1) Ralph Ineson – The Witch
The Witch comes complete with several breakout stars, not all of them human. Young newcomers Harvey Scrimshaw and in particular Anya Taylor-Joy never fail to keep up with the unfolding horror, despite being run ragged by writer-director Robert Eggers, as well as his villain Black Phillip, an initially innocent-looking ram that’s actually pure, unmitigated evil.
Ralph Ineson, as William, patriarch of The Witch‘s 17th century New England family, is somewhere between man and animal. He has monstrous qualities, like the booming baritone and rough physicality, that Eggers plays up here, but Ineson is also painfully human, wrecked by questions of faith and afraid for the family he might have put in jeopardy. No actor so far this year has been so impactful – and in a supernatural shocker with a killer goat, of all things.