Sundance Horror Hit 'The Witch' Set For Early 2016 Release

By Angie Han/Sept. 24, 2015 1:30 pm EST

Shortly after next year's Sundance Film Festival, one of this year's Sundance favorites will finally hit theaters. A24 has announced an early 2016 for The Witch, Robert Eggers' 17th century chiller about a deeply religious family plagued by suspicion, misfortune, and possibly some evil spirits in colonial New England. Get The Witch release date details after the jump.

A24 announced The Witch release date on Twitter.

There is evil in the wood. And it's almost time to let it out. #TheWitch – This February pic.twitter.com/n5QQRfZG4Q

— A24 (@A24) September 24, 2015

The Witch's February 26, 2016 release date pits it against Timur Bekmambetov's Ben-Hur remake, the Halle Berry thriller Kidnap, and — perhaps most directly — Fox's supernatural horror The Other Side of the Door. It's a tad disappointing to realize that those of us who didn't attend Sundance 2015 will have been waiting over a year for the movie to hit theaters. But better late than never, right?

And The Witch seems worth the wait. The /Film staff rated it among their favorites of the festival, containing "some of the weirdest and most shocking sights of this year's Sundance." In addition, Anya Taylor-Joy's lead performance is said to be a highlight. Here's the synopsis:

New England, 1630: William and Katherine lead a devout Christian life, homesteading on the edge of an impassible wilderness, with five children. When their newborn son mysteriously vanishes and their crops fail, the family begins to turn on one another. In his debut feature, writer/director Robert Eggers painstakingly designs an authentic re-creation of New England — generations before the 1692 trials in Salem — evoking the alluring and terrifying power of the timeless witch myth. Told through the eyes of Thomasin, the teenage daughter (in a star-making performance by Anya Taylor-Joy), and supported by haunting camera work and an ominous score, The Witch is a chilling portrait of a family unraveling within their own fears and anxieties, leaving them prey for an inescapable evil.