The Witch (2015) left alot to be desired

https://preview.redd.it/r09pxnw0jjrg1.jpg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8221f4113b31a288fbb33ec1a511f8c1fbcecf27 Being part of Gen X and already exhausted over the horror that played on my family's VHS player back in the days full of nihilistic endings, I expected more from "The Witch." The movie is marketed as "Prestige" or "Elevated Horror," but there was nothing new about the film's plot that I haven't seen in 'folk horror' films of the 1970s, such as *The Wicker Man, Mark of the Devil or Daughters of Satan. Or* the 1980s like *Suspiria, Threads or Superstition.* I expected the film to be about how Puritan culture and organized religion often distorted the views of families during colonial times that initiated the witch hunts. I honestly believed baby Samuel being stolen was merely an illusion conjured by the family and that a wild animal actually took it. I didn't expect the film to reveal that the witches were actually real and had sacrificed the poor baby. I suppose I had high expectations for the movie. I misinterpreted it as a social horror thriller, where a Puritan family falls apart, using Thomasin as a scapegoat for natural disasters or tragic accidents, such as the failed crops. I was hoping Caleb's sickness was due to contracting a deadly disease and that his encounter with the witch coven was merely an illusion in his mind. I did not expect Thomasin to be so passive, watching her family die or disappear. By making the Devil and the witches from such an outdated trope real, the film missed the opportunity to explore how personal bias and religion warped a person's view of how women who did not 'fall in line' were portrayed, left up to the imagination. I also felt bad for the mother too. Before watching the film, I heard a spoiler that Thomasin did join the witches, but again, my hopeful sentiment was it was "found family" after her real family kicked her out.....that the film was just banished women who sought refuge among each other, being mostly healers, pagans who didn't murder, or neurodivergent characters that the Church deemed evil and unpure. I cannot speak for other Gen Xers, but at this point in time, I'm tired of nostalgia for the 1970s and 80s where mostly every film had the same bad, predictable ending (or 'misery p***' as some would term it). There was no opportunity to examine 'folk horror' from a different perspective or subvert the usual tropes or nihilism found in such endings. *The Witch* felt like it belonged in the 1970s. It looks "pretty" for its scenery and lauded for its dreaded atmosphere, but it was sorely disappointing. It makes me weary of checking A24's other films, such as *Hereditary, Saint Maud and Midsommer.* Yeah, guess I'll go read me some *Slewfoot* by Gerald Brom or check out *A Discovery of Witches.* Thanks for hearing my rant 😊