Anya Taylor-Joy has become one of the most versatile actors of her generation. At 30, her work spans film and television, including Super Mario, Mad Max and the Golden Globe-winning series The Queen’s Gambit. She also starred in Apple TV’s Lucky earlier this year and is set to appear in Dune: Part Three.
Her rise began with The Witch, a 2015 horror film that introduced audiences to Taylor-Joy and director Robert Eggers. It also gave modern horror one of its strangest icons: Black Phillip, an apparently ordinary goat with a much darker secret.
More than a decade after its release, The Witch remains a compelling and unsettling watch. The film is currently available to stream free with advertisements on Plex, while Prime Video includes it with an Amazon Prime subscription. The source material also notes a Netflix listing lasting until 1 October, so Australian viewers should check local availability before pressing play.
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What is The Witch about?
Set in 1630s New England, the film follows a deeply religious Puritan family living on the edge of an isolated forest. After a dispute with their church community forces them into exile, the family of seven establishes a home beside the dark, unexplored woods.
The period setting shapes every part of the story. The characters speak in dense, archaic English, while religion, superstition and folklore determine how they understand the world. That deliberate style can demand patience from modern viewers, but beneath it lies a straightforward story about a family coming apart under pressure.
William, played by Ralph Ineson, and Katherine, played by Kate Dickie, struggle as their crops fail and there is no game left to hunt. Their cramped home fills with resentment, accusations and fear. Their children absorb the conflict, while the twins’ unsettling behaviour raises further suspicion.
The crisis begins when the family’s newborn, Samuel, vanishes while being watched by his eldest sister, Thomasin, played by Taylor-Joy. The disappearance sets off a sequence of suspicion, grief and violence that pushes the family towards catastrophe.
“Wouldst thou like to live deliciously?”
Thomasin soon becomes the household scapegoat. Her mother blames her for Samuel’s disappearance and begins to view her maturing body through a religious lens. Her brother Caleb is drawn to her through loneliness and newly awakened sexuality, while the twins accuse her of witchcraft. Even William, who presents himself as a devoted father and believer, allows Thomasin to carry the blame for a silver cup he secretly sold.
Black Phillip’s eventual revelation confirms the evil that has been gathering around the family. By then, Thomasin has lost nearly every reason to remain loyal to the life she has been forced to endure.
The goat’s offer to let her “live deliciously” is memorable partly because of Daniel Malik’s eerie vocal performance, but its real power comes from what it represents. Thomasin is offered a way out of a world that has isolated, judged and sacrificed her.
She signs the devil’s book, removes her clothes and walks into the forest that has shadowed the family from the beginning. The ending supports two opposing readings. Thomasin may be surrendering to the evil that destroyed her family, or she may be finding freedom and a community among women rejected by a puritanical society.
Traditional horror often leaves its final girl alive because she defeats the threat. Thomasin survives by accepting it, turning the familiar survival story into something more ambiguous and unsettling.
A breakout for Taylor-Joy and Robert Eggers
The Witch established Taylor-Joy as a major emerging performer and marked Eggers as a director with a precise, atmospheric style. His films are known for meticulous production design and intense attention to historical detail.
Eggers later explored Viking mythology in The Northman, which reunited him with Taylor-Joy, before turning to the vampire tradition with Nosferatu. Both films reflect his interest in old myths and the darker meanings hidden beneath familiar stories.
Eggers is scheduled to return to cinemas on 25 December with Werwulf, starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson as a cursed man in 13th-century England. Until then, The Witch remains the clearest place to see the foundations of his filmmaking and Taylor-Joy’s screen presence: a bleak house, a sinister goat and a young woman making an impossible choice.
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