When people mention the witch trials and witch hunts of old the mind will often go to Salem and the trials that took place across the US during the late 1600's. But this was far from the only time that a fear of the other has led to people being accused of witchcraft and being executed for it. Britain was also home to multiple witch trials, beginning much earlier in the 1500's. This is the era that Witch takes viewers to, as a young woman is accused of witchcraft and finds her life on the line.
The film begins with a scene in a remote cabin in the woods, where an older, bearded man is performing some kind of magic ritual on two women as two younger men fight out in the forest. The scene is somewhat confusing, we don't know why this is happening, or who these people are. Things end with all but one of the the men and women dead, a couple who drink something and embrace. As the scene ends they break their embrace and the bodies in the cabin are gone. They leave, heading out into the night.
From here we jump back 'four days earlier' as a small community is awoken in the middle of the night by screams as a young woman (Mims Burton) walks through the street, covered in blood, carrying the heads of her parents in each hand. The woman is quickly arrested, with a trial set to commence to charge her for murder and witchcraft. One of the jurors on her case will be William (Ryan Spong), the town blacksmith. William, and his wife Twyla (Sarah Alexandra Marks) are the young couple that we see in the cabin in the very first scene, though their lives are still somewhat normal now.
During this we also come across the strange older man from the first scene, played by Russel Shaw, who warns Twyla that she will be accused of witchcraft, and seems to have knowledge of what is going to happen, taking part in events from behind the scenes. As Twyla is swept up into the trial she and her husband will have to trust the stranger if they wish to escape with their lives.
Witch presents itself as a fairly simple film on the surface, the story of a woman accused of witchcraft and the lengths that she and her husband will go to to survive. However, there's a lot more going on here than you'd first think. And that opening scene is the key to it. I won't spoil what happens, but that first scene is not a simple flashforward to begin the movie with, and what at first feel like strange inconsistencies soon start to add up to parts of the larger, true narrative that's going on with the film. This secret narrative certainly helps to make the film feel a little unique, and sets it apart from other historical fiction pieces. The fact that this isn't just a story about accusations of witchcraft in the real world, but takes place in a world where magic and the paranormal are very real helps too.
The movie is a fairly small budget British film, and often small budget movies are passion projects where you can see that they're being made by people who care about what they're making, even if they perhaps don't quite have the budget or ability to put everything they want on the screen. Having seen some low budget historical and fantasy films before I was ready for poor costumes and shoddy sets, but Witch has a decent quality production value to it. The costumes look decent and sell the time period they're in, but it's the filming locations that really shine through.
I say filming location rather than set, as it very much feels like the production found somewhere to make their movie rather than produced the sets themselves. I might be wrong on that, the small town, the castle, and the courtroom might all have been created for the production, but the quality of the build and the weathered look of it jumps out to me more as a place that already exists. Whether it's a recreation or a historical site I'm not sure, but either way the film looks bigger than you'd expect from an independent film such as this. However it was accomplished, the film certainly benefits from it, and I was genuinely impressed by it.
The actors do a decent job too, especially as some of them have to sell the audience on some pretty big, pretty wild ideas. It lands mostly well, but there are times where things do feel a bit too ridiculous to fully land. The cast are definitely at their best when in the more grounded scenes and involved in the more human drama. Daniel Jordan is great as Judge Hopkins, and is cruel enough to really sell his sadistic evilness without ever drifting into arch and camp, and the scene in which William is begging him not to charge Twyla with witchcraft is perhaps the best scene in the film in terms of strong performances.
Witch is an odd film, one that plays on a lot of horror tropes and definitely sells itself as a horror film, but would likely be better described as more of a fantasy and a mystery. There's a lot of weird stuff going on in this movie, a lot of bold ideas, and whilst if you go in expecting a horror film you might be somewhat disappointed if you're instead just looking for something a bit different it will likely entertain.
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