Into the Woods
WORDS: MATTHEW TODD
A NEW ENGLAND PILGRIM FAMILY FIND THEMSELVES WITH AN UNWANTED GUEST. WE TALK TO DIRECTOR ROBERT EGGERS ABOUT HIS HIT FIRST FEATURE WHICH HAS BEEN DESCRIBED AS THE SCARIEST FILM IN YEARS.
You grew up in New England. How did witches become your inspiration?
Witches were a really big part of my childhood and my nightmarish imaginary landscape. I think if you’ve ever been to rural New England you can’t not see the old dilapidated colonial old farm houses – my grandfather lives in one – and the graveyards in the middle of the woods and so on. So, I thought let’s make the archetypal New England horror story and witches are the New England spook. What I quickly understood was that then many people believed witches really were these fairytale ogresses who were abducting children and doing ungodly things to them. I knew if I could transport audiences back into the 17th century and the mindset where they were real, I could make the witch really scary again.