Two witches watch and discuss "The Witch"

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Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/10/28/two-witches-watch-and-discuss-the-witch.html

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Good take. I’m glad to hear someone knowledgeable break down how it was really an allegory about superstition and that the historical conception of witches was really just misogyny and jealousy masquerading as piety. I think the VVitch is basically the anti-Passion of the Christ. Both are built on bullshit, but one recognizes it.

Edited for grammar.

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This movie did not sit well with me because of the combination of two things:

  1. It seemed to me that the movie’s supernatural events (past a certain point) could not be ascribed to delusion. It seemed to me that witches had to be real to account for everything.

  2. According to the credits, the movie is based on real witch trial records.

They have taken real life events where innocent people were tortured and killed out of mass hysteria and twisted things around so that witches are real and dangerous, and therefore the witch hangers were completely justified in their extremism.

I don’t mind fictions where witches are the bad guys, but using these real atrocities like this is in very poor taste.

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“All witchcraft stems from carnal desire, which is in women insatiable.”

Some more than others.

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I thought that was the point. It showed how people in that era viewed witchcraft as imminent and very, very real (honestly, plenty still do). I took the credits statement as a kind of “no, seriously, people actually believe this madness!” To wit; the extremely graphic nature of the baby killing scene. It would be almost comical if it wasn’t so horrifying. For my money, that really sold the stakes of how this type of delusion caused these moment of hysteria. But, you know, YMMV.

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Robert Eggers has discussed this in interviews, where he has stated that his approach was “what if the 17th century of conception of witches was real?” and treated this premise in a realistic manner. So yeah, what happened to Thomasin was literally happening, not a figment of the character’s imagination, and there really was a witch (or a coven) preying on the family. For me, it was just a very effective and spooky exploration of the outdated folk ideas regarding religion and the othering and subjugation of femininity. I didn’t find it in poor taste in the slightest. In fact it has quickly become one of my favorite films to rewatch around this time of year.

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I’m ok with the idea of doing a film where witches are real and evil. It’s the use of the trial records that I object to. It’s shitting on the memory, however faint, of the real victims here.

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I can see why one might have that reaction, but I don’t see it as a problem. Movies take inspiration (and directly reference) tragic events all the time. I don’t really regard this as any different.

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