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Anya Taylor-Joy’s 92-Minute Creepy Horror Debut Is Perfect From Start to Finish
This piece revisits Robert Eggers' 2015 debut *The Witch*, arguing that Anya Taylor-Joy's performance as Thomasin remains a near-perfect showcase for both the actor and the film. Though Taylor-Joy had prior credits, including a role trimmed from 2014's *Vampire Academy*, *The Witch* effectively served as her breakthrough, establishing the blend of guilelessness and inward intensity that later defined roles in *Split* and *Thoroughbreds*. The article contends the film still resonates because it treats 17th-century witchcraft with total seriousness rather than genre cliché, using Taylor-Joy's performance to connect period horror to modern anxieties.
Set in Puritan New England, *The Witch* follows a family banished from their settlement and left to survive alone in the woods, where an unseen malevolent force preys on their existing tensions and repression. Rather than relying on cloaks, broomsticks or claustrophobic settings, the horror unfolds in open, unknowable landscapes, punctuated by disturbing events including a stolen baby, unsettling twins who claim to converse with the family's goat, and hints of incestuous feeling between Thomasin and her brother Caleb. The article frames Thomasin, isolated by guilt and loneliness, as the psychological linchpin the witch exploits, making the film's terror as much about internal family strain as supernatural evil.
In short
- Article revisits Anya Taylor-Joy's breakout role in 2015's *The Witch*
- Praises her performance as central to the film's lasting power
- Says the horror stems from repression and isolation, not genre clichés
Steelman: both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
The film succeeds by treating witchcraft with total seriousness rather than genre convention, using Taylor-Joy's psychologically nuanced performance to ground the horror in the family's repression and isolation. The unseen threat in the landscape becomes genuinely terrifying precisely because it emerges from internal family strain, making the film's restraint and refusal of spectacle a source of power rather than limitation.
The case against
The film's rejection of conventional horror structures, whilst ambitious, risks substituting genuine fright with obscurity and atmospheric distance that may reflect formalist intent rather than sustained terror. Taylor-Joy's deliberately restrained performance, though technically skilled, provides insufficient emotional anchor for a work relying so heavily on implication and period authenticity, leaving viewers uncertain whether the film's difficulty justifies its thematic rewards.
Explained simply
*The Witch* is a 2015 horror film directed by Robert Eggers, set in 17th-century Puritan New England. The film effectively launched the career of Anya Taylor-Joy, despite her having appeared in minor roles previously.
The film follows a family cast out from their settlement who must survive alone in the woods whilst an unexplained malevolent force preys upon them. Terror emerges through psychological tension and family breakdown, culminating in disturbing events such as the disappearance of a baby and strange behaviour from the family's twins.
*The Witch* treated witchcraft as a serious historical and psychological matter, exploring themes of family repression and paranoia. Taylor-Joy's central performance proved influential, marking a significant moment in her emergence as a major actor.
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