I heard The Witch is incredibly similar in style to that of It Follows, true? Wasn't a huge fan of It Follows but atleast it had a theme that brought back the old days.
I wouldn't have said they're similar, beyond the fact that they're both outside the norm for typical contemporary horror.
It Follows was more interesting to me for the conceptual layers that Mitchell loaded into the film. For example, the trend in contemporary teen horror flicks is that sex is somehow a sign of impurity, and that sex invites disaster. Mitchell does this, but then he treats sex so irreverently. What I mean is that in other horror movies the characters must stop having sex in order to defeat their foe; but in
It Follows, the only way to survive is to keep having sex. It's an awesome twist on a tired theme.
Besides that, the film is weirdly detached from any identifiable historical moment. It looks contemporary, but then we have all these old cars and barely any technology (except for Yara's weird seashell reader thing...). Also, the season is indiscernible. Jay goes swimming multiple times, but people are also always wearing coats and sweaters. The vibe is more like fall or very early spring (which plays nicely into the sexual theme - the ambiguity of purity or perpetual shame...)
Finally, the film is geographically really interesting, probably most interesting to me in this respect. My wife grew up outside Detroit, so all the references to the housing crisis, unemployment, and urban boundaries I find to be compelling.
