The Witch Themes

For a start, Director Robert Eggers notably admitted in an interview that his main desire to make this film was in hope that, “ Something was exercised through making this.” Typically a person wouldn’t expect a film about witchcraft, black magic, and the “Horror” of religion to be considered personal but The Witch, only being Egger’s first film, seemingly more than justifies a need for a demon to be expelled.

The Witch is a Horror/periodical film set in the 1600s of New England that follows a family who’s recently been banished from a Puritan Christian village. After setting up an isolated home at close quarters by an enshrouding forest their infant child goes missing. Paranoia and dreadful thoughts fueled by sin slowly begin to tear the family apart as they must locate where the imminent danger is arising from.

Solely focusing on direction there where plenty of times when this film bordered genius.
Easily the film’s most apparent theme regards to the Guilt of Sin. Significantly shown by both of the male characters William and Caleb. William exhibit this through his own prideful nature as well as going against his own puritan beliefs of rejecting self-indulgence that eventually leads to Thomasin calling him out on this. However, Caleb’s is more subtlety shown through his lustful gazes at his sister’s breast and is further explored with his encounter with a witch about halfway through the film. Furthermore this Guilt of Sin theme ties in perfectly with the movie’s tagline theme, which is Evil takes many forms. Uniquely the family sees the titular witch character in several different guises, hinting at their own complexities. Thomasin sees, a tall and formidable stranger who may either be the witch or her master Satan, Katherine sees her as her two dead children, and Caleb sees her as a seductive more youthful version revealing