Puritans, Periods, and the Patriarchy
The subtle feminism of 2015’s The Witch
Following in the horror genre’s most encouraging tradition, writer/director Robert Eggers transcended the budgetary constraints of The Witch by sheer force of auteur cleverness — not to mention the oddly charismatic screen presence of a demonic goat. The Witch is freaky as all hell, generating a constant sense of existential tension through the cheap but reliable method of being directed really, really well. So well that it swept Sundance and made back ten times its budget — all while saturated with trenchant feminist subtext.
And the way it conveys that subtext is awesome, relying on not only metaphor, but literalization. The literal part? The movie’s about Puritans. That topic comes pre-loaded for some, but in case you aren’t a history buff or Sarah Vowell fan, the Puritans were a subset of Protestants who interpreted the Bible differently than the rest of the church. These differences weren’t well tolerated, so many left England and emigrated to the creatively named New England in the 1600s, where they were free to enforce their brutally strict religious dogmas with all the liberty they desired. The Puritans have a reputation as sexist authoritarians who dealt mainly in shame and witch burning, some of which is debated. These days, the word “puritanical” has become pop culture shorthand…
