The Historicity of The Witch

I got a chance to check out The Witch this weekend and it was well-worth it. It's a well-executed historical horror film that eschews the jump scares and other tropes of most modern horror in favor of building a sense of dread. (It perhaps resembles in some ways It Follows though in style not content.) Though its a very different film, it would probably make a good double feature with A Field in England.

Anyway, my friend Jack wrote a good review here.

Robert Eggers, the writer-director, emphasized historical accuracy in the film, even down to sampling dialogue from period references (though unfortunately, we do know which specific ones for which piece. Maybe an annotated screenplay will be released?). Here's a post on an early American history blog reviewing the Witch's portrayal of witches compared to period beliefs in the early colonial area.

The New York Public library put together a resource and reading list for the film, including the works Eggers specifically mentions in interviews.