- Description
In the middle of the seventeenth century, people were closer to nature, closer to God, closer to irrational phenomena that today we consider to be just fairy tales. The seven-member family of farmer William (Ralph Ineson), who at the time lived in the relative safety of a New England settlement, decided to leave the colony after a serious clash with their neighbours and set out to conquer the American wilderness.
After a short wandering they settled in no-man's land, near a vast dark forest which some sensitive nature would say had an ominous aspect. The farmer's family's unfortunate suspicions are compounded by a series of hard-to-explain events that accompany their new life, from a blighted harvest to the strange behaviour of the farm animals. The culmination of the series of disasters is the disappearance of the farmer's youngest son right in front of his eldest daughter Tomassin (Anya Taylor-Joy), who was supposed to be watching him.
In an atmosphere of pervasive paranoia stemming from other strange events, the family gradually disintegrates, Tomassin is unanimously labelled the culprit of all the misfortunes and accused of witchcraft, although ironically it is she who still retains at least a semblance of sanity. And what has been lurking in the dark forest, until now a mere observer, decides to strike...
