The VVitch (Eggers, 2016)

The VVitch (Eggers, 2016)

Summary

Scott Bash

Demonic rabbits. Goats. The English. Many of the elements from one of Monty Python’s fantastic films about King Arthur also makes for devilishly good horror film. The Witch, or often advertised as The VVitch, is a colonial era film set in the New England area. The film tackles the experiences of a recently immigrated English family living beyond the pale and how gender roles and religion impacted day to day life. We will also critique the film for its style, and historical accuracy.

The film opens with a trial taking place where William is accused of breaking the town’s laws. William, in turn, holds the town in contempt for being “false Christians.” William, his wife Katherine and their children are banished from the town. Soon after, the scene cuts to the new homestead for the family, with farm buildings still in the process of being built. The eldest daughter, Thomasin, is in prayer, confessing her sins before taking over care for her baby brother, Samuel. While playing peek-a-boo with the immobile Samuel, the infant suddenly vanishes. Thomasin goes to search for the child in the forest, but his fate is revealed in the next transition as a woman is shown killing Samuel and using his remains to create a poultice for flying.

The family is next shown several days later, with Katherine heavily grieving for her missing child. William takes his oldest son, Caleb, hunting in the woods. The conversation turns grim as William admits that the child must be dead at this point, and the conversation turns to the fate awaiting Samuel in the next, as he was unbaptized. William admits two truths in the forest: no one, including himself, knows the fate of Samuel’s soul, and that he has used his wife’s silver cup to trade for hunting supplies. They spot a rabbit, and the inexperience of William’s hunting ability seems to show through as the gun misfires and William injures his eye.

Upon their return, William is confronted by Katherine while their twin children play about the yard singing a song about their black goat, Black Phillip. Caleb covers for their whereabouts, claiming he thought he saw an apple tree. During dinner that night, Katherine’s hostility for Thomasin’s part in the loss of Samuel begins to froth over the edge, and makes an accusation that Thomasin has lost her silver cup.

Overnight, the parents have a bedtime conversation about the fate of two of their children: Samuel and Thomasin. The worry over Samuel’s immortal soul arises again, and they discuss having Thomasin serve another family. The parents are overheard by their two oldest children, which, in turn causes both to leave early in the next morning to check the traps, with Thomasin trailing after her brother and threatening to wake their parents if he doesn’t take her. They idly chat and Thomasin reminisces about their life in England, and how they had luxuries like windows.

Deep into the woods, the pair spot the same rabbit that Caleb had seen previously. Their dog, Fowler, along with the horse that Thomasin had ridden go into a frenzy over the appearance of the rabbit, which sends Fowler and Samuel chasing the down the rabbit, and renders Thomasin unconscious. Caleb loses Fowler and gets himself lost, and later finds the dog’s corpse deeper into the forest. He also finds a roughly built home which seemingly belongs to a beckoning young woman. Caleb is enchanted by the young woman, but he ventures into her embrace, the woman’s arm appears old and wrinkled.

Thomasin awakes and returns home, but without the horse, and without Caleb. Katherine’s anger at losing yet another child bursts out of her, blaming her for all of the family’s misfortune, including the lost cup. William intervenes on the last point, confessing what he had done with the cup. This appears to ease some of the tension between the eldest daughter and mother.

Caleb suddenly reappears at the farm during the night, ill and nude. He makes some incoherent comments before going unconscious. He awakes in the morning, begins to babble again, though this time seems to be more holy. He then vomits out an apple and dies shortly after. Witchcraft is suspected, and the twins accuse Thomasin, who had jokingly told the pair that she was a witch early on in the film. They then act as though they too are bewitched, unable to pray and fall over unconscious. William takes Thomasin outside, who then accuses the twins of witchcraft, as they have talked to speaking to the goat Black Phillip. William returns to the house, and realizes the twins were faking. He then takes his three remaining children to the goat house and boards them in, noting that he will let the towns priests sort out judgement.

Overnight, several visitors called upon the farm. The children wake through the night to see a woman drinking milk directly from the goat’s teats. Katherine is visited by what appears to be Caleb holding Samuel. He offers Katherine the baby to nurse at her breast. The scene then changes to show that its actually a crow pecking away at her breast.

The next morning, William and Katherine awake in their bed, Katherine with a blood stain on her chest. William goes to check on the children, and finds the goat house destroyed, twins missing, and the goats disemboweled. He is then gored to death by Black Phillip. Thomasin awakes to discover the carnage and her dead father. As she reaches for William, Katherine intervenes and then accuses her daughter of not only being a witch, but of lusting after Samuel. The pair struggle on the ground, and Thomasin mortally strikes her mother with a spade as Katharine attempts to choke her daughter.

The film closes with Thomasin confronting Black Phillip to speak to her. The goat answers and turns into a handsome man, asking what she wants and if she would like. Thomasin agrees to sign her name in his book and strips naked. She follows the goat form into the woods and comes across a group of witches deep into a chant, who begin to levitate, with Thomasin’s laughter filling the final scene.

 

Religion in The Witch

(Scott Bash)

From the opening scene, the audience is told that religion is going to be a central piece of the story being told. William is seemingly on trial for some unknown crime. He challenges his accusers, claiming they are unfit to judge him, as they are not following the words of Christ. In the first few minutes of the film, we are given a fair amount of detail to analyze to better understand this scene. When the title of the films appears on the screen, a subtitle appears, noting that what proceeds it is “A New England Tale.” During this early scene, we can deduce that this group of settlers is fairly new, as William notes that they all left their homes to follow their faith. The location, time period, and the particular type of zeal that William holds all point to one particular sect of Christianity: Puritanism.

In Colonial America: A Very Short Introduction, author Alan Taylor, sheds light on this rather fanatical group. The Puritans first started arriving on the New England coast in 1620 on the famous Mayflower, and founded Plymouth, with a large migration occurring in a decade later in 1630 (61). Its entirely possible that William and his family were among the many who arrived on the New England coast at this time. As for the contempt that William has for the town’s leaders, that is also a notable characteristic of the Puritans. The sect was notable for its challenges in authority, as they believed in equality amongst “godly men”, and were largely viewed as a threat by the English ruling class (pg 67). William, convinced of his righteousness, would have deeply believed in his conviction to fight back.

Throughout the film, the audience can see the family ponder whether which kind of otherworldly forces were responsible for the family’s misfortunes. As mentioned during Week 4’s lectures, Puritans believed that both God and Satan were active in our world. When Katherine and William are discussing the loss of Samuel, Katherine questions whether this was an act of God’s wrath. William dismisses the idea, stating that they had directly experienced God’s bounty in that this was the first time that they had lost a child, and who amongst them could say that they had never had to watch a child die. Conversely, the Puritans were quick to believe in the agents of Satan brining about misfortune. For the Puritans, their boogeyman (or rather bogeywoman as 80% of the accused were women) were witches, and they actively sought to prosecute those accused of witchcraft (Taylor 71). While William later confesses his sin of pride, one can see why he would so easily believe that Lucifer’s minions worked against him. If he had believed that he was acting in accordance to God’s plan, how could God be punishing him? It would have to be witch. Complicating the issue was the fact that their exile meant that the witch would have to come from his own family. When his children began to accuse one another of witchcraft, he could not turn a deaf ear.

References

Taylor, Alan. “Chapter 5: New England.” Colonial America: A Very Short Introduction. Volume 1, New York, Oxford University Press, 2013, 71-73.

Gender Roles in The Witch

(Kevin Howell)

Due to The Witch being centered around one family in the wilderness, we do not get very many scenes of gender roles within a large community during the film, as the only experience we get is the banishment scene at the beginning of the film.  However, it does spend a lot of time showing gender roles within the family dynamic in early New England.  This allows us to experience the different responsibilities and powers assigned to fathers, mothers, daughters, and sons.

During the banishment scene of the movie, women are present however the only people who speak are men, and the panel who are representing the plantation to banish William’s family are made up of only men.  Through this scene we are shown the lack of power and representation that women have in the loosely constructed court system that exists in early New England.  This scene also shows that a patriarchy exists when a family is represented to the larger community.  The panel never addresses Katherine, as it is expected that her husband represents her in the eyes of the community and his beliefs are assumed to be hers as well.

Once the family settles into their home in the wilderness we get to see how responsibilities are assigned to different members of the family.  Katherine has jobs such as working inside of the house and doing things like preparing meals.  William primarily works outside the home, either in the fields attempting to grow food or in the woods hunting and trapping food.  As the eldest daughter, Thomasin primarily works in the immediate area in and around the house.  She has responsibilities like bringing water to the house, gathering food and taking care of the farm animals, doing laundry, and helping to take care of the youngest children.  As the eldest son, Caleb helps William with his tasks.  Through all of this, we can see that women are assigned the roles of caretakers while men are assigned the roles of providers.

The time in the film that we are shown the true powerlessness of Thomasin that was available to her at this time is shown between the scene where William and Katherine are discussing what to do after Caleb returns to the family and is extremely ill.  William decides to take Caleb and Thomasin back to the plantation in order to find a doctor for Caleb and a family to take Thomasin.  His reasoning for this is because Thomasin is now becoming a woman so it is time for her to leave their household and join another family.  This can be viewed as a form of arranged marriage where William is going to find a suitor for his daughter with little to no input of what she wants to do.

Life Outside the Pale

Ja’mera Ross

Historical Accuracies and Inaccuracies

Ryann Hartenstein

“The Witch” is based around the time 1630 in the New England settlement in North America. In that time the settlers were Puritans which were members of the English Protestant Church. Puritans believed in absolute sovereignty of God and the best way to of gaining is favor was through close relationships governed by small prayer and sermon. At the beginning of the movie we see the family become exiled from the village because the father was still practicing and preaching the Puritan religion that the settlers wanted to escape from England. The family was forced to pack up their belongings and travel to another location and survive on their own. A majority of the movie takes place in the remote location and only focuses on the family. Through this time I will go through the different aspects of the movie and whether or not they can be deemed historically accurate.

Setting

As mentioned in the paragraph above, the setting of this movie is around 1630 in the New England settlement. During this time the settlers hovered around the coast because it was where they first landed and it was an immediate source of food and water. All of their buildings were made of wood as well as their fences because wood was the most abundantly available resource sturdy enough to withstand weather. Livestock was their main source of food, you see a lot of chickens, goats, and sheep in the movie. There is praise given to Egger, the director of the movie, about how accurate the setting was portrayed during the movie. The buildings were made out of materials that the settlers used. There was some differences due to the fact that filming took place in the middle of winter which made construction difficult. The similarities between the setting in the movie as well as historical recordings of what the settlements looked like are accurate.

Dialogue

The Dialogue used in the movie is an example of old English diction and syntax. You hear the actors use words like “doudst” and “thee” which was the normal way of speaking. Egger underwent extensive research when it came to the dialogue. A main resource Egger used was writing from Cotton Mather. Mather was writing down any account of witchcraft whether it was from a court testimony or any other account. He recorded the findings and transformed them into narratives. Egger actually used these narratives and directly transformed them into dialogue for the characters in the movie. He also even incorporated some events from Mather’s finding to inspire the plot. By using this primary source of information, it improves the historical accuracy of the dialogue used within the movie. The diction and syntax are more authentic and add historical value to the plot line.

Costume Design

Costume design is another crucial part of a movie that factors in whether out or a film can be considered historically accurate. A challenge that Egger faced when researching was the lack of images that showed what kind of clothing people where wearing and what it looked like. Egger went into museums and asked many different historians for guidance. After some time, he was able to come to a conclusion on what the dress looked like. All clothing was hand woven during that time period, due to budget it was difficult to afford all costumes. The costume designer only bought some hand woven materials when it was necessary. The detailing was the most important aspect of making the clothes historically accurate. Since all clothes were handwoven, there needed to be seams visible and the cloth needed to look like it was woven together. The costuming was a difficult task to do, but in the movie it added to the historical value.

Even if “The Witch” is historical fiction, there is nothing fiction about the portrayal of the time period through the costumes, set, and dialogue used in the movie. There was exploring done on each aspect of the movie to ensure that it was historically accurate. The movie has received so much praise because of the portrayal of the time period. Through extensive research, Robert Egger was able to pull together an authentic take in the 1630 New England settlement. After researching myself, I do believe that despite the plot being fictional, the elements of “The Witch” by Robert Egger are historically accurate.

https://www.shmoop.com/colonial-new-england/primary-sources.html provides several examples of primary sources to learn more about colonial New England.

Works Cited

Haughton, Aaron. “The Historical Accuracies of The Witch Part 3 (Dialogue).” Viddy Well, Viddy Well, 22 Oct. 2017, www.viddy-well.com/articles/the-historical-accuracies-of-the-witch-part3.

Haughton, Aaron. “The Historical Accuracies Of The Witch Part 2 (Costume & Set).” Viddy Well, Viddy Well, 15 Oct. 2017, www.viddy-well.com/articles/the-historical-accuracies-of-the-witch-part

Filmic Analysis of The Witch

Cristina Buonaiuto

Extending the (American) Gothic from Narrative to Film:

Elements of the Gothic:

duality, disorder, paranoia, boundlessness, uncertainty, nature, instinct

 

Dualities

The push-and-pull between the rational and irrational—a consequence of the shift in thinking brought about by the Enlightenment during Colonial times—is explored in the film

the Gothic finds holes in Enlightenment thinking, it preys on primeval fears and anxieties

Dualities: reason and passion; external and internal; supernatural and natural; real and fantastic; disorder and order

Ex) the forest represents the boundary between the order and familiarity of the homestead and the disorder of the unknown

How does The Witch portray the time period differently than The Crucible?

• The Witch evokes a sense of what it might actually feel like, psychologically, to be alive in that specific time period; to make it seem as real to us as it was to them
• It is hard for us to conceptualize such radical beliefs;
• Eggers tries to imbue the film with as much realism as possible to put us in the shoes of the characters and make clear that these people really were afraid and scared of this stuff—it felt very real to them
• The director accomplishes this by employing a harsh sense of realism

Realism:

Naturalistic lighting

Location shooting

Historical accuracies (e.g. the spoken language; the wood used; the use of a “pole” or “stick” instead of a broom; the costuming [Eggers])

Ex) two historically accurate depictions of the physical separation employed between men and women at the time

The Uncanny

The uncanny is essential in the understanding of competing dualities that are commonly present in the gothic

Elements of the Uncanny:

Familiar/unfamiliar

1. 1. “that class of terrifying which leads back to something long known to us, one very familiar” (Freud 20)
   2. More plainly put, that which is familiar, yet unfamiliar or strange
      1. Ex) the twins’ outfits make them look like little, old people, creating a tension that might be considered creepy or uncanny

Repetition and repression

1. 1. “something repressed that recurs […] the uncanny as something which ought to have remained hidden but has some to light” (Freud 47)
   2. More clearly, that which is repressed (and hoped to stay repressed) is exposed
      1. Ex) Caleb’s sexual desires for his sister Thomasin
         1. Expressed through eyeline match between Caleb’s eyes and Thomasin’s bust
         2. Thomasin is a threat to the order and stability of the home because she is maturing/coming-of-age

Gender Dynamics

• a commentary on the horrors of patriarchy, despite the intentional ambivalence (the film is not supposed to function as a “who-done-it”), the one thing that is obvious is William’s/the father’s role in the misfortunes of the family
  • Ex) Consider for instance: his deciding on behalf of the family (likely as Separatists) to leave; he brings Caleb into the woods the first time around; he stole “thy silver cup”, not Thomasin
• It seems that everything leads back to the father

 

Upending the Conventions of Genres—Horror, Gothic, Fairytale

• Horror, Gothic, Fairytale: Eggers combines all three genres which are historically known their commentary on and fears of the female body
• These genres are often associated with negative messages regarding females
• Order tends to be restored at the end of classic gothics like Rebecca and Jane Eyre
• On the flip side, these genres also provide ground for commentary on subconscious fears and anxieties, providing an outlet for criticism
• Eggers’ inverts this convention, and injects staunchly feminist perspective into his film
• Order is not restored in The Witch, Thomasin prevails as a sort of postmodern Final Girl

Work cited:

Freud, Sigmund. “The Uncanny.” 1919. Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Ed. Vincent Letich. New York: W.W. Norton, 2001.

Eggers, Robert. Audio commentary. The Witch. Dir. Eggers. A24, 2016. AppleTV.

Movie stills from: https://film-grab.com/2016/10/07/the-witch/#