10 Best Horror Films Of The 2010s (So Far)

This 'New England folktale' is so terrifying because it feels as though it could be a long-lost story from a foregone time.

It goes to painstaking lengths to make it feel as though the story did exist in the 1630s. The camera is stagnant and un-glamorous in its movement, the designs of the locations and wardrobes are period-accurate, and the dialogue is so classically English that it hurts. It knowingly establishes a sense of credibility that the film utilizes to corrupt the period's religious background.

It exploits the most classical ideologies of virtue and innocence, from the kidnapping of a baby to the banishment of the main characters from their Puritan plantation. Not to mention the fact that all of the performances are incredible, especially Anya Taylor-Joy's as the Puritan good girl who falls to temptation.

All of these factors (and more) add up to a film that is laced with an undercurrent of unsettling realism. Churches the world over rioted against the film as the Church of Satan even gave it their seal of approval. Thus, the scariest part of the film is just how much it feels like an authentic, demented religious fable.