View Poll Results: THE VVITCH

Voters
30. You may not vote on this poll
  • Yay Thee

    21 70.00%
  • Nay Thee

    9 30.00%
Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 25 of 34

Thread: The Witch (Robert Eggers)

  1. #1
    In the belly of a whale Henry Gale's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Posts
    4,703

    The Witch (Robert Eggers)

    Last 11 things I really enjoyed:

    Speed Racer (Wachowski/Wachowski, 2008)
    Safe (Haynes, 1995)
    South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (Parker, 1999)
    Beastie Boys Story (Jonze, 2020)
    Bad Trip (Sakurai, 2020)
    What's Up Doc? (Bogdanovich, 1972)
    Diva (Beineix, 1981)
    Delicatessen (Caro/Jeunet, 1991)
    The Hunger (Scott, 1983)
    Pineapple Express (Green, 2008)
    Chungking Express (Wong, 1994)

  2. #2
    In the belly of a whale Henry Gale's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Posts
    4,703
    Now this is fucking good. (Saw it the day after Zoolander 2 with little sleep in between, and what a deliciously weird movie combo they made.)

    Only recommendation other than to definitely see it would be to skip as many trailers and TV spots as you can, since going in cold and then afterwards seeing just how much of the imagery the main U.S. trailer featured wasn't surprising considering it's elegant, classically slow pace an unnerving mood, but disappointing since everything was a gorgeous discovery.

    All else I'll say is that I'm not quite sure how often you get a cast turn in such uniformly excellent performances in a horror film like this. Everyone is very, very good. Especially one of the kids I thought was on the shaky, monotone side here and there early on, who singlehandedly takes over maybe my favourite scene of anything so far this year.

    If this gets a wide release, expect people who it isn't for to hate it, but you'll know if it's for you very early on. This is old-fashioned, arthouse horror, and it's fiercely compelling and in its own way audaciously modern for that alone.
    Last 11 things I really enjoyed:

    Speed Racer (Wachowski/Wachowski, 2008)
    Safe (Haynes, 1995)
    South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (Parker, 1999)
    Beastie Boys Story (Jonze, 2020)
    Bad Trip (Sakurai, 2020)
    What's Up Doc? (Bogdanovich, 1972)
    Diva (Beineix, 1981)
    Delicatessen (Caro/Jeunet, 1991)
    The Hunger (Scott, 1983)
    Pineapple Express (Green, 2008)
    Chungking Express (Wong, 1994)

  3. #3
    In the belly of a whale Henry Gale's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Posts
    4,703
    Okay, it's out. Go see it!

    Just truly a stunning, piercingly haunting piece of work that demands the immersive presentation, lack of interruption and inescapable atmosphere of the theatre. (Though a couple of walkouts foiled both of those points in my viewing..)
    Last 11 things I really enjoyed:

    Speed Racer (Wachowski/Wachowski, 2008)
    Safe (Haynes, 1995)
    South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (Parker, 1999)
    Beastie Boys Story (Jonze, 2020)
    Bad Trip (Sakurai, 2020)
    What's Up Doc? (Bogdanovich, 1972)
    Diva (Beineix, 1981)
    Delicatessen (Caro/Jeunet, 1991)
    The Hunger (Scott, 1983)
    Pineapple Express (Green, 2008)
    Chungking Express (Wong, 1994)

  4. #4
    Cinematographer Mal's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Posts
    1,070
    My coworker absolutely hated it- so I knew I was going to enjoy it. And I sure did. Apparently Eggers is from my area? Really jealous of this guys talent right now... can't wait to see what he does next.

  5. #5
    collecting tapes Skitch's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Neo-Ohio
    Posts
    16,583
    Rave reviews from my friends who work local arthouse theater. Looking forward to it.

  6. #6
    Moderator Dead & Messed Up's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    New Canaan, where to the shepherd come the sheep.
    Posts
    10,620
    Liked this much more as a period-accurate melodrama about guilt and repression than as a...

    [
    ]

  7. #7
    Piss off, ghost! number8's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Brooklyn
    Posts
    30,529
    My god, surely it is way too early to declare a year favorite, but this is going to be hard to beat for me.
    Quote Quoting Donald Glover
    I was actually just reading about Matt Damon and he’s like, ‘There’s a culture of outrage.’ I’m like, ‘Well, they have a reason to be outraged.’ I think it’s a lot of dudes just being scared. They’re like, ‘What if I did something and I didn’t realize it?’ I’m like, ‘Deal with it.’
    Movie Theater Diary

  8. #8
    Kung Fu Hippie Watashi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Big Apple, 3 AM
    Posts
    11,346
    Any day now Disney is going to reach out to Eggers for their live-action Black Cauldron remake.
    Sure why not?

    STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI (Rian Johnson) - 9
    STRONGER (David Gordon Green) - 6
    THE DISASTER ARTIST (James Franco) - 7
    THE FLORIDA PROJECT (Sean Baker) - 9
    LADY BIRD (Greta Gerwig) - 8


    "Hitchcock is really bad at suspense."
    - Stay Puft

  9. #9
    The Pan Spinal's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Portland
    Posts
    19,723
    You guys, this movie is terrible.
    Coming to America (Landis, 1988) **
    The Beach Bum (Korine, 2019) *1/2
    Us (Peele, 2019) ***1/2
    Fugue (Smoczynska, 2018) ***1/2
    Prisoners (Villeneuve, 2013) ***1/2
    Shadow (Zhang, 2018) ***
    Oslo, August 31st (J. Trier, 2011) ****
    Climax (Noé, 2018) **1/2
    Fighting With My Family (Merchant, 2019) **
    Upstream Color (Carruth, 2013) ***

  10. #10
    Super Moderator dreamdead's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Posts
    5,843
    Oooh, conflict.

    There are a few dull spots during this one, mostly leading up to Caleb's vomiting spell, but after that moment it ratcheted up and maintained an absurd tension. Largely because I didn't peak at this thread and didn't know about the poster animal and thus was taken aback and it became more prominent. The film's coda is probably the least developed point--Eggers needed to develop Thomasin's belief of what opportunities would await her as a woman in that time-frame who survived those experiences, so that her independence here can more easily act as impetus for her decision. As it stands, her decision comes about inorganically, even though it's well directed within that sequence.
    The Boat People - 9
    The Power of the Dog - 7.5
    The King of Pigs - 7

  11. #11
    Kung Fu Hippie Watashi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Big Apple, 3 AM
    Posts
    11,346
    Black Phillip > Spinal
    Sure why not?

    STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI (Rian Johnson) - 9
    STRONGER (David Gordon Green) - 6
    THE DISASTER ARTIST (James Franco) - 7
    THE FLORIDA PROJECT (Sean Baker) - 9
    LADY BIRD (Greta Gerwig) - 8


    "Hitchcock is really bad at suspense."
    - Stay Puft

  12. #12
    The Pan Spinal's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Portland
    Posts
    19,723
    OK, so this movie is something of a disaster, more suitable for being laughed at than anything else. The adult actors are game but are saddled with a screenplay that has ludicrously bad dialogue and little ambition to do much more than repeat the same beats that have been covered in better movies to less effect. The child actors struggle with the language so much that they are frequently incomprehensible. The film sidesteps the whole moral failure of the witch craze era by treating witchcraft as literal truth, an entirely offensive notion considering the violence done to women during this time. The film might be successful if it committed to being frightening or exploitative. Instead it aspires to be art and comes at the subject matter with a modicum of research and a dearth of intellectual curiosity. Day of Wrath, Witchhammer, these are movies that get it right. This film doesn't.

    EDIT: I don't want to beat a dead horse, so I'm not making a new post. But the Village Voice nails it with this quote:

    For all its genuflections toward history, The Witch offers the same cheapjack lesson field-trippers get when they visit tourist-trap museums in today's Salem, Massachusetts. Every condemnation of witch-burning fools is matched by some shivery spook-out, a promise that we'll never know just what evil might have romped among the Massachusetts pines. The Witch purports, at times, to confront ignorance and hysteria, but in the end, for horror thrills, Eggers's film sides with the preachers and executioners. It literalizes the fevered terrors of our God-mad ancestors — and then brags that it's all steeped in research. It's like if, a couple of centuries from now, the latest holodeck true-crime horror flick is a West Memphis Three story that wraps with the boys high-fiving Lucifer.
    Last edited by Spinal; 02-24-2016 at 10:10 PM.
    Coming to America (Landis, 1988) **
    The Beach Bum (Korine, 2019) *1/2
    Us (Peele, 2019) ***1/2
    Fugue (Smoczynska, 2018) ***1/2
    Prisoners (Villeneuve, 2013) ***1/2
    Shadow (Zhang, 2018) ***
    Oslo, August 31st (J. Trier, 2011) ****
    Climax (Noé, 2018) **1/2
    Fighting With My Family (Merchant, 2019) **
    Upstream Color (Carruth, 2013) ***

  13. #13
    The Pan Spinal's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Portland
    Posts
    19,723
    Quote Quoting Watashi (view post)
    Black Phillip > Spinal
    #Spinalsowhite
    Coming to America (Landis, 1988) **
    The Beach Bum (Korine, 2019) *1/2
    Us (Peele, 2019) ***1/2
    Fugue (Smoczynska, 2018) ***1/2
    Prisoners (Villeneuve, 2013) ***1/2
    Shadow (Zhang, 2018) ***
    Oslo, August 31st (J. Trier, 2011) ****
    Climax (Noé, 2018) **1/2
    Fighting With My Family (Merchant, 2019) **
    Upstream Color (Carruth, 2013) ***

  14. #14
    Cinematographer Mal's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Posts
    1,070
    Evil takes many forms. Chaos reigns.

  15. #15
    Evil mind, evil sword. Ivan Drago's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Posts
    6,995
    I literally can't give a complete review of this at the moment because I watched it between fingers for at least 20 minutes, and I say that without hyperbole.

    This movie was absolutely terrifying and can only be watched in theaters when the sun's out.
    Last edited by Ivan Drago; 02-25-2016 at 03:41 AM.
    Last Five Films I've Seen (Out of 5)

    The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse (Mackesy, 2022) 4.5
    Puss In Boots: The Last Wish (Crawford, 2022) 4
    Confess, Fletch (Mottola, 2022) 3.5
    M3GAN (Johnstone, 2023) 3.5
    Turning Red (Shi, 2022) 4.5
    Tokyo Story (Ozu, 1953) 5

    615 Film
    Letterboxd

  16. #16
    Moderator Dead & Messed Up's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    New Canaan, where to the shepherd come the sheep.
    Posts
    10,620
    I am surprised by the idea of the film being terrifying. It engaged, but I was "scared" maybe twice.

    [
    ]

  17. #17
    Moderator TGM's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Posts
    3,819
    Yeah, I enjoyed the movie quite a bit and appreciate the craft behind it, though truth be told, haunting as some of the imagery may be, I was never actually at any point scared, or even felt even the slightest bit tense, even during the movie's most intense of scenes. I can easily see some people finding this to flat out boring in fact, seeing as it's such a slow burn of a film. But I liked it still, though mostly from a dramatic and filmmaking perspective.

  18. #18
    Super Moderator dreamdead's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Posts
    5,843
    I see what Spinal is saying with regard to the reality of witches, and thus the undercutting of the factuality of women and girls who were wantonly sacrificed for malicious purposes. It seems odd, though, to pick on a horror film for suggesting a fundamental horror behind a crisis. That dismissal seems predicated on an ideological holding that a film can't represent that era and those conditions if the film doesn't also condemn the notion of a witch as anything other than a cultural construct for rejecting and denouncing all "heretics." And, again, I see how Spinal is getting to this point, but I think the film holds its vision for over half the film to suggest the hysteria and witchhunt atmosphere prevalent in the era that it can, in the final act, segue out of the historically-bound reality to explore more fantastical terrain without sacrificing its indictment of the reality.

    In related news, only check out this glorious twitter handle after you see the film.
    The Boat People - 9
    The Power of the Dog - 7.5
    The King of Pigs - 7

  19. #19
    Guttenbergian Pop Trash's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
    The Yay Area
    Posts
    5,243
    This was alright. Maybe I just had too high of expectations, or maybe there is just some first feature film jitters here by Eggers, but it was a little underwhelming. I don't think it's of the level of It Follows or The Babadook (two films it's oft compared to), even if I forgive the guy for not exactly being Kubrick or Friedkin either.

    The goat was cool, I'll give it that. Also is this the first satanic/devil/witch movie to incorporate a goat(s) to this extent?
    Last edited by Pop Trash; 02-27-2016 at 06:17 AM.
    Ratings on a 1-10 scale for your pleasure:

    Top Gun: Maverick - 8
    Top Gun - 7
    McCabe & Mrs. Miller - 8
    Crimes of the Future - 8
    Videodrome - 9
    Valley Girl - 8
    Summer of '42 - 7
    In the Line of Fire - 8
    Passenger 57 - 7
    Everything Everywhere All at Once - 6



  20. #20
    In the belly of a whale Henry Gale's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Posts
    4,703
    Quote Quoting Pop Trash (view post)
    The goat was cool, I'll give it that. Also is this the first satanic/devil/witch movie to incorporate a goat(s) to this extent?
    Drag Me To Hell comes to mind. (But I guess as much as I wish the talking one in that movie was as much of a key player in its ensemble as this one, no, not to the same extent.)
    Last 11 things I really enjoyed:

    Speed Racer (Wachowski/Wachowski, 2008)
    Safe (Haynes, 1995)
    South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (Parker, 1999)
    Beastie Boys Story (Jonze, 2020)
    Bad Trip (Sakurai, 2020)
    What's Up Doc? (Bogdanovich, 1972)
    Diva (Beineix, 1981)
    Delicatessen (Caro/Jeunet, 1991)
    The Hunger (Scott, 1983)
    Pineapple Express (Green, 2008)
    Chungking Express (Wong, 1994)

  21. #21
    Here till the end MadMan's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    A land of corn and technology
    Posts
    20,076
    A big fat meh. That goat was cool I guess.
    BLOG

    And everybody wants to be special here
    They call your name out loud and clear
    Here comes a regular
    Call out your name
    Here comes a regular
    Am I the only one here today?



  22. #22
    Hodge shan't be shot Kirby Avondale's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2012
    Posts
    56
    I hope if we remember this in the years to come, it's as V-vitch, ala Se-seven-en.

  23. #23
    cat people KK2.0's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Sao Paulo
    Posts
    1,215
    So, you liked this movie? Do you know who else liked it?


    [
    ]

  24. #24
    Administrator Ezee E's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Denver
    Posts
    30,597
    It's good in the respect that Eggers is going to be a terrific filmmaker, and looks to promise that he'll have even better movies in the future. It makes me want to look into the history of the witches as far as the animals, end go.

    Lots raved about the end, but I thought it was the worst. Going literal was kind of a dumb move in my mind. The nightmares induced over the night with the stable, the raven, etc were all so well done, that I was wondering if Thomasin would return to town, be indicted for murder, and hung as a witch.

    Well, hit and miss. But some neat imagery and score for sure.

    Barbarian - ***
    Bones and All - ***
    Tar - **


    twitter

  25. #25
    Piss off, ghost! number8's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Brooklyn
    Posts
    30,529
    I don't think the film works at all if it's not literalized. It's a story about her freedom to make her own choices. There has to be a coven for her to join at the end for that to be fulfilled.
    Quote Quoting Donald Glover
    I was actually just reading about Matt Damon and he’s like, ‘There’s a culture of outrage.’ I’m like, ‘Well, they have a reason to be outraged.’ I think it’s a lot of dudes just being scared. They’re like, ‘What if I did something and I didn’t realize it?’ I’m like, ‘Deal with it.’
    Movie Theater Diary

Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  
An forum