Exiled to the outskirts of a creepy forest in 1630 New England, a God-fearing couple and their children fall into suspicion and paranoia when an infant son vanishes in The Witch. A teenage daughter is soon accused of witchcraft, but it's debut director Robert Eggers who casts the real spell, say critics:
- Eggers transports viewers to a 17th-century farm and "leaves us, like the family, to fend for ourselves." That's what makes The Witch "so effective, and so incredibly creepy," writes Bill Goodykoontz at the Arizona Republic. "This isn't a 'boo!' type of horror movie," he adds. Instead, Eggers "builds tension until it's almost unbearable."
- This is "a stressful movie to watch, and that's meant as the highest praise," writes Molly Eichel at the Philadelphia Inquirer. It feels "eerie in every sense … even when nothing explicitly scary is happening." The whole cast is "phenomenal" but Anya Taylor-Joy, playing the teenage daughter, shines above the rest with her "preternatural ability to telegraph fear," writes Eichel. "She's hypnotic, and so is The Witch."