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Review: The Noonday Witch (2016) ★★½

&NewLine;<p>Witches&comma; much like other monsters&comma; tend to operate in the shadows&period; This is most evident in the cinematic world&period; In Robert Eggers <em>The Witch<&sol;em> &lpar;2015&rpar;&comma; the titular villain never really appears&comma; but simply lurks in the dark woods&period; This is partly why Ji&rcaron;í Sádek’s <strong><em>The Noonday Witch<&sol;em><&sol;strong> &lpar;2016&rpar; caught my attention&period; Much like <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;2019&sol;10&sol;05&sol;review-midsommar-2019&sol;">Ari Aster’s <em>Midsommar<&sol;em> &lpar;2019&rpar;<&sol;a>&comma; the film draws the evil from out of the shadows and plants it in broad daylight&period; Unfortunately&comma; <em>The Noonday Witch<&sol;em> &lpar;originally titled <em>Polednice<&sol;em>&rpar; does not shine enough light on the underlying folklore&comma; resulting in a confusing and ultimately disappointing viewing experience&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Though the film tells a unique story set in modern-day Czechia&comma; <em>The Noonday Witch<&sol;em> is based on a late 19th-century poem by Antonín Dvo&rcaron;ák&period; The poem draws from earlier Slavic folklore of a demon that goes by various names&comma; including Lady Midday&comma; The Noon Witch&comma; and — of course — <strong><em>The Noonday Witch<&sol;em><&sol;strong>&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Dvo&rcaron;ák’s poem tells the story of a mother who scolds her misbehaving son and threatens to summon a witch to punish him&period; When a horribly disfigured witch appears at noon&comma; the mother tries to flee with her son&period; The father returns home&comma; only to find that the mother has accidentally smothered her son while trying to protect him&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>It’s important to note that Ji&rcaron;í Sádek’s film draws heavily from this poem&comma; but makes some important alterations to prevent viewers from predicting the outcome&period; In <em>The Noonday Witch<&sol;em>&comma; Eliska &lpar;Anna Geislerová&rpar;&comma; moves to a remote home formerly owned by her late husband&period; Despite her husband’s passing&comma; Eliska tells her daughter&comma; Anetka &lpar;Karolína Lipowská&rpar;&comma; that her father has gone on a trip and will return soon&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>This half-hearted lie&comma; her mounting financial troubles&comma; the absence of Anetka’s father&comma; and the blistering summer heat all put a strain on the mother-daughter relationship&period; Meanwhile&comma; the local townsfolk try to help Eliska move into the dilapidated old house&comma; though their efforts grow increasingly invasive&period; Eliska tries to bring a sense of normalcy to their lives&comma; but she senses an evil presence surrounding the house&period; As her paranoia reaches a feverpitch&comma; Eliska struggles to maintain her sanity and protect her child from the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;noonday witch” that haunts her&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Director Ji&rcaron;í Sádek utilizes a classic horror trope to great effect in the first half of the film&period; Despite living with her daughter&comma; Eliska is essentially alone&period; She has no one to rely on for financial support&comma; and the growing rift with her daughter only makes her life more difficult&period; This places her under great stress&comma; causing her to view outsiders as potential threats&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<div class&equals;"wp-block-image"><figure class&equals;"aligncenter size-large"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;08&sol;Co9SkQTWYAAGu1r-1024x573&period;jpg" alt&equals;"The Noonday Witch &lpar;2016&rpar;" class&equals;"wp-image-2065"&sol;><figcaption><em>The Noonday Witch <&sol;em>&lpar;2016&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure><&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>As we &lpar;the audience&rpar; identify with Eliska&comma; we are inclined to view everyone as a potential threat as well&period; The local mayor shows Eliska kindness by giving her time to make payments on the house&comma; but Eliska wonders if he can be trusted&period; The mayor’s wife&comma; having lost a child years prior&comma; wanders around aimlessly&comma; mumbling to herself&period; At one point&comma; she even appears in Eliska’s house unannounced&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Meanwhile&comma; some of the other townsfolk offer to help watch her child while she runs errands or work on rebuilding her home&period; Some of them appear sincere&comma; while some of them don’t&period; In every case&comma; their behavior seems &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;quirky” to say the least&period; It could be explained away by the fact that they are simple country folk in a remote village&comma; but it could also be part of a conspiracy to hurt Eliska and her daughter&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>This nobody-can-be-trusted trope works well up to a point&period; However&comma; as the plot pushes forward&comma; it becomes clear that either a&rpar; there is a witch that wants to take Eliska’s daughter or b&rpar; several perfectly rational factors are driving Eliska a little crazy &lpar;the summer heat&comma; invasive neighbors&comma; money problems&comma; the death of her husband&comma; her daughter’s rebelliousness&comma; and on and on&rpar;&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Naturally&comma; <em>The Noonday Witch<&sol;em> ending is something you will have to see for yourself&period; I’m not here to spoil the show for anyone&period; However&comma; I will say that it left me wanting more&period; The crescendo of paranoia and fear eventually peter out without much fanfare&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>I usually prefer European horror — like <em>The Noonday Witch<&sol;em> — to American horror&period; With American horror&comma; you almost always know what you’re going to get from the outset&period; The same cannot be said of many European horror films&period; Of course&comma; these are pretty broad generalizations&period; However&comma; I prefer European horror because there’s not always the need for tedious exposition&period; The filmmakers don’t overexplain everything and spoon-feed the audience at every turn&period; Instead&comma; they leave you guessing&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<div class&equals;"wp-block-image"><figure class&equals;"aligncenter size-large"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;08&sol;Screen-Shot-2020-08-30-at-2&period;43&period;14-PM-1024x427&period;png" alt&equals;"The Noonday Witch monster" class&equals;"wp-image-2066"&sol;><figcaption><em>The Noonday Witch<&sol;em> &lpar;2016&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure><&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>However&comma; this didn’t really work in the film’s favor&period; <em>The Noonday Witch<&sol;em> is based on folklore about a hideous witch that appears in the middle of the day&period; The poem on which the film was based tells a terrifying and tragic story&period; From a filmmaker’s perspective&comma; they had fantastic source material&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Sadly&comma; Ji&rcaron;í Sádek didn’t really go anywhere with it&period; He turned an inherently visual story into a psychological one&period; He turned the monster into something that creates an indistinct fear of the unknown&period; The film would have been better served by a monster that creates fear in a more concrete&comma; visual way&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>In short&comma; I think that <em>The Noonday Witch<&sol;em> should have featured a lot more witch and little less noonday&period; Yes&comma; hot days are unpleasant&period; Sure&comma; being alone can make you paranoid&period; Of course&comma; familial drama can be stressful&period; Unfortunately&comma; none of these plot elements are all that scary&period; Ji&rcaron;í Sádek took his great source material and churned out an entertaining&comma; but ultimately unsatisfying psychological horror film&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>So&comma; now that I’ve given you a dozen reasons to not watch <em>The Noonday Witch<&sol;em>&comma; I’m going to tell you that it is still worth watching&period; The pacing keeps things interesting&comma; with rising tension throughout&period; All of the actors play their parts well&comma; especially Anna Geislerová as the film’s heroine&period; And&comma; if nothing else&comma; <em>The Noonday Witch <&sol;em>provides an interesting glimpse of Slavic folklore and the beautiful countryside of The Czech Republic&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Rating&colon; &starf;&starf;&half; out of 5<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>If you’d like to watch <strong><em>The Noonday Witch<&sol;em><&sol;strong> &lpar;2016&rpar;&comma; it is currently available to stream on <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;shudder&period;com&sol;">Shudder<&sol;a> or <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;amazon&period;com&sol;gp&sol;product&sol;B07CGWHGPC&sol;ref&equals;as&lowbar;li&lowbar;qf&lowbar;asin&lowbar;il&lowbar;tl&quest;ie&equals;UTF8&amp&semi;tag&equals;mjones34880c-20&amp&semi;creative&equals;9325&amp&semi;linkCode&equals;as2&amp&semi;creativeASIN&equals;B07CGWHGPC&amp&semi;linkId&equals;fec711ddcc86822f5596cb30e75488bd">Amazon Prime<&sol;a>&period; For more film reviews like this one&comma; check out the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;">Philosophy in Film Homepage<&sol;a>&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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