The Witchening: A Nightmarish Recounting Of An Ancient Folklore

MK Kopp’s The Witchening is a bloodcurdling, horror short of under 10-minutes in duration that carries an eerily familiar narrative but restyled for the contemporary times. Haunting, fast-paced and gory in its visual imagery, the film manages to serve up all the ingredients of a classic horror film well. Heavily reliant on the prop designed by Bernadine Gunderson, The Witchening offers the comeuppance no one saw coming.

When Kate (Kiarra Hamagami Goldberg) discounts Jeanie’s (Penelope Martone) bedtime story as the cause of her recurring nightmares, little does she know that she has her own share of hell awaiting, not far from the room. A bottle film, The Witchening offers DoP Ryan Featherstun some excellent manoeuvres to give the film its frenzied rhythm. The colour palette, an ominous sepia that deftly switches to sanguine offers the much needed premonition to its viewers. All of these smart choices, make the short a bite-sized, terrifying tale of childhood traumas and repressed fears of the adult minds. As Jeanie begins her narration, we join in Kate’s skepticism, which in a matter of few minutes escalates into the dreadful realisation that blurs the line between fantasy and nightmare, neurosis and psychosis–a terrifying buildup of the inevitable.

Due to its jump scares, the film remains faithful to its tropes, perhaps eschewing its audience of its real thrill, but King John’s music along with Zach Griffin’s editing, and we get a neat timeline that doesn’t waste a single scene to propel its story forward. And, so when the boyfriend, Jakob (Hunter Romanillos) enters the story, we start to anticipate the unavoidable–the witch. 

Malevolence, who is the designer of the witch, brings to screen an entirely unexpected entity. The complete surprise of it only heightens the fear and unpredictability of the story. What The Witchening does is seamlessly tie the tropes into a minuscule short that offers horror with the supernatural and a bit of drama. It would have immensely helped to stretch the backstory, but the climax more than makes up for it–leaving the audience with questions and an unsettling feeling of something sinister that is still lurking around.

The Witchening carries with it plenty of potential. Predictable, perhaps for some, the film certainly has a lot to offer for the horror genre aficionados. A tale that blends ancient folklore with gory special effects, the film remains tense, recreating the childhood nightmare we all hope to never encounter again.