Robert Eggers’ feature directorial debut, The Witch, is indeed a 2015 period supernatural horror movie written and directed by him. Anya Taylor-Joy (in her film debut), Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie, Harvey Scrimshaw, Ellie Grainger, and Lucas Dawson feature inside the picture. The Witch is a film set inside the 1630s about a Puritan family who encounters demonic spirits within woods outside their New England estate.
The Witch, a US-Canadian international co-production, premiered there at Sundance Film Festival on January 27, 2015, and also was distributed by A24 on February 19, 2016. The picture earned positive reviews and became a box office hit, collecting $40 million on such a $4 million budget.
The movie’s soundtrack was written by Mark Korven, who strove for “tense and discordant” minimalism. Eggers forbade the use of any electronic instruments as well as stated that he “didn’t want to have any traditional harmony or melody inside the score,” therefore Korven created music using unusual instruments such as the nyckelharpa as well as the water phone. He understood the director preferred to have some creative control, so he used lose play based on improvisation “so he could change notes around whenever he pleased.”
On January 27, 2015, the movie made its international debut at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. On September 18, 2015, the movie was also exhibited in the Special Presentations section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival. The movie’s distribution rights were obtained by A24 and DirecTV Cinema. The studios opted to give the picture a broad theatrical release in the United States on February 19, 2016, after receiving very strong feedback in advance screenings.
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