Egger's film "The Witch" is my favorite horror film. Fiercely intelligent and thoroughly researched, the horror is not knowing what's happening in unfamiliar surroundings. The imagination can run wild with blame and suspicion when simply a good meal and a grounding in reality would be a much better approach.

There are projects that the filmmakers can get so deep into the material/process they undertake they forget there's going to be an audience watching that doesn't have the luxury of knowing why choices were made or the significance of allusions, visual or in dialogue. I felt this film fell very far off that cliff. It's beautifully made, incredibly well-acted and a beautifully shot movie. But the tension between the two characters quickly becomes their problem, and the audience is left outside the struggle, and I thought, "Well, hope you guys can work it out. I've got better things to do."

True, I may have had unrealistic expectations knowing who made the film and the actors that were cast. But the stilted dialogue (which works well in "The Witch") becomes so dense and full of allusion, I quickly lost interest.

What is most impressive is the look of the film. It recreates the chiaroscuro of the master filmmakers of the silent era in a very eerie way. The sound/music, as well, is haunting and sets the viewer in dread. But the two characters are so locked in their own individual struggles, I just didn't care. Defoe in particular is such a force and so thoroughly intimidating, I'd have moved to the other end of the island rather than put up with him. Pattinson is always interesting and as impressive as Defoe. But their struggle starts out at a very high level and never lets up. It became tedious to watch.