The Witch (2015)

Black Phillip, a goat, gives the most unsettling performance in The Witch, and the humans are working hard to keep up. That’s the fun news. The tough news is the dialogue, written in old-fashioned 1630s English and spoken in thick accents, so you might want subtitles even though it’s in English. It’s also a true slow burn, and audiences who came for jump scares handed it a C minus CinemaScore. What it actually is, though, is a family coming apart from the inside. Anya Taylor-Joy plays Thomasin as the one person on the farm thinking clearly, which is exactly why everyone turns on her. Ralph Ineson’s voice sounds like it rises from the bottom of a well. Harvey Scrimshaw, as young Caleb, has one scene so intense it’s hard to believe he’s acting. Candlelit nights and gray woods make 92 minutes feel like a long, cold winter. An 8.0 because the dread is real and patient viewers get a huge payoff. $82.63 says you look a farm animal in the eye this year and blink first.

What works: Anya Taylor-Joy and the whole cast are excellent, and Robert Eggers builds dread out of candlelight, silence and that goat.

What doesn’t: The archaic dialogue and thick accents can make whole conversations a struggle, and the slow pace will lose anyone expecting jump scares.

Who it’s for: Patient horror fans who prefer creeping dread and old folk tales over jump scares.