By now you’ve probably heard the buzz about The Witch, writer and director Robert Eggers’ cinematic folktale. The film took home Best Director honors at Sundance last year, and earned distinction from our own Kyle Anderson as what “will end up being one of the best horror movies of the year.” I certainly wouldn’t disagree, and after seeing the film for the first time months ago, this genre fan is excited for the movie to finally be shared with national audiences. This weekend, the dark drama is released in theaters, becoming A24’s first ever wide release.

Back in October, Nerdist had the opportunity to sit down with Eggers at Fantastic Fest and discuss his celebrated feature debut. Make no mistake—his first film was ambitious to say the least, what with tasks including directing children, working with animals, and making a terrifying, well-acted period horror film spoken in 17th century English dialect. Eggers also explained the background behind The Witch being “a New England folktale,” the lore that surrounded his hometown, and working within the horror genre.

The Witch is a movie not just for horror fans, but for all cinephiles; it examines hard questions and family dynamics that may be removed from modern technology but appear to have changed very little in the last 400 years. Watch our interview with Eggers now and tell us: will you be going to see The Witch this weekend?

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Featured Image Credit: A24 Films

Clarke Wolfe writes Horror Happenings for Nerdist every Sunday. You can follow her on Twitter @clarkewolfe.