While there was no shortage of indie horrors that shook up audiences at this year's Sundance, the one that chilled everyone to the bone was The Witch. Directed by first-time helmer Robert Eggers and set in the 1600s years before the Salem witch trials, the film centers on a deeply religious New England family who have been ex-communicated and banished to the outskirts of a nearby forest, where all sorts of terrible things begin to befall them.
The first trailer has finally been released by A24, and it's a perfect tease of the film's consistently unsettling tone. Anya Taylor-Joy gives an amazing breakout performance that already has her landing much bigger roles, Eggers took home the Best Director award at Sundance, which was no small feat given the wealth of talent on display this year. While Taylor-Joy is the stand-out for sure, the rest of the cast includes Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie, Harvey Scrimshaw, Ellie Grainger and Lucas Dawson. Here's the official synopsis:
New England, 1630: William and Katherine lead a devout Christian life, homesteading on the edge of an impassible wilderness, with five children. When their newborn son mysteriously vanishes and their crops fail, the family begins to turn on one another. In his debut feature, writer/director Robert Eggers painstakingly designs an authentic re- creation of New England -- generations before the 1692 trials in Salem -- evoking the alluring and terrifying power of the timeless witch myth. Told through the eyes of Thomasin, the teenage daughter (in a star-making performance by Anya Taylor-Joy), and supported by haunting camera work and an ominous score, The Witch is a chilling portrait of a family unraveling within their own fears and anxieties, leaving them prey for an inescapable evil.
Having seen this already I can say it was by far the most terrifying horror I've seen at the festival in all my years of attending. The Witch will hit theaters some time in 2016.
