Paint it Black
Keywords: Christianity, The Color Black, Evil, Lucifer/Satan, Sin, White/Black Hat
Everything in The Witch (2015) is black. Well, anything considered evil at least. In Black: The History of a Color, the color black has a history associated with death and in the biblical sense, “frequently considered bad,” as opposed to white which is “the color of Christ and light [...] the color of glory and resurrection” (Michel Pastoureau 30). It is also used as “the color of Satan, sin, and death” (Michel Pastoureau 30). Even depictions of ancient Egyptian Gods such as Anubis, who accompanies the dead to the tomb, have been painted black in hieroglyphics. From the film’s onset, The Witch applies this ideology throughout the narrative, starting with the mother (Kate Dickie) who is dressed in black clothing after their family is exiled. This foreshadows the film’s climax and true antagonist to Thomasin (Anya-Taylor Joy) as she is forced to kill her own mother after constantly being berated and accused of sexually tempting her father (Ralph Ineson) to sin. Thomasin’s mother is not only clothed in black but during a dinner scene, the lighting drives this point further as she is the only one cast in shadows.
Throughout The Witch, many of the “evil” characters (and mostly animals) are all depicted as black. Most notably amongst them all is the family’s goat, Black Philip. The goat itself has been associated as a symbol of Satan, with even the Satanic Temple unveiling a statue of Baphomet, where a goat head is combined with the body of a human and wings. Black Philip is depicted as being evil, often whispering to the creepy twins and accused of being Lucifer himself by various characters in the film. At the end of the movie, it turns out they were right, as he transforms into a man dressed entirely in black who convinces Thomasin (Anya-Taylor Joy) to join the witch’s coven. Although not explicitly stated, the audience can assume he is a sort of proxy for Lucifer as the characters in the film suspected.
Image via BBC
In the middle of the film, Thomasin’s younger brother Caleb (Harvey Scrimshaw) follows after the family dog into the forest who is chasing a hare, also black. This leads Caleb to a witch’s cabin and subsequently his death the next day after becoming ill due to their encounter. Once again, this refers to the idea that black is “the symbolic color most often associated with death” (Michel Pastoureau 35). When the supernatural elements in The Witch begin to ramp up, Thomasin’s mother begins to hallucinate her dead infant in the house and breast feeds him. It is soon revealed to actually be a raven (or crow) pecking at her chest, causing her to bleed and be fed off of. Pastoureau, once again, states that in Christianity, the crow was “assigned [...] to the devil’s beastiary” as it is “dirty and corrupt, the sign of sin and death.” Shortly after this scene, the mother becomes unhinged towards Thomasin who is forced to kill her own mother in self-defense. Although the mother tries to uphold all the Christian values she has been taught, her strict adherence to scripture turns her into a paranoid person, often sinning herself without knowing it. She becomes antagonistic and blind by her faith, accusing her daughter of acts she never committed and even driving Thomasin more towards witchcraft as she has seen firsthand the pain her family’s religion has caused her.
Although not a character itself, The Witch’s setting is also covered in darkness. The family is isolated by a surrounding dark forest, which is analogous to the dark continent and the unknown when settlers first arrived in North America. The “dark continent” was widely used by Europeans to describe Africa as it was “closed off from the ‘saving light’ of Christianity.” Aside from the obvious racist implications of using “dark” to describe Africans, it was a way for missionaries to other Africans, viewing them as almost primitive and unlikely to conform to Christian values. The Witch uses the forest in a similar fashion as Thomasin’s family is terrified to travel into it because they are afraid of the unknown and believe the witches to be occupying the area.
Throughout history the color black has been used to depict anything evil or related to death. There is even the trope of the “white hat” and “black hat” often used in media to discern for the audience who the protagonist and antagonist are. It is a narrative device many of us have been accustomed to over the years, even if we do not associate them to the racial implications they refer to. In The Witch, even though there are no black characters they still very much structure the film. The colors of the animals and especially Black Philip become proxies of black people in this narrative as we can see the racist undertones using this color creates within all media due to the historical use of it.
William from Westworld given the option to choose between a white and black hat, signifying his allegiance to good or evil.
