In preparation for our Hereditary (2018) monitoring this week we decided to introduce an older tale from the same production company A24 to our test subject. The Witch (2016) touted as an exquisitely made and terrifying horror film crafts a new folk-tale set in New England circa 1630. Does this film deliver the scares promised by the hype or will it leave our subject flatlined?

Test Subject: Leah

Age : 33

Gender: Female

Fears: Ghosts, Demons (possibly goats)

ANALYSIS:

As you can see from the chart above, our subject sits through most of the first act with no real significant change in heart-rate. Not until forty-one minutes into the film do we finally see an impressive spike in activity. Upon closer examination we can identify four convincing jolts occurring throughout the course of the movie but rarely was our subject able to climb out of the 65-75bpm mark. Her peak heart-rate comes at one hour and thirteen minutes but still only musters 83bpm.

CONCLUSION:

While the film is cinematically gorgeous, the scares are few and far between. This by no means represents a poorly made film. In fact, the movie works well as a creepy witch folk tale but we wouldn’t categorize it in the horror genre. The label could be misleading. Our subject stayed well below the levels of old horror classics and while the dramatically eerie atmosphere was able to raise her heart-rate she never climbed to the expected levels a true horror film should bring. Even with a talking goat.

Resting HR: 60 bpm

Walking HR: 65-75 bpm

Average HR during the film: 69 bpm

Peak HR: 83 bpm

Calories burned: 146