What I love about this film is that it’s left ambiguous, so you don’t know if the family is actually being cursed or if they’re just letting their isolation and religious superstition drive them mad. It can be interpreted either way.
The witch(es) in the woods? Maybe just some ladies who decided to give up the Puritan life and live as hermits in the wild. We don’t know for sure if they can actually cast spells, or if they’re just high on hallucinogenic herbs or something.
Another thing I love about this film is that the language is preserved as closely as possible to the era it’s set in. Which is difficult, because we only have a handful of writing samples to tell us how they spoke. You definitely need subtitles to have some idea of what’s going on, especially with Ralph Ineson’s gravelly voice.
Robert Eggers did his best to accurately portray an era, rather than modernize it for regular audiences, and that’s why this is such a classic work. Every film he’s created so far has been incredible.
I just watched his film Nosferatu (2024) recently, and it was spectacular! He took the first ever vampire film from the 1920s and reinvented it as an incredibly realistic and terrifying spectacle to watch. Apparently, it’s been a dream of his to recreate that classic film ever since he was a kid, and I think he did a wonderful job with it. I’m excited to see what new films he makes in the years to come.
Agree wirh everything you’ve said here except the necessity for subtitles. The dialogue isn’t complex so it’s very easy to use context clues to fill in any gaps. I personally find it more immersive to be forced to really concentrate on the language, rarher than just read an easy translation of it.
Ah, well… I’m not an auditory learner at all, so I need subtitles for everything I watch. Otherwise, voices kind of turn into white noise to my brain. I need something visual to focus on to follow the spoken dialogue.
The Witch completely went over my head with the thick dialects and Old English language, and whereas visual context clues usually help fill in the gaps, I honestly had no idea what was going on until I re-watched it with subtitles. So I guess YMMV. I personally got more out of this film by understanding exactly what was being said with subtitles.
Yeah it’s true that my experience is also not an objective one. I have had some exposure to older and regional versions of English previously so maybe I have more of an ear for it. You’re right, some people may have a more difficult time following along (for many different reasons) so it’s incorrect for me to suggest that subtitles aren’t necessary. They aren’t there by default, though, and I would encourage fluent English speakers to give it a try without them first. Eggers does put a lot of effort into trying to make his films as authentic as possible in relation to when and where they’re set, so I think you get a lot more out of them if you try to play into that by avoiding modern translations as much as possible (obviously for some of his films like The Northman that’s pretty unrealistic).
What I love about this film is that it’s left ambiguous, so you don’t know if the family is actually being cursed or if they’re just letting their isolation and religious superstition drive them mad. It can be interpreted either way.
The witch(es) in the woods? Maybe just some ladies who decided to give up the Puritan life and live as hermits in the wild. We don’t know for sure if they can actually cast spells, or if they’re just high on hallucinogenic herbs or something.
Another thing I love about this film is that the language is preserved as closely as possible to the era it’s set in. Which is difficult, because we only have a handful of writing samples to tell us how they spoke. You definitely need subtitles to have some idea of what’s going on, especially with Ralph Ineson’s gravelly voice.
Robert Eggers did his best to accurately portray an era, rather than modernize it for regular audiences, and that’s why this is such a classic work. Every film he’s created so far has been incredible.
I just watched his film Nosferatu (2024) recently, and it was spectacular! He took the first ever vampire film from the 1920s and reinvented it as an incredibly realistic and terrifying spectacle to watch. Apparently, it’s been a dream of his to recreate that classic film ever since he was a kid, and I think he did a wonderful job with it. I’m excited to see what new films he makes in the years to come.
Agree wirh everything you’ve said here except the necessity for subtitles. The dialogue isn’t complex so it’s very easy to use context clues to fill in any gaps. I personally find it more immersive to be forced to really concentrate on the language, rarher than just read an easy translation of it.
Ah, well… I’m not an auditory learner at all, so I need subtitles for everything I watch. Otherwise, voices kind of turn into white noise to my brain. I need something visual to focus on to follow the spoken dialogue.
The Witch completely went over my head with the thick dialects and Old English language, and whereas visual context clues usually help fill in the gaps, I honestly had no idea what was going on until I re-watched it with subtitles. So I guess YMMV. I personally got more out of this film by understanding exactly what was being said with subtitles.
Yeah it’s true that my experience is also not an objective one. I have had some exposure to older and regional versions of English previously so maybe I have more of an ear for it. You’re right, some people may have a more difficult time following along (for many different reasons) so it’s incorrect for me to suggest that subtitles aren’t necessary. They aren’t there by default, though, and I would encourage fluent English speakers to give it a try without them first. Eggers does put a lot of effort into trying to make his films as authentic as possible in relation to when and where they’re set, so I think you get a lot more out of them if you try to play into that by avoiding modern translations as much as possible (obviously for some of his films like The Northman that’s pretty unrealistic).
Personally I like to interpret it as
spoiler for anyone who hasn't seen it
religious paranoia, and the very end is a dying hallucination