THE WITCH ANALYSIS

The Witch  is a 2015 historical period supernatural horror film written and directed by Robert Eggers in his directorial debut and stars Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie, Harvey Scrimshaw, Ellie Grainger and Lucas Dawson. The film follows a Puritan family encountering forces of evil in the woods beyond their New England farm. 

This film is similar to ours as it is set in a similar location and a similar time period. It also carries the theme of witchcraft through out it. 

CHARACTERS

MUSIC 

SHOT TYPES

The film opens with music and black overlays, with the title appearing over a black screen. This is a way we could introduce our film. The first shot is of a close up shot of a girl, in what appears to be a court room. The scene is dimly lit, and this adds to the eerie, old nature of the film. Another thing to note is her clothing, and her facial expressions; she looks terrified.                                            

                                                                               

                                                                                        The camera then changes and we are shown a close up of this young boy, looking equally as terrified. There is a loud, intimidating voice speaking over these clips, whist we have not yet been shown the face of the speaker, we imagine he is a man that these children are extremely fearful of.       The camera then changes and we are shown a close up of this young boy, looking equally as terrified. There is a loud, intimidating voice speaking over these clips, whist we have not yet been shown the face of the speaker, we imagine he is a man that these children are extremely fearful of.   

                                         

 The camera then changes and we are shown a close up of this young boy, looking equally as terrified. There is a loud, intimidating voice speaking over these clips, whist we have not yet been shown the face of the speaker, we imagine he is a man that these children are extremely fearful of.

The shot type then changes again to an over the shoulder the shot, this time we are shown the back of someone's head, perhaps the one who is speaking, which we can now understand is very religious.

MISE EN SCENE 

The room is dimly lit, and appears to be a courtroom. There is not many props, other than the old-fashioned style clothing they are all wearing. The lighting is very cool toned and dark, creating an eerie setting. Everyone looks terrified, and there is a very tense atmosphere. The room is in silence other than the authoritative figure's voice.

CONVENTIONS

The film is not a conventional horror type, it uses psychological uncertainty to engage the audience, and in this sense it is similar to our film. Due to the unsettling nature of the film, its target audience would consist of those 17+, whereas generally the audience for horror films is 15-40.