The Witch
Movie, 2015, The 2010s, Set in New England, 1630
The Witch is #4 of 37 in release order and #4 of 37 in chronological order in the A24.
The story
A summer youth camp by the sea. Tonya, a quiet, reserved, and gullible girl, becomes neighbors with Lyudka, who is vibrant, assertive, and calculating. They both fall in love with the same boy. Suddenly, it turns out that Tonya possesses supernatural abilities she cannot control.
The Witch recap
The Witch (2015) follows a Puritan family banished from their settlement to a farm beside a forest in 1630s New England, where their newborn vanishes. Robert Eggers writes and directs his first feature. Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy) is playing peekaboo with baby Samuel when he disappears; a witch in the woods has taken and killed him. Her father William (Ralph Ineson) blames a wolf, her mother Katherine (Kate Dickie) blames Thomasin, and the young twins Mercy and Jonas insist the black goat, Black Phillip, speaks to them. Thomasin's brother Caleb (Harvey Scrimshaw) gets lost in the forest, returns naked and fevered, coughs up an apple and dies in a religious rapture. The twins accuse Thomasin of witchcraft, and William locks his children in the goat shed. The film is a standalone story with no sequel.
The Witch ending explained
The Witch ends with Thomasin, the last of her family, signing herself over to the devil. Overnight the witch takes the twins, and at dawn Black Phillip gores William to death. Katherine, out of her mind with grief, attacks Thomasin, who kills her with a billhook. Alone, Thomasin asks Black Phillip to speak. He answers, takes the form of a man and asks if she would like to live deliciously, guiding her hand to sign his book. She walks naked into the woods, finds a coven dancing around a fire, and rises laughing into the air with them.
Post-credits scenes
No. The Witch has no mid- or post-credits scene.
Ratings
Rotten Tomatoes 91%
Where it fits
- Release order: after Ex Machina, before Room.
- Chronological order: after Ex Machina, before Room.
Cast
Directed by Dmitry Fedorov.