The Witch Next Door
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The Witch Next Door |
| Original title | The wretched |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2019 |
| length | 95 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Brett Pierce , Drew T. Pierce |
| script | Brett Pierce, Drew T. Pierce |
| production | Ed Polgardy , Chang Tseng |
| music | Devin Burrows |
| camera | Conor Murphy |
| cut | Terry Yates |
| occupation | |
| |
The Witch Next Door (original title The Wretched ) is a horror film by Brett and Drew T. Pierce , which premiered in July 2019 at the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal, Canada and was released in selected US cinemas on May 1, 2020. The film is also available online there.
action
After his parents split up, the rebellious Ben is sent to his father in a small coastal town for the summer. There the teenager is supposed to work and gain discipline in the local marina. The idyllic tourist town offers him little comfort, however, as he is forced to deal with the local, privileged teenagers and his father's new girlfriend.
However, these problems soon fade into the background when he discovers a terrifying change in the family who rented the house next door. A witch, an ancient, demonic creature, hunts children and obliterates any trace of their existence. She lives under a tree and has the power to enchant people so that they “forget” the existence of loved ones around them. With no one taking his suspicions seriously, he embarks on a dangerous crusade to end the reign of terror of the witch who disguises herself with the skin of women.
production
Brothers Brett and Drew T. Pierce , who also wrote the script, directed it. Together they had also made the zombie comedy Deadheads , which they presented at the Fantasy Filmfest in August 2011 . For The Witch Next Door loose the story from the children's book them served The Witches of Roald Dahl as a template. In addition, they had researched and read a lot about different witches and similar beings in folklore from different parts of the world and had come across two characters that they liked very much, especially their pictorial representations. So there was a witch named Black Annis , who originated in Great Britain, an old witch who lived in a tree and stole children to eat. On the other hand, they came across a witch named Boo Hag, who wears the skin of women and tries to pretend to be the wife or mother of her victims. The only way to fight the latter witch is to salt the inside of her skin. They would have liked these two ideas so much that they linked both witch myths for their film and created the premise. The idea that the witch is, in a way, jealous of the fact that women can have children and are attractive are motifs that recur in many classic witch mythologies. In order to visually make the occupation of the female body clear to the audience, she was now dressed in red and a little more elegant.
For John-Paul Howard , who plays Ben in The Witch Next Door , it is the first leading role in a film. The Pierce Brothers became aware of it after being in hell or high water in the role of Chris Pines was seen film son Justin.
The German synchronization was based on a dialogue book and the dialogue direction by Zoé Denise Naumann on behalf of Think Global Media GmbH, Berlin. Amy Waller speaks in the German version Mallory, Andrea Cleven speaks Sara, and Sonja Spuhl lends Abbie her voice.
The film music was composed by Devin Burrows , who had already worked with the directors for Deadheads . According to Burrows, it has influences from Bernard Herrmann and modern classical composers such as Sergei Prokofjew and Igor Stravinsky , but in some respects it is a bit more avant-garde and has a clearly annoying sound structure. The recording was made with a 66-piece orchestra. In addition to orchestral music, folk instruments were also used to illustrate the origins of the witch, a sarangi , a string instrument widespread in northern India and Pakistan. Burrows had changed the sound a little to give it an animal quality that sounds almost like a deer, as deer play an important role in the film. The soundtrack album, which comprises a total of 27 pieces of music, was released for download on July 17, 2020.
The first screening took place on July 19, 2019 at the Fantasia Film Festival. It was released in selected US cinemas on May 1, 2020 and is also available on VoD in the US. The first screening of the film in Germany took place on September 28, 2019 at the Regensburg HARD: LINE Film Festival , the cinema release in Germany on August 13, 2020.
reception
Age rating
In Germany, the film was approved by the FSK from the age of 16. The reason for the release states that the film is rather calmly staged at the beginning, and the tension develops from a gruesome atmosphere and genre-typical moments of shock. In the further course of the action there are occasional more drastic moments of violence, but these are kept short and are not played out. Viewers aged 16 and over could view these scenes as part of the unreal horror story and keep a reasonable distance.
Reviews and grossing results
The film was rated positively by 75 percent of all Rotten Tomatoes critics.
The film critic Peter Osteried describes The Witch Next Door as a thoroughly effective horror film, which creates an atmosphere very well with the sound mix and the appealing film music. The actors, who are generally unknown, are also doing well, the staging is tidy, and the dosed effects are mostly handmade and therefore far more convincing than CGI images in a cheap film like this one. The film is nothing special, but offers coming-of-age horror with a very special 1980s feeling, even if the story takes place in the here and now. The attempt of the Pierce brothers to indulge in the cinematic influences of their youth, they succeeded, all while producing a straight, exciting and atmospheric horror flick so Osteried.
The film critic Antje Wessels writes The Witch next Door is not one of those intellectual horror dramas like The Witch , Hereditary or The Other Lamb , in which the makers mainly use the shell of the horror cinema to take up much more profound topics under the shock surface. But the film establishes a horror scenario far removed from the usual Hollywood glossy horror, in which the characters, their interpersonal relationships and the social environment also play a crucial role in the story. Especially in the unfortunately hysterical finale, in which cameraman Conor Murphy exchanges his calm and clear work for wild waving around, the witch finds her climax in her ancient, nasty genre representation, without modern villain gimmicks, but with an engaging presence and a terrifying appearance, with the she gets to grips with the main character Ben. Up until now, newcomer John-Paul Howard has served as a charismatic figure who can be identified with people, even if the script does not particularly challenge him, according to Wessels.
In the United States, The Wretched was number 1 in the box office by audience for five consecutive weeks between the beginning of May and mid-June 2020. In view of the coronavirus pandemic , as a result of which these figures were only obtained from tickets bought in drive-in cinemas while the movie theaters were closed, this was seen as a huge success. Overall, the film grossed around $ 3.1 million worldwide.
Awards
Fantasia Film Festival 2019
- Nomination for Best Picture for the Black Horse ( Brett and Drew T. Pierce )
Molins Film Festival 2019
- Nomination for the audience award in the section Being Different (Brett and Drew T. Pierce)
Web links
- The Witch Next Door in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The Witch Next Door in the German dubbing index
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for The Witch Next Door . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF; test number: 200248 / V).
- ↑ The Wretched. In: Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved April 28, 2020.
- ↑ A witch as a neighbor: See the first trailer and poster for the horror film "The Wretched". In: moviebreak.de, March 30, 2020.
- ↑ a b Kristy Strouse: Austin Film Festival 2019: Interview With Brett Pierce & Drew T. Pierce, Co-Writers / Directors Of 'The Wretched'. In: filminquiry.com, November 14, 2019.
- ^ A b Gary Collinson: Exclusive Interview - Composer Devin Burrows discusses his score for horror film The Wretched. In: flickeringmyth.com, April 28, 2020.
- ↑ https://filmmusicreporter.com/2020/07/13/the-wretched-soundtrack-album-announced/
- ↑ The Wretched. In: fantasiafestival.com. Retrieved April 29, 2020.
- ↑ The Wretched. In: hardline-festival.de. Retrieved April 29, 2020.
- ↑ https://www.spio-fsk.de/?seitid=2737&tid=469&Vers=1&FGID=5618
- ↑ The Wretched. In: Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved July 29, 2020.
- ↑ https://www.programmkino.de/filmkritiken/the-witch-next-door/
- ↑ http://www.quotenmeter.de/n/120472/the-witch-next-door-der-film-der-black-panther-entthronte
- ↑ https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl716997121/weekly/?ref_=bo_rl_tab#tabs
- ↑ http://www.quotenmeter.de/n/120472/the-witch-next-door-der-film-der-black-panther-entthronte
- ↑ The Wretched. In: boxofficemojo.com. Retrieved August 16, 2020.
- ↑ The Wretched. In: molinsfilmfestival.com. Retrieved April 28, 2020.