Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘The Witch’

Written by Scott Edwards

There are many ways families are run and most of the time it is by the father who should be the strongest and most willing to give anything to protect them. But when the father is wrong with his decisions, there is very little that the family is able to do to keep themselves safe, at least when it came to the old days. With no power ever being given to the women back then, it is nice to see how much times have changed, and, in many households, mothers run it and have a good reason to. It is hard to say who is the best one to run the household, as there are good things that come from both sides being in charge and I would hope that when that is the case, both mother and father work together to make sure their family is sound.
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For not following what the elders of the town are preaching, William and his family are banished and forced to leave and live on their own. Finding the perfect place on the edge of the forest, William knows that they will be happy and make a better life for themselves. But there is something evil lurking in the woods and after his oldest daughter Thomasin loses her baby brother to something or someone, the attitude of the family starts to change. Needing to find out what happened to their newest born child, William and his eldest son Caleb try to search for the newborn with no avail, but even the search comes with a price.

Waking up alone with her set of twins, Katherine is upset that she was not woken and left with a man in the house to defend her. With one child going missing, Katherine is beside herself and will not allow another to be claimed by the evil that could be roaming in the woods. With plenty of blame to be placed on Thomasin for her baby going missing, Katherine is not ready to let her oldest get near her again and the separation continues to get worse. When young Caleb starts to get unnatural feelings about his sister and is interrupted by one of the twins who will not be quiet, Thomasin tries to quell the situation by saying that she is the witch of the woods and those words continue to ring through the younger child’s head. Thinking little about what she has said and done, Thomasin sees that her family believes the lies she told when Caleb becomes the next victim of the witch in the woods. Even with the return of Caleb to his family, Katherine will not accept any help from her oldest child, knowing that her black magic is what did this to her other children and tries to banish her from the house, but the family quickly discovers that it will take much more than that to solve their newfound problems with the supernatural...
 
Sometimes I have a hard time with movies that purely take the religious route, but this one did alright with it. With prayers for everything happening all the time, you understand how much the family believes that God will be there to save them from anything that falls their way. However, the glamorous side of prayer comes about when Caleb makes his way back home and shows that he has been possessed by the Devil himself and witchcraft has been used to take the boy’s life. Wanting to atone for their sins, the family tries everything that they know, but when the blame continues to fall on Thomasin, they keep digging their graves deeper and deeper.

Five Takeaways

1. Witches may not always be visible, but they are always around.
2. When your children start going on and on about a goat, it is not a good thing.
3. Animals with black fur are creatures of the devil.
4. When an apple falls out of your son’s mouth from a lie, it is time to get him some help.
5. Don’t place the blame for all of your failures in life on your child, especially when there is a better life to be made in the woods.

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