Filipe Manuel Neto
Jun 18, 2022
2/10
The problem with this film is in the plot: starting from a wrong premise, the whole plot ends up going wrong.
There are certain films that we, even with all our good will, cannot find that fulfill what is necessary to be decent. This movie is one of them, and it's almost entirely to blame for a sadly poorly written plot, which pushes all the barriers of logic to create a story without any meaning.
Normally, I save the technical aspects of a film for the end of my reviews, but this time it's precisely here that Ill start, because in fact it's in the production values and the visual effects and CGI that the film seems to me the most well-crafted. The movie doesn't have a good budget, but the effects are believable and look good enough. The settings aren't a problem either, being a story set in our time, and in an uncertain location in the American Midwest. The editing is regular, the pace is pleasant, and the music does what it needs to.
The cast is mostly female, with the best performances coming from the hands of Elizabeth Mitchell and Gideon Adlon. There are still some other actresses who try to do what they can, but the youth of the cast does not allow for great dramatic efforts, nor does the lightness of the film truly demand it.
But what really defeats this film is its plot: the film tries to recreate, in our time, the witch hunt fever that existed, occasionally, in some places in Christendom during the 15th to 17th centuries. This movement has more ancient roots: the Christian religion has always condemned the practices of witchcraft, and there are laws against witches in many ancient societies and civilizations, all the way back to the Roman Empire. The last woman to be officially executed for witchcraft in Europe was in 1782, and there are still modern countries, especially those with an Islamic religion, that formally condemn witchcraft in their penal codes.
It just so happens that it just doesn't make any sense to try to recreate the witch hunt in a country like the USA, so openly democratic and defender of the individual freedoms of citizens. Even if we assume that magic exists and witchcraft is real (and there are many people today who believe this), it is inconceivable that a democratic country could ban magic or the practice of witchcraft, even for negative purposes. It's almost like forbidding someone to swear and curse: as wrong as it may be, it's a right that no one can take away from me, if I'm not offending anyone. I find it inconceivable that the US Congress would pass a constitutional amendment banning witchcraft, and that undermines everything the film tries to do afterwards. It just doesn't make sense.
Summary: The problem with this film is in the plot: starting from a wrong premise, the whole plot ends up going wrong.