The Witch Review

The film opens with the father of the family, William, standing before a panel of Puritan judges being defiant. We’re never told exactly what William is on trial for, but my guess is it’s for being kind of a dick.

The family is banished from the Puritan plantation and sets out to create a homestead on the edge of the forest. The dissonant music tells us that this is not going to bode well for them.

Within the first 10 minutes of the film, the families baby is stolen literally right from under Thomasin.

Not to waste any time, Eggers establishes that, yes, the witches in this movie are real, and yes, they are scary af. We are shown the witch murder the baby and literally grind it down to bits with a mortar and pestel to rub the remnants over her wrinkled bent body.

This movie does not fuck around.

While you might think that the entertainment of this movie might come from the over the top violence that that scene might convey, the real good stuff comes from great characters and subtle interpersonal drama.

This movie is brilliantly written. It really explores the fragility of human life, and their will resist their weaknesses.

As the family works hard to mitigate their disastrous corn harvest, it is made clear that the cards are stacked against them. In the wood is not only the witch, but her master the devil is also exceedingly close. We see hints that outside forces are conspiring against them. We are given hints that some of the animals we see are either the witches familiar, or are inhabited by dark forces. You can tell that they are evil because they have real shifty eyes.

Everyone in the family is dealing with their own struggles and doesn’t really notice the obvious signs of satanic interference. Caleb is dealing with his burgeoning puberty. Katherine is dealing with the grief of losing her child. Thomasin is dealing with the guilt of losing Sam on her watch. William is trying to hold everything together. The twins… well the twins are mainly praying to a goat. We hear them sing this song to their black goat:

Black Phillip, Black Phillip, A crown grows out his head,
Black Phillip, Black Phillip, To nanny queen is wed.
Jump to the fence post, Running in the stall.
Black Phillip, Black Phillip, King of all.
Black Phillip, Black Phillip, King of sky and land,
Black Phillip, Black Phillip, King of sea and sand.
We are ye servants, We are ye men.
Black Phillip eats the lions From the lions’ den.

The Twins’ song

The events quickly turn south when Caleb goes missing in the woods. We see him captured by a seductive witch in the woods.

Now the family is exceedingly suspicious of Thomasin since both disappearances happened with her around. Things are only made worse, when Thomasin finds Caleb naked and bewitched.

In a family prayer circle, Caleb comes to, but rants about the witch tormenting him, then the sighs in religious ecstasy as he is accepted into the bosom of Christ and dies.

The whole time, the twins are accusing Thomasin of being a witch, and eventually William is convinced.

When he confronts Thomasin, she denies the charges, but also spits some hard truths back at William. Mainly that he is a terrible father and farmer, and he is only good at chopping wood. She also points out how close the children have gotten with Black Phillip and that they are actually much more likely witches.

William puts Thomasin and the twins into the shed and boards them in.

Then all hell breaks loose.

The witch appears in the shed and goes full cackle.

William is attacked by Black Phillip and in his last moment, succumbs to evil.

Katherine is tempted by the vision of her dead children.

Finally, Katherine attacks Thomasin, and Thomasin kills her mother in her defense.

The film concludes with Thomasin making a pact with the devil and becoming a witch herself.

this episode of horror movie talk brought to you by Sleepy time Disposable ether wipes. If you’re like me, you hear about all these studies on the benefits of afternoon naps. But who has time and they’re busy schedule to carve out time for a nap. Well, the good people, it’s sleepy time. Have you covered with one swipe of a sleepy time brand disposable, either Wipe you’ll be off to Does land on this News Express. Don’t waste precious minutes of your power nap falling asleep. Let’s Sleepytime disposable. Either Wipes. Release you from consciousness faster than you can say sleepy time disposable ether wipes. Go to sleepy time dot onion and use the code HMT A check out to receive a free pack of sleepy time disposable ether. Wipes for kids Hello and welcome to horror movie talk and opinionated and accidentally funny Horror Movie review Show your panel of expert hosts each week are Dr Bryce Hansen, who holds a phD in Spook ology, and Professor David Day, the foremost expert on scare No nose. New theatrical releases always get priority, but we also review older horror movies both good and horrible. I’m Bryce Hanson and I’m David Day. I’m the foremost expert in scare. No nose. Yes. I don’t know if you knew that, and I appreciate if you’d call me Dr Hansen from now on. Yes, Doctor. I mean handsome. I went to 12 years of college to get my doctorate in spook ology. Well, I mean, you got to respect the position. Respect the the position, not the person, I think, uh, to new listeners. Check out our website at horror movie talk dot com All one word you can put a www in front of that. You know how websites work there? You’ll find links to our social media and past episodes. We post new episodes every Wednesday. So please subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. And please, please, please, if you’re on IOS and use apple podcasts, leave us a rating. And we’re really trying to get up to 200 ratings. That’s our goal. You guys want us on rotten tomato? We wanna be on rotten tomato. So guess who’s gonna be on rotten tomato with or without your help, motherfucker? Say you better get on with your help. You with your note? I meant to say we’ve got a great show I am this so excited for today. This is like I’m I can feel the energy in the room today because this has been a long time coming. Yeah, we’ve talked about this movie quite a bit because it’s one of our favorite movies. It may be my very favorite movie. Yeah, it may be. It may be right behind there will be blood. Yeah, this is Ah, an important film in the horror genre and something that I think fans of ours will like us talking about. Today we’re gonna be talking about the Witch Hall. They will start out by giving a brief review and our score for the movie. We score on a scale of 1 to 10 1 being miserable dredge That makes you angry fiving in perfectly average film. It’s all the expected marks in 10 being so good it transcends genre boundaries. This is all stuff we say in every episode. So let’s get through so we can talk about the witch after we give our score, will get into spoilers and take a deeper dive into what we liked and hated about. The film later will be doing a couple of games we’re gonna be doing taglines perennial favorite as well as a new game, especially for the witch, which is a witch, which is a which which which is which, So we’ll get there. But first, let’s talk about the witch. Let’s indeed we both rewatched the witch. It’s ah, the Times. Have you watched this, I think, is probably my fourth or fifth time. Yeah, this is probably my third. I think it’s available for streaming on Netflix right now, right? And it is as great as I remember it the first time. It is just such a solid perfect. It’s It’s really a great movie, but what’s e I mean? Just wait for our scores, though, because you never know. You never know. I mean, I’m I’m feeling a pretty low score today. Here’s the trailer. What? When we out into this wilderness to find I believe in our country. Kindred our fathers houses For what? For the kingdom of God. Let’s just wait. Family. Wait. Can I leave my senator? We have a show. Okay. Again, Like David mentioned, this film is available for streaming on Netflix. If your Netflix subscriber, you can just watch it for I mean, I guess not technically free. But you can watch it there as well as any you know, rentable streaming platform that’ll be found there. This film is about a family that’s trying to live off the land in 17th century New England after being banished from a Puritan plantation due to ideological differences, the film never tell specifically what these religious differences are. But the father William, played by Ralph Innocent, is a devout man of God that, while prideful and stubborn, is trying to raise his family as zealous Christians. Williams family is made up of his wife, Katherine, played by Kate Dickie, and his five children. Thomason, the eldest teenage girl. Caleb, the next oldest boy who was on the cusp of puberty. And the young twins, Mercy and Jonas. And finally, the Baby Sam, while the while the harsh realities of homesteading in 16 30 present their own danger. What this film is really about is this family being beset by a witch that lives in the nearby woods. There’s well, it’s just general satanic forces. There’s a lot of undercurrents and themes within this movie that go, in my opinion, go much deeper than just the what you see at the surface level, so and, well, I’m going to get into that for sure. So, yeah, um, the film’s original title was the bitch. So ah, lot of times you’ll see this this film with the title of To Capitol these in front of it originally was called The Vite. The vich, a New England folk tale. And it really is that great lengths are taken to make this period piece authentic, from the costume design to the dialogue, which is sometimes taken directly from sources from the time I went in with a certain set of expectations with the film, I thought the major dramatic tension in a super realistic period film would come from the mystery or doubt surrounding false with Kraft accusations. Allah the Crucible. Well, this is not the Crucible know. While realistic, this is still very much a folk tale. And as such, the witches are very riel, and the power of the devil is frighteningly apparent. Yeah, that’s like the major. I mean, it’s it’s so weird seeing it. It’s so accurately portrayed. Yeah, I am. And the characters even more so than a normal period drama Almost and because it felt as dirty as it would be bad. And it’s not like, Yeah, I mean I mean, if you’re trying, if basically, if you’re trying to move out into the middle of the woods in Ontario and ah, which is where this was filmed isn’t in northern Ontario. I’ve been there and it looks just like this, Um and, ah, if you’re trying to do that and really make a make a shot at it, this is what it’s kind of look like. If you don’t have a truck, if you just got ah, horse and some seeds in your pocket Yeah, and so the it’s not. It looks realistic, but it is not based in reality. This is based in a the folk magic and the folk beliefs of the time, which is also just a really interesting thing, like taking like a folk tale like what if you took Paul Bunyan and made a realistic, gritty movie about him? Yeah, it’s no, it’s a turn that I think I wish we had more of these kind of examples of, you know, the the the cautionary tale that was told to keep people in line being riel right that you know. But also they really believe this stuff back then, yes, that’s very much had impact on their lives, as opposed to just being like a children’s story, right? So it should be noted. And several people have noted that this film is important in the genre as being the first in this modern wave of horror films dubbed Elevated Horror. Um, which most of them coming out of the 8 24 film studio. The seriousness and craft that director Robert Eggers brings to this film is undeniable. It showed how successful a serious and cerebral horror movie could be. Yeah, I went into this with high hopes because the trailer was very impressive and I was not disappointed at all. I remember coming out of this going Holy shit. I didn’t know that this kind of thing could happen, right? You know, I didn’t know that you that you could make this kind of like it just was a totally new thing to me, and I was so excited because I like it, gave me hope for more like this, and hereditary really followed it up nicely, right? And it’s it’s kind of a also out of a 24. Yeah, this this moniker of the elevated horror movies I know in the genre. There’s lots of people that take issue with that because it’s saying that the other horror movies aren’t as good. Yeah, but even look around the time I mean production value and the seriousness of the draw of the genre was kind of starting to get more traction even before 2015. So I mean, like, even the conjuring films were a little higher effort. Yeah, they were taking more seriously than a final destination movie, and it was starting to come out of that found footage. Um, period in horror films to where they’re like All right, we’ve we’ve, ah extracted a ton of value out of this idea of found footage where supposedly we’re spending a lot less money to make a lot more money. Yeah, because it feels realistic. And then they started going back more towards high production and higher like artistic. And you’re coming, Merritt, you’re coming out of a decade, you know, 2000 2010 where it was kind of it was kind of a desolate spot for horror movies. I mean, there are obvious, you know, standouts. This is where this is kind of where, you know, found footage was birthed and but a lot of people toe found footage in very high regard. It all, um I I think there’s definitely a time and place for it, but in terms of, ah, big blockbuster horror, there was not a lot going on for a long time. Yeah, this is this one of one of the kick starters? Yeah. I mean, the blockbuster horrors were the found footage movies, right? I mean, Blair witch and paranoia paranormal activities did really well, Yeah, they did really well, the other ones that were really popular, you know, maybe not right around this time, But pretty soon before, it was like more on the torture porn variety, Yes. Hostile and saw and stuff like that that was had it today in the sun. And so this is really kind of a turning point, and some point to it as the first, but, I mean, there’s other films around there. I mean, the Baba do came out before I could say that that was kind of it felt like in the realm of the elevated horror, Um, stuff. I felt like it felt like there. Now. There was being horror made for me, right? Is what this film felt like to me. Um, but I really can’t say enough good things about the which It creates a believable world filled with relatable characters, which brings a really unprecedented gravity to some of the fantastical supernatural elements. There is no doubt in this movie for the audience I want to make a point of that is going in. Like I thought that would be a big part of it. They go full, which they like, full cackle. If it is, we have kids. If you have kids, this is going to be, Ah, hard watch for your wife potential. If your wife is like my wife, they go full, which very early on. And the audience gets to witness in horror the dramatic irony of this poor family being ripped apart by the powers of Satan. Yeah, in a real real way, it’s really ah, disturbing and graphic. It goes hard in the paint, um, you know, But at the same time, it’s not. It’s not very, it’s It’s graphic in the in the graphic parts And then there’s just this. And then it’s mostly a kind of inter family drama. I mean, I can’t even say that there’s a lot of graphic parts. Honestly, it’s one of those films where you you first. So it first so much and you assume that there’s a lot that’s absolutely right. Just the ideas that it’s conveying are so shocking. Oh, well, the end the imagery is shocking to it is shocking. Yes. They don’t show that what? What we may be alluding to right now. And if you’ve seen the which you can probably know what we’re talking about, but they show enough for you to be like Oh, shit. Oh, shit. This is hyper alarming, right? And ah, so I give it a two out of 10. Sorry. Hot right now? Yeah. No, uh, what do you Would you really give it? I give it a 10 out of 10. This is as close to a perfect horror movie for me as as it can get. And I mean, I you can call me your pretentious douchebag. But if you think that this movie sucks, you can just get the fuck out of here, okay? Yeah, just like this is really our lane. Yeah, 100%. And ah, I I definitely 100% agree with you. I like I said, I’ve watched this four or five times. I may enjoy it more than I enjoy hereditary. This is such a good, such a well made, well thought out. Just impressive story from beginning to finish. Like just in terms of Eve. We’re looking at good stories. If all you’re looking for is a good story, this is a fabulous story. There’s no fat on the bone at all. Everything is intentional, everything’s important. Every scene is there for a reason. And it’s so good. It tickles my Dickel the whole way through. Yeah, I think I mean, some people I’ve heard some people say that it feels really slow, but it doesn’t. For me, it’s only an hour and 1\/2. It moves a pretty quick clip, and stuff happens like one after the other. It, if you’re there, is enough time to breathe, and and And there might be an element of hearing the accent and the language of the time. That might be a little off putting. People might not quite understand it would be like, Oh, this is boring because they’re talking boring Talk has listen to their voices. Not only is that but so much of it requires your you to make up to infer right. This is not a horror movie that shows its its hand. You know, this is not a Halloween movie where he’s he’s hacking people up. You know where he’s on the hunt. This is This is a movie that is a It is a slow burn drama, you know it is. It is a drama dramatic story about a family that’s being torn apart. Yeah, and tearing themselves apart like it’s Yeah, there’s lots of stuff that happens between interpersonal relationships. And I think, you know, I gave hereditary of 10 out of 10 also, but I think I might be inclined, agree with you that this kind of edges it out because it’ll that of the sole reason that it is so consistent in tone like there’s not a shift. Hereditary has a definite shift at the end, which I still love. Like it’s not. It’s a totally different thing, someone people complain about, how it like, you know, it’s kind of goes full retard at the end with the with you said the hour with the cult stuff. But this one, You know what’s happening the whole time. And, you know, basically where it’s gonna end up, it’s either gonna end up, they’re saved or it’s gonna very badly. Yeah, Another aspect of this is and this is not This is this is not Thio. This is not to be, um, belittling towards towards people or anything like that. This is just one of these things where if if if you don’t have kids, it may like for me like there are plenty of people who don’t have kids and who will fully realize and and feel all the full spectrum of emotions that I felt through this whole thing Plenty because I remember watching this kind of movie before I had kids still affected me greatly, but there is a There is a sub, a subsection of people who just can’t relate to this. This very primordial like Oh my God, my kid feeling and and if that’s you, nothing, nothing against you at all. But this movie will work better if you have a lot of empathy for little kids. Yeah, I think I’m pretty inclined to write a block post. I got an idea for a plot post about the parental divide in horror movies, because when I go on our horror, said it, This is what I’m talking like there. There is a definite divide and people that love hereditary and, um, like movies based around family relationships and stuff happening to kids. And it may work a lot better for women as well. And for people with a high amount of empathy or who can relate very easily like this is the kind of thing that you will get to them. Maur. Yeah, but there’s there’s a certain element about parenthood that unlocks a just a huge Pandora’s box of fears of fear. Inside, you know, you did not have access until not have access to until you become a parent should preface that we didn’t have it. I didn’t have this necessarily so much of this terror for kids as I do now. Yeah, I mean, maybe if you’re an older sibling and you’ve had responsibility with kids and you realize how fragile and sickle and ah, you know, vulnerable kids are maybe a little bit really like. It feels like there’s this divide where people that had that her parents rescue. They get really scared by, um, kind of more cerebral relationship stuff around kids, right? And people that haven’t had kids. It just doesn’t affect him. Like you see a kid, you’re like, Oh, that’s another character that died, right? You know? Oh, no, that’s the the monster Got that? A little child. I’m really interested to see what they say about this because you have an interesting take on it. And because it is, it is a bit of a you know, it’s it’s a little bit of ah, I did delicate area, don’t get place to tread. And then, like the the other stuff that I know, it feels like the the people that aren’t scared by the parental stuff skew more towards slashers or like home invasion stuff, where it’s like they they’re just wanna see someone murder or they they are more fearful about being attacked right themselves, and I never Yeah, it’s hard for me to relate. I don’t really care, and also I’m a little bit nihilistic, so I just welcome it. I hope on first let’s let’s end this charade of life. Just take me now anyways. Yeah. 10 out of 10. It’s a fantastic movie. I’m sorry if I offended you if I told you to fuck off, but honestly, uh, this is like undebatable to me. This is just a great film. Yeah, it’s it’s it’s a great film that it sze not even it’s a standout the hum of the genre. You compare this to any other movie and I for the most part, unless you’re unless you’re putting it up against there will be blood. That would also be a good alternate title for this movie, by the way, Yeah, there will be blood. Yeah, that’d be a great title. But, um or, you know, this is this is a just a solid film. So let’s get into our mid roll. I just want to take some time before we get into spoilers and take a deeper dive into some of the plot elements of the witch to plug ourselves. Because if you like the podcast and you’re not a first time listener, I don’t expect first time listeners to come and go and join our patriotic count. But we do have a patriotic count, and we’ve just released several new tears ranging from kind of itty bitty donations up to, you know, rather sizable sizable donation for us and each Each tear gets more and more perks as you go up and every little bit helps and counts. And we really appreciate it if if you just take the time to consider supporting us because you know, this is a labor of love for us. So by all means if you can help help out the show, we are small and we want to grow. And every little bit does help. One of the the avenues that weaken, grow and get better is just production value in terms of, you know, we are third mike shit the bed on. So we need to replace that. There’s other stuff we could buy around, like freeing up some time with editing, paying someone to edit for us or to buy some more interstitial music That’s not just stolen. So stuff like that and, um, you know, we try to do bring content to the listeners that they care about, and, ah, you unlock some added bonus content when you become a patron also. Oh So if you want to become a patron or just check out what the tears are. If you’re curious, Goto our website horror movie talk dot com and there is a button and the banner to become a patron, and it’ll send you to our patri on page. The other button you’ll see in that banner is by on Amazon. You can support the podcast by buying or renting any movie or product on Amazon if you click through on that green button in the header. So if you’re gonna buy him something on Amazon, click through from our site and we’ll get a little taste of that eyes I have. I’m so excited because we have a pumpkin carving contest going on right now and is very important, and we have were announced it last week and we have zero entries. Well, I mean, you got to get the punk. It’s a little It was a little bit early last last week, so I understand they’re getting their pumpkins. They’re carving them up there, trying to think about you know what’s what’s gonna really wow us and win this contest? Because the winner, uh, you got to get your entries in by October 25th and the grand prize winner gets three funk Oh, pop bobblehead dolls of the witches from hocus pocus. So that fits quite nicely with this episode because I’m just like the witch is really disturbing. Hocus pocus has a few disturbing parts as well. You know what I mean? All you horror or porno fans? Yeah. Um, so you get in entries by the 25th of October said all you got to do is fill out your contact information and your address so we can send you the prize and upload an image of your pumpkin carving. Could be a jack o lantern and can be some super super elaborate, you know, movie poster carbon into a pumpkin. We’re really excited about how creative our fans are. And please share the entry retweet the tweets that we sent out about it or re share on Facebook. So you get all your friends that are doing pumpkin carvings to enter. Um I will say, Don’t cheat. We will do a reverse Google image search and whoever we pick and toe and picture that you’re not a dirty liar to enter into it. You just head to our website. There’s a There’s a Jack o’lantern from the Season of the Witch, the Halloween three movie that appears on almost all the pages Somewhere on the page. Yeah, it should be on all the pages on the home page is down at the bottom and pretty a pretty much every other page. It’s at the top of the sidebar. Um, it’s pretty unmissable if you scroll around. It’s a giant Jack o’lantern, and I’ll give you a link to the entry. You do have to have a Google account you have to sign into your Google account. To enter since is a Google form. But that’s not a big big You improvise the 25th of October and will announce the winner on the 30th of October podcast episode. So thanks again for listening. Oh, yeah, we haven’t mentioned the positive A cast Well, so the positive a cast went dark on Thursday or end and Friday I am gonna record a few new episodes, but I think the five day schedule is it is a little too much for this podcaster to keep up. So I need Thio. I need to rework exactly how the dreaded pod. Fayed. Well, yeah. I mean, the interestingly like my listens are up. Really? Yeah. It’s just like I’ve just got a lot on my plate right now, and I’m pretty busy, so I just let it slip for two days and you just ran out of things in the room to talk about. I went through every coin between John. Let’s see the torn up. No anytime. $2. Any talk about Darnell’s Inge? The crown molding didn’t crown molding. Okay, All right, dog will get down anyway. Thanks again for listening. Let’s get into spoilers. Oiler Foot section is This is the spoiler show. I like this first point you have What’s your first point? Oh, yes. So the first point It opens on the trial of William and his family. So it opens in this Puritan courtroom, you know, full on pilgrims like they’ve got hats with buckles on them. It’s not clear what William is on trial for, but he might be on trial for just being a dick. He’s kind of really. It seems almost like a trial that he called the way. The way it plays out, it seems like Williams like called them there, and he’s like, You guys are fucking up. Yeah, and they’re like, Well, what do you want from us? Would you like to be banished? And Lee? And he’s like, I fucking love it, Thank you very much. Let’s bring it like like it’s so confrontational On his part, it almost seems like he called the meeting and was like, You suck, you suck, You suck, you suck. I’m out. Yeah, I mean, it almost feels like it could be he’s too zealous or calling the church itself to repentance or write something that’s it doesn’t ever talk about specifically what it is. It feels prideful, but it feels prideful. It feels like, um and I think the only thing that really mentions later on is William talks about, like with disdain the church. So, like, I think organizationally like probably the inner hypocrisy, ease of the church or the leadership or something, whatever. It is like one of those common things that people leave churches for, like it’s but the lake, without a doubt William is a true believer is it’s not a trial for heresy, not a trial, for it’s doing something wrong. It’s a trial for either. William is being very difficult continuing to be very difficult or this is just William being like like, officially, I’m out like, yeah, I mean, it’s they basically say like, yeah, like you said, What, do you want to be banished or something? He was like, Yes, go for it. Fuck. Fuck you. Yeah, and they’re like, All right, you’re banished. It almost feels to me like it’s like William called it so that God could see him, renounce them and be like, I look, I’m done with you officially, Thank you. And so that so that he can maintain his, You know, his standing in the eyes of the Lord. Yeah, that’s an interesting take on it that he would call the trial. But I mean, I mean, that’s just what it feels like to be. Obviously, that doesn’t make the point. Is he’s very defiant and very confident in his ability to make it on his own, um, in the wilderness. So they go off and set up their homestead next to the edge of this impassible forest. Yeah, and you know, very early on as they’re going, a main character in this movie is the music and the soundtrack. The music does not. It communicates a lot. It does not bode well for this. Hold well for this family as they approach this forest. Birds air, not chirping bees. They’re not buzzing. But what you do here is creepy choral music and, like strings, it’s it’s ah, pretty intense in the soundtrack. We talked about this before. The soundtrack is just fantastic. The soundtrack. The soundtrack is perfect, like the choral music, the A bunch of voices all rising and falling and go together works really well. But not only the soundtrack, the sound design. What’s going on with the base, Um, what’s going on with the the way they pick up the vocals of everyone talking, It’s just so good. This is one of those things that’s very nerdy of me to point out. But what’s great about this movie is the dynamic range of the sound. How so? It reserves the very loud, loud for very loud moments, right, and normally it’s like a pretty relatively quiet film, and then some moments are very quiet, like there’s a big element, especially at the end around whispering, and it’s really effective because you’re leaning into it. And not only not only the sound is is but also the lighting that there are. So whereas some movies air just dark and you can’t see this movie is very dark for a lot of it. It’s, I mean, the lightest. It gets his gray. And I think I think the okay, There’s another podcast that you guys should listen to. I think I mentioned it before, but a 24 the studio that put out this movie, they have a podcast. And one of the episode was Ari Astor, the director of Hereditary, and Robert Eggers, the director of this film, just talking to each other. They’re interviewing each other, and it’s a really interesting up, so they don’t necessarily talk a lot about their own films. They actually talk a lot about their inspirations. One director and in particular, Ingmar Bergman, German director that was highly influential for both of them. They’re just kind of nerd ing out about this, Um, thing is a German Expressionist director, um, but in that in that interview, there are some stuff that that was revealing about Robert Eggers. In particular. His background is kind of in costume design I think his father or someone in his family was involved in fashion or costume design and sew. He has a really good grasp on it, and it comes out in this movie because the costumes were fantastic in the in. The setting of the movie is very realistic and, to your point of it, being dark talks. It’s got a beautiful Grady int of dark like It’s not just dark, and then it’s just black. It’s this amazing Grady int of light to dark right? But it’s realistically dark because at the time, if you think about it, if you’re in a scandal in the family at night, it’s literally lit by just candles. And so it’s super. Um, you know, the source. Lighting in the scenes is very dim and flickering, and I think I noticed, as I was watching those scenes with the family at night, just huddled around some candles. There he does light it a little bit more than would normally be from the source lighting, but very subtle right, because you can go to dark with this kind of thing as his evidence by that fucking Abe Lincoln movie with Daniel Day Lewis. Like that movie was so dark, I couldn’t see shit. The whole time I was in the movie theater. I couldn’t see anything. But we need to establish early that everyone in this found every everyone in the family is devout Christian. Oh, yeah, like they are true believers. There’s not really need out the only two that maybe kind of twins. That’s when the twins seem a little little ostentation. Yeah, they have, you know, they’re mostly Christians, but they also kind of like this black goat. Yeah, in particular. Um, but that’s really important that there’s not really any doubt in any of their minds like that’s not a part of it, Right? Religious doubt is not part of the equation, and that’s really interesting to me, the choice that they make. And I’ll talk a little bit more about that later. Um, within the 1st 10 minutes of this movie, we see the witch. Yeah, which is this most impressive part of this film, and it’s the part that sticks with me most probably because it’s the most shocking is it is. It’s like your ultimate nightmare come true. Yeah, so so opens up. The