This was a nicely darkly disturbing film that burnt steadily and tensely throughout its running. The sense of place..New England in the early 16th century... was superbly conveyed visually. The costumes were all of very muted restrained colours, had a superb home-made look and the buildings, props etc etc were all 100% authentic looking. Apparently the production team went to remarkable lengths to achieve this.
The toughness of this isolated life in that place and at that time was very well achieved and, with the religious passions that were such a central part to their existence, the film gives a grimly fed give picture of the mental pressures as well as the physical that these pioneers must have had to deal with. The isolation, physical and mental, that they must have been under ( and the characters in this film in particular) were astonishingly impressive.
There was a very painterly quality to the film, particularly in the interiors with glowing muted candlelight and the final scene was an almost exact reproduction of a Goya painting. I will not say which one as that would give away too much I feel...but it is connected to the films title...and there were other scenes where the Goya imagery was seen and felt.
There was an interesting trajectory in terms of the truth of the film in that the route it seemed to be taking was going to be an exploration of religious induced hysteria,a la Crucible ( to which many nods were made) but in the final analysis, interestingly Andi think convincingly, thus turned out not to be the case. There was a more than willing ' suspension of disbelief' by the end.
Give music was very fine...soaring,y used but she it was. The best parts were the harmonically brutally harsh choral music...it recalled 2001 and Varese (?)
A good film that succeeded in a difficult genre.