Robert Egger’s debut film, The Witch, is made like a true veteran of horror. Set in Puritan New England, the film tells a story of a teenage girl named Thomasin and her family as they are tormented by a supernatural presence in the woods. Eggers builds tension with his use of negative space and a mix of period detail and supernatural elements. The film followed that those accused of witchcraft were those who were unable to fit in with the strict Puritan expectations for women, for example, when the mother expresses anxiety that her daughter is at risk for moral imperfections. The mother doesn’t have the same concerns about Caleb. Eggers was able to reflect the scarcity of the period – minor hardships were attributed to witches, such as a lack of food or a perceived threat of the wilderness. Many of the witch accusations were just ‘women policing the behavior of other women’ such as the mother constantly berating Thomasin’s actions like her inability to look after her siblings (taking care of children).
Interestingly, the original draft of the film was about how the titular witch manifests to different members of the family. As Eggers worked through the second draft of the script, he realized that Thomasin was the protagonist of the story and that the film still worked as an ensemble piece. In the story, the demonic partners took many forms such as a goat, rabbit, a beautiful woman, etc. While the rest of the family is surrounded by these entities, Thomasin is still targeted by her parents and siblings who come to think that she is in line with the devil. As The Witch progresses, it becomes clear that devil’s goal is to free Thomasin from her family so that she can join the coven. Eggers is careful to communicate the darkness of Thomasin’s coercion but doesn’t shy away from the fact that she is escaping a repressive society. This is the first time Thomasin is able to make a choice on her own so one may interpret the film as a ‘happy ending’ or even feminist.