Mike Apps🍿’s review published on Letterboxd:
Now this is how you create an alien atmosphere of unease.
This is how you turn twins into creepy little imps.
This is how you make a family slowly descend into madness, making them turn on each other.
This is how you close with a what-the-fuck-was-that-ending-about.
I know I should be talking about The Shining here, but it just doesn't do all these things for me. Robert Eggers, along with Ari Aster or Jordan Peele or Jennifer Kent or any burgeoning director of today's horror renaissance, will cite Kubrick as a fundamental source of inspiration. In my sacrilegious opinion, I think Eggers and company have perfected the kind of horror Kubrick pioneered. And it's not because The Shining is an "old" movie - earlier movies like The Exorcist, Jaws and Alien mess with my psyche every single time!
The VVitch just has this blanket effect on me, where I'm completely engrossed in its world. I feel like I'm being given an actual reason to care about this family. The period setting and dialogue is rich in detail - you feel transported to a different mental state. My one nitpick is the dull palette, but even that is a double edged sword that adds to that atmosphere. The nighttime scenes are some of the best shot in modern horror.
Torn between this and The Lighthouse: I rewatch the latter more frequently, but the former has a potency that never wanes even after 5 years. Keep taking us back to the past, Eggers!
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