10 Horror Movie Theories That Change Everything
1. The Witch - There Was No Witch, The Family Were Driven Crazy By Spoilt Crops
Robert Egger's folk tale creep-fest The Witch is one of last decade's best and most celebrated horror films. Partly due to its dense atmosphere and excellent character studies found throughout.
After William and his family are banished from a Puritan colony over a religious dispute, they begin a new life on a small patch of farmland, surrounded by some foreboding woods. It's not long before their newborn child vanishes and the family begin to suspect that a witch resides in the woods who means to bring them harm.
Whilst it's easy to just accept the supernatural goings on, there may be something else causing all the intense paranoia. Early in the film, it's referenced that the crops the family grow are of poor quality and infested with fungus.
If the family were to be consuming the fungus, then the chances are that they may be under the influence of psychedelics, causing them to be believe that there was a witch plaguing them. Instead, this theory suggests that all of the death, destruction and tragedy, was caused by a shared psychosis brought on by the fungus.
This is certainly up for debate, but it feels very natural given the film's grounded approach to its subject matter.