VVITCH (2015)

[ER]

This is the kind of movie that builds slowly and lingers long in memory, getting into your head as effectively as that worm that boogied in Chekhov's brain in The Wrath of Khan, returning later to taunt in the dead of night, making lines you laughed at in the height of day, lines about eating butter, and lines about a goat named Black Phillip, seem disturbing later, and for all those reasons I salute the makers of VVITCH for managing to give us authentic horror set in a period (the deodorant-less 17th century) that rarely gets much onscreen time despite being grossly rich in potential, so on a scale of a (Showgirls-like) F- to an (LA Confidential-ish) A+ I give it a sound B+ and say it's a good flick that's worth ninety-three minutes of time as your fleeting life dwindles away and death (and according to the characters in VVITCH Hellfire) await you, so, sure, if that's how you want to invest an hour and a half of the scant time you have remaining in a life that's---face it---mostly gone, by all means do because VVITCH was really quite enjoyable in a getcha-later fashion, so cheerfully say I as I spread good will to one and all.

[akiratubo]

I thought it was "meh".  Not scary.  The most interesting thing about it is the very understated implication that Thomasin was Thomas's bastard child with another woman, and that is what allowed Satan/Black Philip/Mr. Dark/whatever he was to get his hooks into the family.

[indianasmith]

I liked the way this one captured the Puritans' steadfast conviction that the devil was lurking in every corner, just waiting for us to give him an opportunity to jack with us.  Also the actress who played Thomasina was just brilliant; she's been excellent in every role I have seen her in.

[ER]

I thought it was "meh".  Not scary.  The most interesting thing about it is the very understated implication that Thomasin was Thomas's bastard child with another woman, and that is what allowed Satan/Black Philip/Mr. Dark/whatever he was to get his hooks into the family.

I missed the implication about Thomasin's parentage and now you got me thinking.

[clockworkcanary]

I missed that, too.

I always figured, whatever the reason they were ostracized from the initial community was the reason they were more vulnerable (although the town learning of this implication could have been the catalyst).

It's been awhile since I watched it, but I loved it.

[Alex]

Enjoyed this one. There have been quite a few well-made horror films recently that have walked away from the throwing buckets of gore and blood at the screen. Nice to see a slow build horror film.

[ER]

I've never been able to think of butter the same way since.

[Ted C]

The Devil / Black Phillip didn't seem any worse than the messed-up adults in that family.

[zelmo73]

The Devil / Black Phillip didn't seem any worse than the messed-up adults in that family.

It made sense to me that He was the one that ended up killing the father, as it seemed to me that Thomasina wasn't going to last much longer before her father finally knocked her off for whatever reason that he could come up with. I'll have to rewatch the movie sometime to catch the part of Thomasina being the bastard child from another woman; because of the heavy accents, I never could quite hear why the family was getting kicked out of town at the beginning of the movie.

This movie felt to me like The Shining (1980) set outdoors in 17th Century New England, because it has the same slow build and doom as The Shining (1980) had. Black Philip was definitely my favorite character in this one!