Bathsheba garnett the witch interview

As much the Puritans were aware of sin and self flagellation, they also wanted to push it away. The more you do that, the more likely it will explode. How specifically were you weeding out potential cast members when you were filling the roles of the film. What strengths did the individual cast members possess that made them the right choices?

Eggers: First of all, I was lucky to find the right investors, that allowed me to do what I wanted with casting, specifically to get actors who could handle the language and the atmosphere. Everyone I cast could automatically handle the language. Yes, they had to learn how to work a farm in the 17th century, but they also had to get along as a family, because we were going into very dark places.

They needed to understand themselves, how to get out of that. Eggers: They were kept away from the darkness, and their parts were done as choreography. It took a long time to find the twins, but when I found the child actors I asked them to tell me the story of Little Red Riding Hood together. Their faith will protect them, he claims.

Catherine, certainly, prays continually that it will be so.

Bathsheba garnett the witch interview: Interview: Director Robert Eggers

But the fourth or fifth time she uncovers her eyes, Samuel is … gone. Thomasin insists that she knows nothing of how the boy disappeared. The more Thomasin pleads her innocence, the more her increasingly unhinged parents doubt her earnestness. So the question is not whether, but who. William may not always channel his deep spiritual conviction in the right directions, but few would fault him for how he strives to provide for and protect his family.

Thomasin, for her part, is a mostly kind, hard-working teen who seeks to serve her family—both her parents and her younger siblings—despite accusations being hurled against her from both directions. William is absolutely devoted to leading his family in holiness and the ways of the Lord, which should be a good thing. Catherine, especially, seems to fear the prospect of hell.

Eventually, such worry forces her to slip perilously close to insanity. And I confess it. Oh my God, I am foul. I am infected with the filth of pride. I am, I know it. Dispose of me how Thy wilt, yet redeem my children. I beg Thee, my Christ, why hast Thou damned my family? For there is a very real witch living in the forest—many of them, in fact.

And it is one of them who steals Samuel and kills him, sacrificing him to Satan. Caleb is possessed after encountering a beautiful witch in the forest perhaps the same woman, who uses the blood sacrifice to restore her youth. Two more children are killed by the witches. And after the death of her parents certainly not of natural causesThomasin, the lone survivor, begins talking to Black Philip, the goat, asking if he is in fact the devil.

Bathsheba garnett the witch interview: Spencer Fornaciari interviews writer/director Robert

Suffice it to say that an internal powder keg has now been lit and although there might be a sinister evil lurking in the nearby woods, it is the imploding on both a spiritual and a psychological level family dynamic that might just be the scariest thing of them all…. Yet as that is going we see that this slice of cinema simultaneously chooses to slowly but surely raise the tension between the family members to such a level that this film darn near could be viewed as a honest analysis of a family having a complete and utter mental collapse that is only made worse by the belief held by the family heads that every calamity that they are stricken with is a way for God to test them.

Indeed if this slice of cinema is one that can be interpreted as a cautionary saga about the danger of the wrong kind of religious faith being left unchecked and permitted to drive a family to madness, it at the same time also strives to give the other side of the coin its proper representation as well. A feat it manages to achieve by becoming a film that also functions as a waking cinematic nightmare where you are never entirely sure where reality has decided to hit pause for a bathroom break and where fantasy has come in with a big bowl of popcorn and taken over for a while.

Of course, the potency of this film is also magnified beautifully by how skilled the work behind the camera is. Suffice it to say every person behind the camera does a wonderful job at making sure their work is able to fit into the eerie and creepy vibe of the film and come together into a truly frightening whole and in that regard this slice of cinema is an unequivocal success.

Indeed in the role of the well-meaning albeit slightly in denial about just how badly his family dynamic is crumbling away under him family patriarch William, we see the gravely-voiced Ralph Ineson bring a terrific sense of gravity to the part and in the role of the family matriarch Katherine, we get a terrific turn from Katie Dickie as a woman who may let a degree of humanity shine through every now and then, but who in the wake of her baby disappearing and all the other creepy things going on has finally started to lose her marbles and when she does it is truly unnerving and terrifying in the best way possible.

As for the pair of leads who are a bit more on the younger spectrum I can safely say that they both are able to do equally as wonderful work as their adult peers.

Bathsheba garnett the witch interview: In the new independent horror

Indeed whether he is questioning his father about faith or just simply trying to keep the family together, we see that Harvey Scrimshaw is downright magnetic as Caleb plus his exit from the film is one that is truly chilling in the best way possible. However if there is a single cast member who manages to walk away with this film, it would have to be Anya Taylor-Joy in the role of Thomasin.

Indeed skilled at being able to look simultaneously innocent yet also smugly aware, Taylor-Joy does a wonderful job as the movie goes on at becoming the voice of reason in a situation and world where reason is in horrifically short supply. In 17th century New England, Puritans settled America. They came fearing persecution from the Church of England and believed in the supernatural.

They came with strict beliefs about the role of religion in their life, especially evident in their view of the Devil. In fact, both the Devil and God were real to most citizens. They believed the Devil was an active agent of evil in their daily lives and was responsible for all hardships they encountered, and it was important to respect and fear the Devil even as they detested him.

At the time, Puritans believed women to be particularly weak to the influences of the Devil. Some women were completely lost to God and turned to witchcraft to serve the Devil fully by committing his deeds. Since its January premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, it has caused much of a stir, especially now that its nightmarish trailer is released on the web.