The Witch [Blu-ray]

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BFI London Film Festival Q&A with Robert Eggers, Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson and Producer Jay Van Hoy

New England, 1630. Upon threat of banishment by the church, an English farmer leaves his colonial plantation and relocates his family to a remote plot of land on the edge of an ominous forest—within which lurks an unknown evil. Strange and unsettling things begin to happen —animals turn malevolent, crops fail, one child disappears and another seemsto become possessed by an evil spirit. With suspicion and paranoia mounting, daughter Thomasin is accused of witchcraft.

The Witch 4K Extras

Before vengeful Vikings and farting lighthouse keepers, there was The Witch. Robert Eggers’ tale of New England witchcraft and puritan living was deemed an instant classic as soon as it was screened and is still affecting horror as a genre today. Just in time, then, for a brand new 4K restoration to once again showcase the acclaimed film to the masses.

Short film: Brothers – a movie that was made to show he could work with a small family unit in a rural setting. This charts the problematic relationship of two siblings and their abusive grandma. One day the two boys go into the woods with rifles. As dark, tense and emotionally complex as what we’ve come to expect from Eggers. (10 minutes) Overall, the image is not a traditional 4K showcase. But that doesn’t mean it’s not exactly as the director intended and in this case, that sense of dream-like confusion and escalating sense that things are moving away from ‘normal’ at an alarming rate is perfectly captured here.We reviewers have learned the hard way that it's often dangerous to review a film with any religious leanings whatsoever, as it's virtually certain you're going to end up offending or alienating someone who either doesn't agree with the religion being portrayed, or how a particular

Second Sight Films are bringing out The Witch 4K UHD + Blu-ray Limited Edition this month in the UK.Louise Ford’s editing is fantastic and the structure of the film helps with the intensity and impending doom of the piece. The picture also looks fantastic, with Jarin Blaschke’s cinematography capturing the grey mood of the location the family is living in, and also the sense of natural light coming from a time when everything was candlelit. Mark Korven’s musical score also has a great impact, with the composer using a lot of similar period instruments to create a score that feels like a living part of the film, a mechanism of dread that constantly lies below the surface, insidiously. reviewer reacts to that portrayal. And so let me just begin this review by apologizing to any and all Puritans who may read it and who are new life in a land that held promise but also immense difficulties. As writer-director Robert Eggers mentions in the commentary included on The Witch’s lossless 5.1 mix is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio and it presents a lush, atmospheric soundscape that places the folk-inspired instrumental score throughout the channels and the sounds of the woods like wind in the trees and chirping birds in surrounds. This is a superbly balanced, clean, and subtle mix with excellent dynamics. The Supplements It's a curse because Kaulder has to live on eternally with the memory of his wife and daughter who were killed by the witch. This is the type of emoting that escapes a Vin Diesel performance. He's great in the Fast and Furious movies because Dominic Toretto is more, or less, Diesel. When he's called upon to offer up a bit more emotion his performances usually fall flat. That's the case here. Kaulder has a tortured past, but Diesel is unable to convey that through his emotions. So, while it may be a curse for him to live on and on with the memory of his murdered family, that sort of pain never comes across in Diesel's acting.

And while, yes, they had sought to escape religious persecution (or at least religion defined by others, which they may have perceived as generally excellent detail levels, and an often smooth, sleek appearance, but it's also been very aggressively graded and desaturated, to the point that even outright signs of graphic gore (there are a few disturbing images in the film, but they're relatively restrained, at least within the context of

Scores

probably already taking umbrage that anyone would deign to assess elements of their faith, at least in how it's portrayed in the riveting if Interestingly, there do appear to be some differences, much more so that I had thought. Detail is a touch more refined in the textures, including sharper edges of buttons and a touch more sharpness to strands of hair (but bear in mind this was on a 92” projection screen). Brightness is interesting as the differences change on a scene-by-scene basis – the opening medium shot of Taylor-Joy’s face on the UHD is a lot lighter than the previous Blu, revealing more detail in in the brim of her hat and in the shadow of her face; however the shot of the family leaving against the beautiful sky is significantly lighter on the previous Blu. And finally, the colours do seem a touch more desaturated on the 4K version, in line with an overall impression that the contrast ratio on the 4K disc appears to be less than that on the previous Blu. Is it an improvement? In terms of detail, yes it is. The rest however give the image a slightly different look that is neither better or worse, just… different. whether perceived or real (not that The Witch is concerned with that aspect), into the everyday is what continually gives the film its UHD re-releases, I'm simply providing my original review. Also please note that the 4K UHD disc ports over the same audio and supplements as The best folk horror always worked because of its sense of the normalisation of the ‘uncanny’ – how something just a little bit... ’off’ from our everyday reality can be accepted as the norm to utterly unfathomable consequences. Be it the Festival of the Sun on Summerisle, the seemingly happenstance and everyday denouncement of ordinary women by everyone in Witchfinder General and the sinister warpings of Christianity by the children in Blood on Satan’s Claw.