The Witch (USA: Robert Eggers, 2015)
Film description: "In 1630 New England, panic and despair envelops a farmer, his wife and their children when youngest son Samuel suddenly vanishes. The family blames Thomasin, the oldest daughter who was watching the boy at the time of his disappearance. With suspicion and paranoia mounting, twin siblings Mercy and Jonas suspect Thomasin of witchcraft, testing the clan's faith, loyalty and love to one another."
"Witches have a long history in horror cinema but their status (feminist heroine or patriarchal monster?) continues to be the subject of critical debate. Barbara Creed’s seminal analysis notes that the witch is invariably represented as an old, ugly, crone. Elsewhere, Linda Williams’s suggestion that women and monsters share an affinity in horror film and pose a threat to vulnerable male power, has lead recent critics to consider depictions of the witch as offering a challenge to patriarchy. This article considers the genealogy of the witch in cinema through her depiction in folk horror, culminating in an analysis of Robert Eggers’s 2016 film, The Witch. Examining the debate around the feminist potential of the witch, the article concludes that she offers critics and viewers of horror cinema a troubling ambiguity that serves neither liberal nor conservative politics. The ambiguity of the witch means she can pressed in the service of competing discourses. Moreover, we cannot read the image of the witch independent of her origins in Early Modern history, nor of political and cultural contexts of these early decades of the twenty-first century. These contexts include the rise of the ‘Men’s Rights’ movement, a post-feminist backlash against women in authority, the creation of mainstream media platforms for misogynist ideas and rising economic and social inequalities that have disproportionately affected women. In these contexts, the figure of the witch looms large and ambiguity in itself is not necessarily subversion. As one reviewer of The Witch notes, the audience will see what they want to see." - Chloe Germaine Buckley (in resource archive)
Resources for after you watch the film
A Dark Song (Ireland/UK: Liam Gavin, 2016)
Film Description: "A heartbroken woman and recluse occultist perform an ancient, dark ritual to bring her child back to life – but missteps have consequences and unknown evils are unleashed."
Resources for after you watch the film:
November (Estonia/Poland/Netherlands: Rainer Sarnet, 2017)
Film Description: "In this tale of love and survival in 19th century Estonia, peasant girl Liina longs for village boy Hans, but Hans is inexplicably infatuated by the visiting German baroness that possesses all that he longs for. For Liina, winning Hans’ requited love proves incredibly complicated in this dark, harsh landscape where spirits, werewolves, plagues, and the devil himself converge, where thievery is rampant, and where souls are highly regarded, but come quite cheap. With alluring black and white cinematography, Rainer Sarnet vividly captures these motley lives as they toil to exist—is existence worth anything if it lacks a soul?"
Resources for after you watch the film:
Francis Young's response to November
Emily Buder - "How Tribeca's Best Cinematography Winner 'November' Captured Stunning B&W and Infrared with 6 Cameras."
Alci Rengifo - "Love in the Shadowland of Myth: Rainer Sarnet’s November."
Suspiria (Italy/USA: Luca Guadagnino, 2018)
Film Description: "A darkness swirls at the center of a world-renowned dance company, one that will engulf the artistic director, an ambitious young dancer, and a grieving psychotherapist. Some will succumb to the nightmare. Others will finally wake up."
Resources for after you watch the film:
Heller-Nicholas, Alexander. "Three Mothers Redux: Kathy Acker, Pina Bausch, Tilda Swinton and Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria." Senses of Cinema #88 (October 2018)
Jones, Alan. "Killing the Mother: Luca Guadagnino Discusses Suspiria." Notebook (November 16, 2018)
The Empty Man (USA: David Prior, 2020)
Film description: "After a group of teens from a small Midwestern town begin to mysteriously disappear, the locals believe it is the work of an urban legend known as The Empty Man. As a retired cop investigates and struggles to make sense of the stories, he discovers a horrific secret that puts his life—and the lives of those close to him—in grave danger."
Resources for after you watch the film:
Tafoya, Scout. "The Unloved, Pt. 93: The Empty Man." Roger Ebert (September 1, 2021) ["Whatever else is true of David Prior, "The Empty Man" is one of the most promising debuts in the last several years of American cinema. I greatly look forward to what he concocts next, whether I agree with its thesis or not. I enjoyed that while watching "The Empty Man" I was guessing the entire time what would happen next, and in every case I was proven wrong. That is rare enough without factoring in his considerable formal abilities. I like this movie a lot, and I’m ready for Halloween to get here so we can all kvetch about our shared need to be scared by the unreal instead of the very real."]
Adam Nayman's Interview - "Everything Zen: David Prior on The Empty Man."
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