When you are a demonic witch and you watch an horror film you feel insulted, hurt and exhausted. It took me a lot of time to see satanic movies with detachment and perspective.
I try my best to not take it personally. Abrahamic religious teaches us that demons are nothing but pure evil, so it's easy to cast them in movies as the villains. The audience will immediately asume they are dangerous. But make no mistake - horror film directors have no clue about demons and they don't even bother to do some homework. They take certain established entities, fitting them into a fictional narrative in order to fit the tone of the genre and that's it. Amusingly, sometimes they choose some of them just because, like Ari Aster, Hereditary's creator, did with Paimon: "I researched, looked for a demon and Paimon struck me as one that made sense. I just needed a name".
Ok dude.
I would like to share with you one of my favorite films ever: The Witch. I just wanted to write in my personal space how I fell in love with this magnificent movie. The soundtrack, especially the first song What Went We, is part of my daily chill playlist. It encapsulates the vibe I crave every autumn, when Ibiza is still hot and humid.
Robert Eggers' directorial debut The Witch was a surprise. Due to the hype, I was expecting the worse - now it's hands down one of my favourite movies ever. I've rewatched it maybe 20 times.
The Witch is an amazingly crafted film, rather nihilistic. The horror is subtle and intelligent, as it should be.
Filmmaker Robert Eggers spent years researching the period - around 1630, a generation before the Salem witch trials. Much of the film's story is drawn from real, contemporaneous accounts and folk tales and we can actually see how everything is deliciously accurate. Clothes of the time are recreated meticulously, as well as the inherent creepiness of the New England woods, the dark beauty and the clever folk tales.
The film is hugely atmospheric, moody and tense. I love the immaculate craftsmanship and consideration of time and place.
The Story
The Witch tells the story of an ostracized Puritanical family trying to sustain itself in the woods, after the father is banished from the plantation where his brood has moved to from England. We don't know what happened. All seems to be going well for the family — until the youngest child, baby. Samuel, is abducted. Almost right away, calamity falls and the family are beset by a series of dramatic occurrences. Gradually, they turn on each other and then on Thomasin, the eldest daughter. She is independent, succulent and she was the last one to be with baby Samuel, which leads to her guilt over his disappearance.
Thomasin's connection to her faith is a bit more complex than the rest of her family, so she becomes a very easy scapegoat to blame. They not only accuse her of being a witch but blame her for everything gone wrong.
The story goes deeper into distrust and paranoia.
Family, the Worse Enemy
Colonists in1600s New England must have been under enormous stress. The film cleverly shows their incapacity to deal with the world successfully.
Thomasin feels like an outsider in her own home. The father's patriarchal impotence is interesting. William is a stubborn man, unable to hunt and an awful farmer - a man not very good at providing for his family. He is in such a messed up situation and he has no idea what to do. He opens all the wrong doors. He wants to conquer Mother Nature and instead finds himself brought low by the elements. Colonists in1600s New England must have been under enormous stress. The film cleverly shows their incapacity to deal with the world successfully.
The mother, already insane because of her missing baby, is so jealous of her daughter that she cannot stand her. I like how The Witch builds on all those moments that show us how our "loved ones" can push us over the precipice. They know the pressure points and they know how to inflict the maximum pain.
What dost thou want? (Spoiler Alert)
In the story, the witch of the woods and her demonic partners take several forms: a goat -the cherry on top of this whole movie-, a raven, a hare -not a rabbit-, a beautiful woman with a rich red cape, the disfigured crone. Perfect figures that show us what's going on. The first time you see the goat it's pretty obvious what will happen.
Thomasin is presented with an offer she can't refuse. She can join Lucifer and his coven of witches to live a delicious life of luxury, embracing freedom and leaving the harsh conditions of her miserable and isolated existence, or she can die alone in the forest. Thomasin accepts. She is ready to fulfill the role that her family unknowingly assigned her.
Quite honestly, Thomasin is a relatable figure to witches raised. The events of this movie have made her exhausted enough to make the decision to turn against religion - she prayed and never received help, lost in the dark as a result.
This is definitely a happy ending, compared to the absolute fucking misery that her life was up until that point. Thomasin dedicated her entire life to believing in a God that refused to listen to her prayers so what's the point in continuing to place her faith in him?
Does she want to "live deliciously"? Oh yes. Lucifer doesn't seduce Thomasin because he doesn't need to. He appears when the situation gets more and more demented. Lucifer didn't corrupt the girl, he brought his own shred of light into her life.
Lucifer appears as an alluring figure - he is a handsome and captivating man, with an exquisite voice and manners and an impeccable dress. His regal voice is like silk. It was time! Enough with the horrible red-hued creature with horns. He even looks something exotic in the setting of Puritan New England. This elaborateness gave Lucifer's appearance a tremendously authentic feel to me.
This is bold and confident. I find it absolutely extraordinary. And accurate.
The moment in which Thomasin accepts it's so masterfully done, it makes me thing the director truly knows what a pact with Lucifer is. It was so delicately handled... what a genius storyteller Robert Eggers is.
The filmmaker didn't intend to set out a to make a feminist empowerment narrative, but he then realized that writing a story about a witch "is kind of one and the same".
Wouldst thou like the taste of butter?
Comments
I was finally able to see this film on the night of Samhain 2023 for the symbolism and thus see a work that a true Luciferian like Lila could really appreciate.
Not necessarily being a very basic movie buff, I’m not the type to watch movies often, and wrongly at times, but I know that I can always “catch up” on them sooner or later.
The film, for its duration of 90 minutes, I did not see them pass and it will be quite difficult for me to differentiate myself from all the other people who left a comment before me on this article.
I kept special attention for Thomasin’s brother: Caleb. Why him ?
Although Thomasin is the main character, we have Caleb who is shown to be closest to the latter (although he had lustful thoughts while discreetly looking at his sister’s breasts).
Her death is symbolic: it was the beginning of Thomasin’s liberation from her family because not only does she begin to rebel against her father by reminding him of his faults but this will later allow her to get rid of her mother by killing her , gone crazy.
He is, in my eyes, his greatest liberator and saved his sister from a very sad fate before she decided to join Luciferianism.
I barely mention the two twins that I hated from the beginning of the film and that I am very happy with their fates.
This film also raises the following question: how would we have reacted if we learned that someone close to us was a witch (both then and now?):
_Would there have been compassion towards this person while seeking to protect them from external threats, particularly human ones?
_Or, would it have ended with the destruction of the witch person out of fear of the danger she could represent or out of jealousy because she alone has powers and not the others?
Of course, we are on a blog that deals with demonology and it would be easy to give a predefined answer but we still have to ask ourselves in a certain way.
I found the film enjoyable to watch, ultimately I know I would watch again in the future.
It’s a genre of cinema that I don’t watch because I was influenced by various films that deal with the subject of the demonic, much younger, with for example “The Ninth Door” by Roman Polanski released in 1999 and which showed just like any other film at this time in this area, an Abrahamic vision of the demonic realm and demons.
When we see this when we are 9 -10 years old, it obviously plays a huge role on the visions and future beliefs that develop, which explains for a long time the fear that I had about demons until now.
I watched this film upon reading this spectacularly written article by Lila. I do believe that the most of us who reverted to the demons must have felt a kinship with Thomasin at some point, for the devotion that we had been thaught to possess towards our respective religions and dieties seemed futile with no rewards accrued. I still don’t understand why we must repose unflinching loyalty in the faith we were raised with when the supposed almighty only helped the naturally fortunate and neglected the rest, it is such a waste of time, energy and a recipe for disheartenment. I myself have told Lila that she and the demons have done more for me than god and organised religion have and this holds true to this day. However, the only factor that prevents me from pursuing Luciferianism in a full fledged manner is the absence of a mentor who could guide me through the lesser known doctrine. I know deep in my heart that I can’t place anyone else apart from Lila as a mentor either, because of the trust and connection I feel towards her. But I do wish that more people seek a departure from the negative stereotypes placed on the demons and realise the blessings the slandered entities are capable of bequeathing upon us.
I love your analysis of this movie. And I love how your images of Thomasin initially show her with her hair tied and wrapped up, then when she is free, her hair is loose and no longer imprisoned, which itself is so beautiful to behold.
It makes me want to ask… Have you seen Hagazussa (2017)? It would be interesting to hear your thoughts on that. The main character is similarly treated very poorly, but… It’s not the same kind of story.
The Witch was also one if my favorite films and Eggers is by far one if my favorite directors. It’s very hard to find any sort of film that encapsulates the true spirit of the demons without the lense of the Abrahamic world view. Demons are ‘easy’ to make out as the bad guys because they have been for so incredibly long.
Working with demons myself, I’ve been irritated with the portrayal of them in mainstream media as well and am working on just seeing it all, again, as fiction. I doubt there will ever be a time where they are seen just as spirits again, especially with the hard grasp Christianity has is a major world power country, but we can take comfort that we know the true beings.
Love the post and can’t wait to read more!!
xM
Your writing is as eloquent and precise as your work. I remember when The Witch was released in theaters and how badly I wanted to see it. I never got around to it, but I will now. I speak out loud to Lilith often now, thanks to you and your awesome ritual. I asked her to take me on a deep dive on Luciferianism and the Daemonic Divine. This answer from her through you is definitely a start. Thank you!
Lila, what a beautiful expressive writer you are, and in a secondary language. I have wondered about this movie and am now going to rent it. I have been fiending for some sort of knowledge of true luciferianism or demonology and the only place I know to find this is in your blog. There is no other source of unbiased truth I have been able to find on the topic of demonology or luciferianism other than an abrahamic source that pops up on Google. Thank you for posting these blogs. You and your work mean a lot to me and [No Doubt] many others.
Muah XO, Thank You Beautiful
love how you share a realistic perspective of what Luciferian life offers to us. please keep encouraging others to think for themselves, not accept what they are told to think and believe