FolknHell enters Robert Eggers’ The Witch (2016) with special guest Ian Winterton. Is this the perfect modern folk horror film, or does its Christian Devil complicate the usual ancient-threat rules? Expect Puritan pride, phenomenal performances, baby mush and Black Phillip at full gallop.
In Episode 27, Andy Davidson, Dave Houghton and David Hall are joined by writer, lecturer and former film critic Ian Winterton to discuss Robert Eggers’ feature debut, The Witch.
The family is isolated, the corn is rotting and the goat is considerably more articulate than anyone would like. The group digs into William’s pride, Thomasin’s place inside a collapsing patriarchal household, Eggers’ obsessive historical research, the period dialogue and a cast firing at frankly indecent levels.
Then Ian throws a crooked branch into the usual FolknHell criteria. If the threat is Christianity, Satanism and European witchcraft carried into New England by settlers, does it really count as an older force rising from the land? The answer leads into ergot theories, folktale logic, the Unholy Trinity and a firm final verdict on the film’s folk horror credentials.
There is also admiration for Harvey Scrimshaw’s extraordinary death scene, the almost invisible appearance of the Devil’s red boot, the ecstatic final flight and the early sequence that has made many unsuspecting viewers quietly decide they have somewhere else to be.
Spoilers throughout. Watch the film before listening unless you are happy to meet Black Phillip contractually unprepared.
The Witch is unequivocally folk horror, even if it makes the checklist squirm. Isolation, inherited belief, landscape, accusation and religious terror do the heavy lifting, while the supernatural gives the family’s collapse a beautifully wicked shove. It is severe, meticulous and one of the defining horror films of its era. Watch it, then listen to the argument.
- Ian Winterton: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3410151/
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4263482/
- TMDb: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/310131-the-witch
- Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_witch_2016
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Witch_(2015_film)