15 Best Original Movie Characters Of 2016
4. Thomasin - The Witch
Many of the greatest horror protagonists don't really make a strong first impression. They slip into the background with the rest of the ensemble, and it is only when hell starts breaking loose (literally or figuratively) that their strength as a character is revealed. Thomasin follows this pattern to a degree - to say anything more specific would spoil the fascinating puritanical nightmare that is Robert Eggers' The Witch.
A girl around the age of 13, Thomasin is the middle child of a family of puritans living in the New England wilderness. Throughout the course of the film, her family starts to turn against her as they suspect her of deliberately losing her baby brother in the woods. The period dialogue and immaculate costuming of this family makes this film perhaps the most accurate portrayal of 17th century family dynamics we're ever going to see on the screen.
Despite the old English and exaggerated circumstances, Thomasin grabs the audience's attention moment by moment in this film as the rest of her family becomes gradually more unhinged. Her ordeal is nightmarish to watch, and by the end we cannot tell if she has changed for the better. But Anna Taylor-Joy's performance sells it all, and makes us empathize with a character in an environment so alien to a 21st century audience.