Author Brandon Grafius does a really good job at bringing a historical background and context to this deconstruction of THE WITCH. The first chapter itself deals primarily with the Puritans and early settlers religious beliefs and how this shapes each family members role in the film. Another chapter deals, rather exceedingly extensive in my opinion, on how the film fits into the folk horror subgenre and how that influences the film as well. While this was somewhat interesting, too much time was spent here. Only about the last third of the book deals with analyzing the film. However, there is a chapter dedicated to each character in the film and this is where Grafius is really able to engage the reader with a breakdown of the film. Overall, an enjoyable read and again, I appreciate the background information the author brought to the table to put the film in its proper context. It would have been nice to have a little bit more of an analysis however, and not rely so much on the other information.
