The Screenwriters Handbook: Lessons learned from The VVitch.

This began as an experiment to see if Shawn Coyne’s theories in The Story Grid were true. Specifically his claim that every level of story structure (beat, scene, sequence, act) has these five aspects: an inciting incident, progressive complications, crisis, climax, and resolution.

After doing this breakdown, I can tell you those “rules” aren’t universal, because they certainly don’t apply to every scene in The Witch.

However, I did learn a few interesting things through this exercise. Here’s the top 3 things I learned reading The VVitch.

The first being that every scene (before the final acts resolution) does need either conflict or tension.

The audience must be invested in seeing which character will get what they want. Will Brody kill the shark? Will Galvin win the case? Will William find food to feed his family?

Or the audience must be caught up in the fear of the moment and wondering “what is going to happen next.” (Which for the record, is one of Neil Gaiman’s favorite lines). As the family travels into the woods we wonder “how will the witch attack?” When the family arrives at the Overlook Hotel we wonder “how is Jack Nicholson going to fill an elevator with blood?”

The second is that the main characters goal does not need to be obvious for the audience to get it, nor does it need to be exciting.

Thomasin’s main goal in this story isn’t stated obviously anywhere. While William and Caleb go out into the woods to try and feed the family, Thomasin does house chores for the first third of the movie. And once she does go into the woods at the midpoint, things go horribly wrong**, and for the next third of the movie she goes back to house chores!

In the last third, she is dragged around by William, and although she verbally stands up for herself at one point, she gets locked in the goat shed and only escapes when the Witch comes into town.

Thomasin almost does nothing exciting or interesting.

We like Thomasin because she is the Britta (the character that gets kicked around the most) and because Ayna Taylor-Joy is a cute kid (she’s my age).

But why is Thomasin’s story so compelling if she isn’t the force moving the story along?

The answer: because she is moving her story along the entire time, and at the end we realize that it was her story all along.

Let me explain.

Her opening prayer is a subtle monologue to us, describing how she sees herself (a sinner) and who she wants to be (forgiven by God). That is her main goal: be the best Puritan she can be. Her actions described above align with that goal (except for the midpoint**).

Then, at the end her goal becomes the complete opposite — she sees the error of her ways and she gains her freedom by joining the coven.

The Witch follows Craig Mazin’s theme-anthitheme story structure; which is the traditional story structure.

Mazin story structure:

1) Character believes the world is one way. Their life is okay, and they could live like this until they die — but somethings off. (Puritan order is the way to happiness)

2) Something happens and destroys the characters stasis. (Sam is taken from Thomasin)

3) They try and get it back — failing miserably. (Thomasin goes about her work, trying to recreate normality, but she is destroyed inside as Katherine blames her for what has happened)

4) They see someone living life a different way, and they try to do it their way**. THINGS GO EVEN WORSE. (Thomasin catches Caleb trying to sneak into the woods to catch food so she can stay with the family. She goes with him, against her parents wishes. They get separated, Caleb is witched, the horse is lost, and Thomasin barely finds her way out of the woods.

5) The character is at the worst they have ever been. We realize nobody has been what they seemed at the beginning. (Caleb dies. William breaks and repents for his sin of pride. Katherine loses her connection with God. And Black Phillip is the devil. Thomasin is locked in the goat pen with Black Phillip.

6) The character faces their worst fear — the character will fully embody the theme. (After the Witch and Black Phillip attack, Thomasin is attacked by Katherine, and in defending herself the former kills the latter. Then she speaks to the devil, signs his book, and becomes a witch).

Now let’s compare The Witch to another A24 movie with a similar story concept and see why one film worked and one didn’t.

It Comes At Night is a very similar story: a family lives in the woods and are in terrible danger by what is within. The main character is fluid in both, but for the most part we follow similar aged characters (Thomasin and Travis) struggling to fit in with their family. See a lot of tension and build up until the family collapses and nearly everyone ends up dead.

But, while the ending of The Witch left me and the audience disturbed and stunned, the ending of ICAN left me and the audience feeling teased and jipped.

Because Thomasin changes in an ironic, surprising, and inevitable way. Travis doesn’t. At the end of the film Travis wants the same things as he did in the beginning, the only difference is now he is infected with the virus and dying.

Ironically, there is no hope in ICAN.

Both films are tragedies, but Thomasin wins. Our heroine wins. She overcomes what was oppressing her. The corrupt Order is overcome by renewing Chaos. It’s an uncomfortable, blasphemous story for some, but it is Truth.

Eggers isn’t a satanist, nor trying to convert. He shows the destruction that Chaos brings; we see a little baby get taken and made into a pumice.

Eggers pulls no punches because he has told an Archetypal Story, and one we don’t often hear or see. ICAN was written in three days after the writers father had passed away. It was a story fueled by sadness.

But we don’t love stories because they show us what we already know to be true. We may feel that life is meaningless, and that there is no hope, and that we have no real agency or power over nature.

We get that, I don’t need to spend $14 for that lesson.

Instead, we love stories because they show us what we are in a way that we can’t see or feel. Chesterton said that stories don’t tell us that dragons are real, but rather that they can be killed.

Which brings me to my third lesson. Show the monster.

ICAN never shows us the dragon. The IT in It Comes At Night is a misnomer.

There is no IT.

Nothing comes through the Red Door.

Some people would argue the real monster is us, that when people are pushed to survival, we become monsters.

WE KNOW. The news teaches us that.

Furthermore, Travis’ nightmares could be considered IT — the paranoia and fear — but he never overcomes them. He is stagnant. We can’t fight dreams.

That’s we we write them down.

Horror audiences want to see IT. A big part of the fun is the monster. You can wait until the very end for all I care, and maybe for the better, but I want to see that red door torn down and the heroes have to deal with it.

Eggers shows us the Witch surprisingly early, right after the inciting incident; we will see it 4 more times throughout the movie.

That’s of course, if you’re not counting Thomasin.

So there you go, my top 3 lessons learned from reading The Witch: Every scene in a horror must have either conflict or tension (not including the resolution of Act 3), the main character doesn’t need to be anything but a normal person doing normal person things as long as they change at the end, and you must show us the monster.

Now go write.