Robert Eggers’ “The Witch” is a messy movie, and not because of the blood. The story is centered on witchcraft and Puritans, a combo anyone familiar with the Salem Witch Trials and “The Crucible” knows thoroughly. At its core, “The Witch” is about a family disrupted by evil and doubt planted in the children and parents until no one trusts each other. A 17th-century family moves near an uninhabited New England forest. Survival is tough enough already, but then one of the children goes missing. This is the first of many strange, disturbing occurrences that plague the family.

Early on, we know a witch is the root of the family’s trouble. A naked woman with long, gray hair is grinding something in a butter churn. It’s one of the movie’s most sinister scenes, because we know it’s definitely not butter she’s churning. “The Witch” is eerie, thanks in part to its score and the constant grayness of the landscape.

Parents William and Katherine, played by Ralph Ineson and Kate Dickie, lose confidence in themselves as Christians and fear starving. Ineson and Dickie give “The Witch” its sense of dread as their characters gradually become more and more desperate to salvage the family. The oldest of the children, Thomasin, is the first suspected of witchcraft. Actress Anya Taylor-Joy’s performance captures Thomasin’s troubled mindset as she fears the cause of her family’s upheaval and faces her family’s suspicions.

As Puritans, the family focuses on religion. They repent their sins and worry about whether their missing child will go to heaven or hell. Their dedication to worship and righteousness makes witchcraft particularly disturbing to them.

While “The Witch” succeeds in being unsettling, it is also unsatisfying. The film’s culmination raises questions about the witchcraft practiced in the forest but answers nothing. Possession is an element used in the movie, and even though it advances the plot, it has little impact in terms of a scare factor. From “The Exorcist” to more recent movies, possession is a concept that we’ve seen already.

“The Witch” is also confusing. The film switches between superstition and reality with no explanation. When I was sure the family was just being paranoid about something with a simple explanation, like the twin children’s supposed inability to pray, the source turned out to be witchcraft. Certain aspects of the plot appear inconsequential but are suddenly significant. As a result, “The Witch” is jarring more than terrifying.

_MOVE gives “The Witch” two out of five stars._