Runnin’ With The Devil: Morality, Apostasy and THE WITCH

-The following post discusses the ending of The Witch. Here be spoilers-

Sometimes I forget that, despite being the patron saint of rock and roll, Lucifer is supposed to be the bad guy. As a lapsed Catholic, it’s difficult to hate the original apostate. He rebelled against the God I abandoned before the world I know was formed, allowing me to follow in his footsteps when I was 19 and going through that odious Dawkins phase. If I wasn’t lead to atheism first, left believing in God despite my crisis in faith, I would likely have channeled my spite and anger into devout Satanism. Instead, I find myself flirting with nihilism and complaining about religion as if I still had one.

Because my spiritual beliefs are unpopular and negative, I rarely have to square with the idea that most people, even the non-religious, seem to think God is the good guy. That was until I saw The Witch and had a much different takeaway than a friend of mine with less of a religion shaped chip on his shoulder. When speaking to him about why I liked the film so much, I mentioned that the ending felt incredibly liberating and victorious. I was shocked to discover he did not feel the same way. It was then that I realized I was probably in the minority.

Still, The Witch has a happy ending for me. I read it as a great big middle finger to the Christian establishment, a tale of liberation in the face of an uncaring, unfair, woman hating God. Thomasin, the film’s protagonist, after signing her soul away to the Devil makes her way into the deep woods to find a worshiping coven of women, spaz-dancing around a fire. She removes her clothes and begins to levitate high up into the forest’s canopy, finally free of the Lord’s shackles.

Now, I understand why an audience would behold that final image of empowered womanhood and see a net loss, because there are many losers in The Witch and one of them is our big ole sky-dad. Viewing the film through its presented Christian framework evokes a sense of corruption throughout. A family of Christians, too pure for the puritans, leaves the New England community they call home to live in their own way. But rather than finding a home closer to the Lord, the Satanic forces of the wilderness spread through the family, leaving behind nothing but blood, horror, misery and a single ground up baby. The Devil wins in The Witch, and that’s enough for some to call it a net loss for the good guys.

But consider Thomasin’s journey. She is a young woman who is guilty of Christian thought crime. She has sinned in her heart against a God who favours men while living subservient to a patriarchal society. She is unfree and guilty by virtue of what she thinks, toiling under the eccentric shadow of a father who spirited her away with him into fanatical exile. Because she is maturing as a woman, her sex is also liable to have her thrown out of this proto-Jonestown; she is subject to the moralistic fears of her parents and she is blamed for the wandering eyes of Caleb, her younger brother.

Thomasin can’t win. She was made faulty by a cruel or impotent creator who demands fealty and born into a society that hates her on a chromosomal level. When all the blood is spilled, and her younger twin siblings are gone, and the goat starts soliciting her autograph, no wonder she signs the legendary book of witch names. The being inside Black Philip, the family’s satanic he-goat, promises her freedom and knowledge—two things forbidden to Christians, but especially for women in the faith’s tradition. When she escapes into the woods, Thomasin has abandoned her faith. She then abandons society by removing the clothes that hide her shame, and finally she abandons humanity, taking triumphant, unholy flight.

In Thomasin I see a good example. A woman who earned God’s scorn by virtue of her existence and, when given the choice, rejected Him. And while I can’t begin to understand the struggles women go through in today’s patriarchal society let alone the truly horrific climate of witch trial era New England, I see my own journey of apostasy mirrored in Thomasin’s dark ascension. The world before her, outside of God’s view, will be one of true liberty and less terror. Just one of the rewards for those who sign away their souls is a happy ending where others only see horror, and that’s why if given the opportunity I’ll always choose to run with the devil.