Witch
Witch
Witch (101 Films) on digital
From 101 comes an imaginative, dreamlike tale of a 16th Century community under oppressive church scrutiny, a priest who sees witches at every turn and a young blacksmith and his family caught by its intrusive gaze. This British folk-horror is directed by Craig Hinde and Mark Zamitt who co-wrote the tale with David Baboulen.
Eschewing naked romps and dark deeds on a blasted heath, ‘Witch’ instead draws on the unnerving power of events half-seen through flickering lights, mysterious gusts of wind stirring the forest floor and malicious village gossip in the escalating nightmare that was England’s witch mania.
Shuttling back and forth in the timelines of our main characters, a disturbing picture is built up of a tense, inward looking rural community slowly eroding itself, pursuing petty gripes that quickly turn into full blown vendettas, peppered with accusations and counter-accusations of witchcraft.
The portrayal of this semi-rural backwater is handled well, with winding, climbing streets filled with stone houses and its woods and clearings beyond, with its few rude, turf-roofed cottages.
The appearance of an elderly man with a wild tale to tell seeds the plot and a crazed young woman carrying two gory burdens is a powerful early shock. The trial of the other-worldly, nursey rhyme murmuring woman for murder proceeds at an injudiciously swift pace, the all-male jury especially selected by the judge’s paid thugs for their local business interests and prejudices. They return an inevitable guilty verdict and death sentence on this poor, distracted woman.
William, a blacksmith (Ryan Spong) knows his wife Twyla (Sarah Alexandra Marks) has also been wrongly accused of witchcraft and sets about finding the real culprit for this grisly murder.
It's here that the story turns from realistic medieval rural life, to a fantastical circular journey through an underworld where there is a chance that past wrongs can be righted, but at what cost, and to whom?
‘Witch’ is no mere shocker, but a well-handled tale of family devotion in a tight community caught in the twin grip of religious dogma and supernatural terror.
Scenester1964 1/4/24
Trailer: https://youtu.be/KVMSTFSey9A
Buy Here: https://101-films-store.com/
