the witch' becomes a fairy tale as eggers had intended to call it, he settled on the term ‘folktale’ because it connected with the horror theme more and though i said it all takes place from the perspective of the family that is not entirely true either.
every event can be explained or corroborated by one person telling another, or a witness. all of them except two. the first is buried beneath the graphic death of samuel, the youngest son, another allusion to abraham, a story about obeying an angry god. this scene is about a witch,
using the blood of the baby to make her broom fly, but in the history of witchcraft this itself is a story it's a myth created by the clergy to horrify the masses and justify their actions against accused witches. it's a lie. it's a lie that eggers would have been well aware of. it’s false story told to scare people.
and this is first time we see something the family does not. it reignites when mercy rides her own broom, when she accuses thomasin of being a witch, telling tales of the witch she's seen in the forest. all the tales start crashing together at once. did mercy hear this from black philip? is she making it up for the sake of getting back at her sister? did she witness it? hallucinate from hunger?
all the interpretations are becoming wrappedin that moment, as is our final one, the meta view that 'the witch' itself is a story told to frighten, and help explain what people don't understand. thomasin: "it were i what stole him" "i be the witch of the wood." mercy: "liar. liar." thomasin: "i am."
caleb: "listen not to her mercy." thomasin: "i am that very witch. when i sleep..." "...my spirit slips away from my body..." "...and dances naked with the devil." "it's how i signed his book." and of course, the second moment, is the most fantastical, the most supernatural, the most excessive scene of the entire film. in volume, intensity, colour and tone
almost removed from everything else we've seen, seeming so bizarre compared to what's come before and coming after the true story may have ended. it has no witnesses, nothing but terrifying imagery and a horrid threat, just like the witch before. this link not only binds the idea of thomasin succumbing to that murderous villain foreshadowed earlier, it also takes us a step back. *rewind sound*
it shows that we have been watching the creation of a folktale. from the real tragedy that can never be truly explained, and how the aftermath is twisted and corrupted until the true story is lost. and that fiction is told to children at night in their beds, seeping into their minds. be afraid of sex, of temptation, lies, and strange women. a generation later the infamous witch trials would begin in new england.
but those accusers needed a fear, needed a reference in the back of their minds to fuel those murders. these puritan children, raised on the story of a young woman taken to the devil’s side, will hear that fairy tale growing up in this scary new world, with no memory of any old world. this is the precedent. the fairy tale that lodge in people’s minds
and helped them justify killing innocent women when they grow up. the interpretation that there was no witch, that thomasin did it, killing her own father and mother and the children because she was insane, or afraid, or for whatever reason it may be that is simply a human failing would shock the puritans. to even conceive someone was capable of that, to deal with the depression, the fear, the hardships that they are facing of life would be too hard to accept,
it could break someone, it could break a whole vulnerable society. and so, in order to survive, in order to make sense of a dangerous world out of our control where no help is coming we create a god, we create prayer, we create an explanation that will make us feel safe and continue onward.
everything was put in motion when william rejected the church itself, and this story becomes a warning not to challenge authority, or leave the plantation, and continue to fear desire, pride, females intimacy and nudity.
and as horrible as this tale may be, it reinforces beliefs not diminishes them, because if there is a real and literal devil that led the girl away, then there must also be a god ready to take the truly righteous to heaven. we know what they did. that first generation in "their" new world, that would have heard this story growing up with those fears...
...they began hunting witches in their real lives. 'the witch' is a film set in 1630. 60 years later, when all those scared little boys and girls grew up they started turning on women, started dragging them into courtrooms and accusing them of deals with the devil. hundreds were hanged in the salem witch trials. real deaths. but how could such a thing take place we ask from our modern world.
how can such stories be believed? how could people be scared into doing something terrible? do you believe thomasin did it? do you black philip lured her away? do you believe a witch set a plan in motionto corrupt an innocent girl? 'the witch' has created its own meta-narrative a critique of the world of devout religion... ...and also of sin. a study of puritan fears...
...but also the endless danger these settlers faced. an examination of what could turn a person to murder or to sell their soul. and all of it could be a lie. or a half-truth. and us watching, now we're left wondering what was real? who was the liar?
where are the dividing lines of story history fact or fairytale? this is 'the witch'... ...a new england folktale. thanks everyone for watching! i mean it, that was a long one!
if you want to see more in-depth videos like this though leave me a comment, and even a suggestion or two. and if you want to support us, head over to patreon. but thanks for sharing us subscribing liking all of that good stuff but mostly... thanks for watching! and have a great day!
"then take your leave..." "...and trouble us no further."
