4) The Witch – The Coven
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For more than an hour, Robert Eggers’ sublime New England horror The Witch retains a feeling of semi-realism whilst always merely teasing the supernatural. In its final scenes, with all but Anya Taylor-Joy’s Thomasin slaughtered and family goat Black Phillip transformed into some kind of Satanic cowboy, Eggers’ movie tips over into full-on, operatic horror.
The Witch‘s final scene is arguably its finest. In that moment, the film enters a kind of dream (or rather nightmare) state, as Thomasin – stark naked – enters the ominous forest neighboring her family’s farm to join a coven of witches. She joins them around a fire, before levitating up into the sky, cackling. It’s an out-there climax of surprising confidence from a first-time director.