10 Things You Never Knew About The Making Of The Witch

7 min readDec 25, 2020

The Witch is the acclaimed directorial debut of Robert Eggers. A lot more went into the production of the film that audiences might not know.

Director Robert Eggers has made a name for himself as a horror director who puts an immense amount of attention to detail and craftsmanship into his movies. (also written as The VVitch) is a great example of a horror movie that uses atmosphere, mood, and other cinematic modes of psychology to play on the fears of the viewer.

Any movie that puts so much effort into its visual style usually has a lot going on behind the scenes during production in order to successfully achieve its vision. That means there are some interesting things viewers might not know about The Witch’s production and beginnings.

10. It Was Both A Feature Directorial Debut & A Breakout Role

Anya Taylor-Joy is currently on the top of everyone’s Netflix watch list with The Queen’s Gambit. Something viewers might not realize is that she got her first big break with The Witch. She read the script the night before her audition and was enthralled by how it “transported” her into the world of the Puritan family.

The Witch was also Eggers’ first time directing a feature film. He had previously created a short film based on Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” and worked as a production designer for numerous other short films.

9. The Movie Was Shot With Vintage Lenses

Everything on this set was made to replicate times long passed, but some of the camera equipment actually was from a bygone era. Eggers found some Cooke lenses from the 1940s from Panavision because he loved the rounded image shape and the blurred effect they gave to the border of the image as if the viewer was “looking into a portal.”

The Cooke lenses were used with an Alexa Plus and shot with a very square aspect ratio of 1.66:1 to make the woods taller and forbidding while simultaneously making the space inside the farmhouse more compact. Eggers would later go even more extreme with The Lighthouse’s aspect ratio, a claustrophobic 1.19:1.

8. It Was Shot In Canada To Save Money

Shooting for The Witch took place in Ontario, in a tiny town called Kiosk. The location was so remote that there were some unique challenges that included spotty cell phone service, but it was ultimately worth it. The forbidding wooded areas and barren, lonely landscape provide the perfect backdrop for this horror story.

More and more independent films are being shot in Canada; even large budget Hollywood films and television series can be found filming in Toronto or Vancouver rather than Los Angeles or New York. Part of this is because there aren’t as many production unions in Canada, making production cheaper overall, and because of Canada’s Film Production Services Tax Credit, which gives a subsidy to foreign film producers.

7. Almost Everything Was Made From Scratch

Some productions use film sets that are recycled and or have been reused, especially if they’re housed in a studio. The Witch was not one of these productions because it was crucial that every detail was as true to the time period as possible, which meant that the farmhouse dwelling and props had to be hand-made.

Eggers had a trusted carpenter and thatcher (someone who specializes in constructing roofing made from straw or other plant materials) flown from the East Coast to the remote location of Kiosk where filming took place in order to help keep the farm setting as accurate as possible. Eggers himself had a background as a prop designer and carpenter, so it’s understandable how this particular part of the production was significant to him.

6. It Had A Small Budget

With how much of this movie set was made by hand, one would have to assume a large budget was necessary to pull it off. However, with The Witch being an indie movie, it had a meager budget of just $4 million. Because of this, Eggers wasn’t able to shoot the movie in New England, which is where The Witch takes place.

Knowing how small the budget makes one appreciate the challenges and odds that the creators must have overcome to achieve the kind of success they had with this movie. The Witch was not only a creative success but a financial one: turning a $4 million budget into grossing $40 million at the box office.

5. The Set Designer Consulted An Archeologist

Production designer Craig Lathrop traveled with Eggers, the DP, and costume designer to Plymouth Massachusetts to conduct research on what life would have been like for Puritan farmers. They visited a living history museum called Plymouth Plantation.

Lathrop studied the structures at the museum and even took note of what kind of tools were used to construct them. He also visited other original sites where Puritan farms once stood and met with an archeologist who was local to the area to learn more about 17th-century farming in Plymouth.

4. It Premiered At Sundance Film Festival & Won Best Director

Before A24 acquired the distribution rights for The Witch, the movie premiered at Sundance Film Festival. It was met with critical acclaim and won ‘Best Director’ while also being nominated for a Grand Jury Prize.

This was quite an accomplishment especially when you consider that it was Eggers’ feature directorial debut. It went on to have a successful festival run and won numerous other awards before becoming available to stream online.

3. The Characters Speak In Jacobean English

With every other aspect of this film being precise to the 1600s, it was only right that the dialogue was as well. The characters spoke in an early-English dialect called Jacobean English, with Yorkshire English accents. Eggers also pulled chunks of dialogue from real-life Salem witch trial accounts, journals, and other written documents from the time.

The original idea for the family’s background was to have them immigrate from Sussex England to Plymouth, but Eggers loved actor Ralph Ineson’s (cast as the Puritan father William) native Yorkshire accent so much that he changed the backstory.

2. They Used Natural Lighting

Three-wick candles and tea lights took the place of production lights on the set of The Witch. While three-wick candles aren’t necessarily historically accurate, they cast a stronger light than regular candles and looked better on camera.

The overcast sky and Kiosk’s gloomy winter weather provided plenty of opportunity for dread and anxiety for the characters and the viewer watching them, and these lighting details really added to the washed-out, muted color scheme of the image.

1. The Director Did Intensive Research On Every Detail

From the production design to the dialogue, Egger’s attention to detail and quest for complete historical accuracy is what made this horror movie go above and beyond expectations.

The research was such a big part of the creation of The Witch that pre-production and production took over four years to complete. However, seeing his creative vision through to the end resulted in Eggers becoming practically a household name in horror.

NEXT: 10 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About The Blair Witch Project

Originally published at https://screenrant.com on December 25, 2020.