Earlier in the year, I had seen a movie called The Witch which I thought was going to be a scarier look into the Salem Witch Trials or at least that time period. Coming from Massachusetts, my interest in the subject matter has always been peaked and when I saw that The Crucible was available to watch, I immediately chose it for today’s film. The film follows the actual accounts of the Salem Witch Trials in which Abigail Williams (Winona Ryder) started. Abigail among other girls were caught dancing in the woods with the famous Tituba (Charlayne Woodard). In order to save themselves, they began to start accusing innocent people from the villiage that they had problems with which included the wife of John Proctor (Daniel Day-Lewis). The film features an amazing cast that includes Paul Scofield (A Man For All Seasons) as Judge Thomas Danforth, Joan Allen (The Bourne Supremacy) as Elizabeth Proctor, Bruce Davison (The Lords Of Salem) as Reverend Paris, Rob Campbell (Hedwig and The Angry Inch) as Reverend Hale, Jeffrey Jones (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) as Thomas Putnam, Peter Vaughan (Brazil) as Giles Corey, Karron Graves (The Good Shepard) as Mary Warren, George Gaynes (Police Academy) as Judge Samuel Sewall, Mary Pat Gleason (Basic Instinct) as Martha Corey, and the film was directed by Nicholas Hytner.
Now as far as The Witch was concerned, it wasn’t as scary as people made it out to be even though it was well acted. This film gave you exactly what you thought you were going to get and that was an account of all the horror that occurred in the town of Salem. The subject is still a sore spot in Salem, but it’s a history they no longer deny. You watch this film and you say how stupid could people have been back in those days and you must understand that this was a puritan society where religion was number one alongside greed and envy. I cannot begin to make you understand how amazing the performances in this film were and I was not lying when I said it was an all star cast. Daniel Day-Lewis is one of the most amazing actors to come out in the 90’s and he has provided us with classic after classic even though I need to catch up on a lot of them. All the performances in the film were absolutely fantastic and you should see it for that and the sets and costumes. The sets were amazing as it made you feel like you were in Salem in 1692 and the costumes enforced those beliefs. I also loved how they stuck the original script that Arthur Miller wrote as they stayed true to that. This was an excellent choice for me for today and if you ever want to learn more about Salem, start here and then travel to Salem for yourselves. It is such an amazing place to be and there is so much history. With that being said, I am going to give the film an A+ for a final grade.
There hasn’t been a movie that I had been looking so forward to seeing than this week’s release of Salem Witch Trials period piece The Witch. Being from Massachusetts, it’s one of the most interesting tales and stories that you hear about growing up. For a family living in a time when accusations are running rampant all over New England, they move to a new area to start a new life. Things begin to take a nasty toll for the family when the youngest child is kidnapped while the oldest was supervising the child. Right after the events, things take a nasty toll as the family begins to fall apart as they are being haunted by the idea of witchcraft and possession. The film was based off of old Salem 1600’s folklore that surrounded that time period. The film stars Anya Taylor Joy (Vampire Academy) as Thomasin, Ralph Ineson (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One) as William, Kate Dickie (Prometheus) as Katherine, Harvey Scrimshaw (Oranges And Sunshine) as Caleb, Ellie Grainger (The Village) as Mercy, Lucas Dawson as Jonas, Bathsheba Garnett (Mean Girls) as The Witch, Sarah Stephens as The young Witch, and the film was written and directed by Robert Eggers.
Stephen King was quoted as saying, “The Witch scared the hell out of me. And it’s a real movie, tense and thought-provoking as well as visceral.” Just what in the hell was Stephen King talking about or seeing when he said that. I wondered if we were watching the same movie? Was the film thought provoking? Sure I guess at times it could have been, but where were all the scary parts that scared the hell out of him? The film is basically 1600’s fan fiction come to life on the big screen in a film that is just flat out boring. There were no jump out of your chair scenes as the film was mainly psychological. The one thing I can say about the film that was positive was the fact that the acting was absolutely superb. They made you believe that you were in the 1600’s with the hard to understand old English language and they made you believe that the family was falling apart due to paranoia. This was a film that you legit could end up walking out on if you’re not a completest like me so you know I stuck around for the whole film. To me the last five to ten minutes of the film was the most exciting part of the film when all of the good stuff started to happen. If you want suspense then watch the trailer and save yourself the time because all the good stuff is in that. The film did not live up to the hype in my opinion. That is why I am going to give the film a D+/C- (right on the borderline) and I’m doing so because of the costumes and the acting. Other than that, it doesn’t deserve a higher grade. Watch the film at your own risk!
365moviesin365dayschallenge 