If people are like houses, then a haunted estate is merely a person who has yet to deal with the ghost that dwells inside them. Whether it be the loss of a loved one, the redundantly toxic pattern one can’t help but repeat — or, in Simon (Alex Draper)’s case, the remnants of a failed marriage — some sort of apparition forgoes the owner’s ability to move on, to live. In writer/director Andy Mitton’s utterly impressive The Witch in the Window, it becomes evident that this eerie tale about an aging ghost house packs just as much of an emotional punch as it does deliver gut-wrenching goosebumps.
The dissolution of the family unit is a popular theme for horror movies in 2018, and The Witch in the Window is no exception. With movies like Hereditary and A Quiet Place making waves and wowing audiences with masterful performances and superior directing, walking down such a familiar path would send most filmmakers running scared – and yet, in his own personal and isolated set environment, Mitton manages to make a compelling and horrific family drama that feels all his own.
It all starts when twelve-year-old Finn (Charlie Tacker) watches something he wasn’t supposed to see on the internet, sending his mother into a blind rage, and causing her to cast off her son to stay her ex-husband until she can bear to look at the child’s face again. Caught between a rock and a hard place, Simon reluctantly allows the son he’s mostly been avoiding all his life to tag along with him and help as he renovates and flips his latest project, an old farmhouse out in the Vermont countryside.
As the duo begins working on their rustic little fixer-upper, talking all the while about Simon’s mom, with the inquisitive little tween asking a million questions about the marriage that didn’t make it, it slowly becomes apparent that they’re not alone in the house. In the quiet corners of their quaint conversations, a shadowy and sinister figure appears, lurking, watching. At times, her face vanishes so quickly it barely registers in the brain, but the hairs standing up on the back of your neck let you know that you saw her. A witch waiting in the wings. Growing closer, growing more powerful, and becoming less patient.
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