In a world in which witches are real, America treats them as America treats everyone who’s a little different: persecution. In this version of modern-day America, witchcraft is real, and illegal. Average teen Claire (The Craft: Legacy’s Gideon Adlon) lives with her mother (Elizabeth Mitchell), hiding a terrible secret behind the household walls. Mom Martha runs an Underground Railroad, helping young witches to freedom in Mexico.
The resentful Claire – who just wants to be Popular at school – is forced to confront her own intolerances when Mom brings two young orphans into the fold. As Claire befriends young Fiona (Abigail Cowen), so her coming-of-age story begins, complete with the manifestation of her own witchy powers. Part Jojo Rabbit, part The Handmaid’s Tale, it’s a YA dystopia with an interesting new hook – Harry Potter, if going to Hogwarts actually meant Guantanamo Bay.
And, like The Handmaid’s Tale, this film is not exactly subtle about its influences. Border walls made of salt; repeated references to kids in cages; Witch Hunt wears its politics on its sleeve. As well it should – these are charged times (and were even more so, when the film was written and made) and of course America would still be burning women to death if witchcraft were real. But – again, like The Handmaid’s Tale – this is a distinctly white perspective, with a mainly white cast.
Regardless, writer and director Elle Callahan does a solid job of building her world, integrating old-timey witch-hunting methods in along with the new. As the state-sanctioned witch hunter, Christian Camargo is of particularly good value, reminiscent of Michael Shannon’s Shape of Water villain.
Witch Hunt sets up an interesting, eerily plausible world, but struggles to take it anywhere new. Rather than defying gravity, it gets dragged down, caught up in itself; bogged down in-between the real and the fantasy.
