Black Phillip, also known as the Witch from the movie "The VVitch: A New-England Folktale," is a mysterious and enigmatic character who takes on the form of a black goat. However, the notion of Black Phillip also existing in human form is a popular subject of discussion among fans and theorists. In the movie, Black Phillip plays a significant role as the embodiment of evil and temptation. He is shown as a malevolent force that lures the protagonist, Thomasin, into making a pact with him. Throughout the narrative, Black Phillip is depicted as a sinister and manipulative presence, leading the family down a path of destruction. While Black Phillip is predominantly portrayed as a goat, some speculate that he may also have the ability to take on a human form.

Why Are Goats Associated With the Devil, Like Black Phillip in The Witch?

If goats have recently enjoyed an Internet-aided renaissance thanks to their uncanny ability to yell like humans, The Witch reminds us of the beasts’ Satanic true nature. Black Phillip, the goat who may be tormenting a family in 17th century New England, became an instant star after the film’s debut at Sundance, spooking up early trailers and earning his own Twitter account months before the movie’s release. For a while, it isn’t clear if Black Phillip is an unlucky creature born to a family of hysterics, an instrument of a witch deep in the woods, or perhaps even the devil incarnate. By the movie’s delicious final moments, there is very little doubt at all.

What about the traditions that inspired Black Phillip himself? Writer-director Robert Eggers closes The Witch by noting on screen that much of the film came “directly from period journals, diaries, and court records,” and his movie goes to extraordinary lengths to summon authentic 17th century wares and atmosphere. So are there actual accounts of insidious goats terrorizing North American settlers? Why are goats linked to the occult, anyway? Is Black Phillip real??

The answer to the first two questions, alas, is no. “I’m sorry to disappoint you, but there is nothing about goats in the Salem records or, that I can recall, in any American records of other witchcraft prosecutions,” the famous Cornell scholar Mary Beth Norton wrote to me. She hadn’t seen The Witch yet, but she said “there has been a considerable amount of email talk about this movie among certain Salem scholars.”

Emerson Baker, a history professor at Salem State University, co-hosted a packed screening of The Witch in Salem, and considers himself among the film’s biggest fans—“It’s just about the best depiction of early New England that I’ve seen in a movie,” he told me. But he too said he didn’t recall goats in North American lore or historical records. Still, he praised the movie’s depiction of “animal familiars,” or creatures believed to be in the thrall of witches. “There aren’t a lot of direct goat antecedents, but pretty much any animal could be a witch’s familiar—that’s certainly an accurate notion,” he said. “One of the definitions of a witch is of a shapeshifter, and the ability to put themselves into animal form. We see that repeatedly, in the concept of the black cats, or rats, mice, dogs, you name it.” He noted a record of two dogs in Salem, in 1692, who were shot to death because they were believed to be witches. Baker had particular praise for The Witch’s evil rabbit and evil raven, but he enjoyed Black Phillip, too (“I follow him on Twitter”).

Eggers, the movie’s writer and director, conceded that Black Phillip is in some ways his own special creation. “It’s not that I’ve not found any evidence in English witchcraft of goats playing some kind of function similar to this, but it’s just not as common,” he said. “Most of the goat mythology tends to be from continental witchcraft. In England, goat farming was not something you would really want to do. If you were a goat farmer, you were thought of as very backward.”

“I think some hardcore witch historians might be offended by my use of some of these continental tropes,” he added, laughing. “All my talk about accuracy, they might think, Well, uh uh uh.” Still, Eggers defended Black Phillip’s depiction, pointing to artwork showing witches riding goats instead of sticks, along with engravings and woodcuts depicting goats. He also cited Goya, with paintings like “Witches’ Sabbath (The Great He-Goat).”

I followed the history a bit more to England, where Eggers and several American scholars also pointed me. Malcolm Gaskill, a professor of early modern history at the University of East Anglia, confirmed that goats play a more prominent role in European witch imagery. “In European engravings and painting[s] that depict the witches’ sabbath—that is, the remote meetings where witches were supposed to gather to pay homage to Satan—the devil is often depicted as a goat or a goat-like man,” he wrote. Still, contra The Witch, he said that in actual witchcraft trials, animals that were said to physically represent the devil tended to be smaller creatures like cats, mice, dogs, and birds.

Anyone who has seen The Witch can agree that these slight elisions of witchcraft history have a major upside for the movie, and at least this viewer is pleased that Eggers allowed himself a little genre latitude to create Black Phillip. (Other important Phillip facts: He’s played by a lone goat, real name Charlie; Charlie is a huge jerk and was very difficult on set; he was voiced by the male model Wahab Chaudhry.) But what of the larger question behind these depictions—when did goats first become a tool of the occult? Everyone I asked pointed in different directions, including Greek mythology (think Pan), biblical references, Baphomet, and a rich artistic record stretching back to the Middle Ages. There is no single point of reference, but goats pervade many strands of mythology connected to malevolent spirits, and Eggers isn’t even the first contemporary horror director to seize on the association. Sam Raimi, in 2009’s Drag Me to Hell, transferred a demon into a goat during an uproarious séance, which then turned to Alison Lohman’s doe-eyed protagonist and yelled, in perfect goat tongue, “You black-hearted whor-or-ore! You bi-i-ii-tch!” The origins may be elusive, but Gaskill, the English historian, offered a convincing explanation for why the link exists. “I guess the goat-devil features so prominently in European iconography because of the horns and weird eyes,” he wrote, “but also because of the association with predatory sexual potency and energy.” With its lingering camera on Black Phillip’s dead stare, and its terror at a pubescent girl’s “transformation,” The Witch may ultimately be a potent distillation of why goats feature into this kind of narrative in the first place.

Film / The VVitch

The Witch: A New-England Folktale (stylized as The VVitch) is a Religious Horror historical drama film directed by Robert Eggers and starring Anya Taylor-Joy. The movie originally debuted at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival (where it won the Best Director award in the Drama category), and was released to wide audiences on February 19, 2016 by A24.

The Witch is set in 1600s New England, where a Puritan family is banished from their village and must set out on their own into the wilderness. They set up a family farm on the edge of the woods, but encounter an evil lurking beyond the treeline.

Compare with A Ghost Story, another A24 film released the following year, which put a similarly introspective and minimalistic spin on a classic horror trope (ghosts instead of witches).

While Black Phillip is predominantly portrayed as a goat, some speculate that he may also have the ability to take on a human form. This theory stems from certain scenes and moments in the movie that suggest a human-like intelligence behind Black Phillip's actions. These instances include his ability to communicate with characters in a way that goes beyond typical animal behavior.

The Witch provides examples of the following tropes:

• Aerith and Bob: The parents have rather mundane English names (William and Katherine), and name their children after Biblical characters (Caleb, Jonas, and Samuel) or values (Mercy) - with one exception: Thomasin.
  • Thomasin is named after a Biblical character, it's the female version of Thomas.
  • Samuel is part of the "original sin" his father William preaches about and dies unbaptized;
  • The twins may be in a covenant with Satan and provide false testimony about Thomasin;
  • Caleb briefly lusts over Thomasin and provides false testimony to his mother;
  • Thomasin blasphemes, provides false testimony when bullying Mercy, and being willful (by Puritan standards) does not honor her parents;
  • Kate succumbs to wrath, does not renege the false testimony given to her about Thomasin, nor she asks for forgiveness for the false accusations;
  • William leaves the Commonwealth due to pride, provides false testimony to Katherine and shifts the blame to Thomasin.
  • The family as a whole pays the price for their hubris of leaving a civilized "godly" settlement and trying to tame the devoid-of-God wilderness without the Lord's protection. They forsook divine protection, and paid an ungodly retribution for it. As time goes by and the situation worsens for them, their prayers become ever louder and filled with despair, and it becomes readily apparent that said prayers aren't going to be answered.
  • Thomasin was most likely lashing out because she was still stinging from Mercy's taunt, but claiming to be the witch that made Sam disappear and then threatening to do the same to everyone else was a horribly unwise decision. While Thomasin had no way of predicting how that would come back to bite her, Mercy or Caleb could have told their parents what she'd said and gotten her into an enormous amount of trouble, especially given that both parents were highly religious and still raw from Sam's disappearance. which Katherine already partially blamed her for.
  • William for getting himself and his family banished from the Commonwealth and going into the wilds in the first place, to say nothing of his stubborn refusal to leave there as it clearly becomes a problem.
  • The witch's true form is only ever seen in very dim lighting.
  • In the film's penultimate scene, Satan's human form is barely visible in the shadows behind Thomasin .
  • Briefly but memorably, when Thomasin and the twins see the Witch suckling blood from the goat's teats in the barn .
  • Briefly when Katherine sits in a chair hallucinating breastfeeding her child Samuel when in actually she's breastfeeding a crow pecking at her breast.
  • The witch appears nude in several scenes. Given that she's an extremely elderly woman, and she's covered in blood in most of those scenes, it's far from erotic.
  • When the witch does appear as an attractive young woman to seduce Caleb , the mood is ominous, the music is eerie, and though he follows her beckoning, he's so upset that he's on the verge of tears.
  • At the climax of the film, Thomasin strips naked and walks into the woods to join a witches' coven. While she herself is not unattractive, any sex appeal is undermined by the scene's twisted context, her questionable age note Her actress Anna Taylor-Joy was twenty when the film was released, but is presumably playing Thomasin a few years younger , and the fact that she's still partly covered in her mother's blood .
  • Thomasin, in a prank to play on Mercy, brags about being a nefarious Witch and frightens her, eventually causing suspicion in the family after Caleb dies. Guess who becomes an actual Witch at the end?
  • Thomasin's prayer at the beginning of the film basically lays the groundwork for her turn to evil at the end .

  Thomasin: I here confess I have lived in sin. I have been idle of my work, disobedient of mine parents, neglectful of my prayer. I have, in secret, played upon thy sabbath, and broken every one of thy commandments in thought.

  • At one point in the film, there is a close-up of Black Philip's face, including one eye. Goat pupils are typically rectangular◊; Black Philip's are round, indicating that he is not really a goat.
  • When Katherine awakes in the middle of the night, her silver cup is in shot, foreshadowing that either lost things are returning, or that she's seeing things that are not there.
  • Caleb is unfortunately entering maturity and seems to be mildly lusting after Thomasin, whom he covertly subjects to his Male Gaze. Weirdly, Katherine later accuses Thomasin of throwing "slutty glances" at Caleb and William when Thomasin was never shown doing this, though admittedly Katherine is in the throes of some severe Sanity Slippage at the time.
  • There's also a moment where Thomasin is ordered to clean her father's shirt, so she has to take it off him herself, which she looks uncomfortable with doing.
  • A gradual example with Thomasin. As noted in Renegade Cut's video on the film, the hair is supposed to represent how repressed she is in her Puritan lifestyle, and she finally lets it all hang out as she becomes a Witch at the end .
  • Katherine likewise is shown with her hair completely down after she has gone mad and tries to kill Thomasin .
  • The eponymous villain is almost always naked and - judging by the demented laughter, frenzied chanting and animal cruelty - is barely sane. Plus, she's also extremely elderly.
  • After being accidentally stranded in the forest, Caleb finds himself face to face with the Witch herself. He later turns up back at the family farm, delirious, incoherent and stark naked. It's not specified what the Witch did to Caleb, though the implications aren't nice; whatever happened, it eventually ends up killing him.
  • At the very end of the film, Thomasin plunges over the Despair Event Horizon after the rest of her family is killed, leaving her stranded alone at the farm with no means of providing for herself and no help for miles. Calling out to Black Phillip, she accepts a literal Deal with the Devil and - at his prompting - strips nude and wanders out into the forest to join the other witches. As she rises naked into the night with the rest of the coven, the look on her face indicates that she's finally crossed the line into madness.
  • The witch spends most of the movie hiding in the forest. When she does appear, she's often hidden in shadow. If she was ever really there at all.
  • We see very little of Satan's human form - a single boot and the lower half of a face obscured in shadows, but that's all that's needed to get the point across to the audience very effectively.
  • Caleb is cured of witchcraft by his family's prayer, and passionately proclaims his love for Christ, but dies shortly after, seemingly from shock. Although as per the Mind Screw nature of the film, Caleb's final exclamation could also be interpreted as the Witch/the Devil using scripture to trick the family, as pointed out by Katherine .
  • William accepts his prideful nature and begs God for forgiveness and especially for the redemption of his children. The morning after, he is mortally wounded by Black Phillip. He contemplates killing the goat with his axe, but drops it and resigns himself to fate, quoting from the Book of Job before dying .
  • The family literally settles at the fringes of the territory protected by God, tempting the clear limit of the God-forsaken wilderness of the woods. Settling there is bad enough, but venturing into said woods is precisely what starts breaking everything apart for them.
  • Black Phillip's human form resembles a Cavalier, and royalist Cavaliers were enemies of the parliamentarian Roundheads, whom most Puritans supported. It's no coincidence that he's the walking embodiment of everything Thomasin's faith opposes .
  • When Thomasin is ritually reborn as a witch she is, quite fittingly, naked and covered in her mother's blood.
  • One interpretation of the film is that Thomasin is insane , and all of the encounters with the witch are actually encounters with her while she's hallucinating . In particular, note that the witch isn't seen or heard again after Katherine's death , possibly implying that Thomasin was the witch all along .
  • Another is that everyone is suffering ergot poisoning with the attending psychosis it brings; notice the big deal made of rot on the corn?

  The Witch: Robert Eggers Explains ‘Butter’ and ‘Living Deliciously’

  In a recent conversation between The Witch director and a New England historian, Robert Eggers explains why Black Phillip offered butter.

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  Before Robert Eggers’ The Witch became the toast of the Sundance Film Festival (and earned him a Best Directing Award), he was a first-time filmmaker trying to get an indie horror movie out into the world. During that post-production process, he did test screenings to seek other filmmakers’ feedback. And time and again, he received the same note: Why butter? Why a pretty dress? Why are these simple things so attractive to a young Puritan girl about to sell her soul to the Devil?

  “When I did test screenings of the film, a lot of filmmakers were saying, ‘I don’t know, this stuff seems kind of random,’” Eggers recently explained. “‘Maybe he can offer her things that make more sense thematically with the rest of the film.’ That was a pretty consistent note, so I kept trying to find something better.” There was just one aspect the director couldn’t get past though: “Those were things the devil actually promised.” Or at least they were things those pressured into confessing to witchcraft claimed were their greatest wishes.

  This is one of many fascinating anecdotes in A24’s new The Witch Screenplay Book. Released in limited edition by the boutique indie studio, the book includes Eggers’ original script, production sketches, still imagery from the film, a new short story about Thomasin by Carmen Maria Machado, and an in-depth interview between Robert Eggers and historian David D. Hall, Professor of New England Church History Emeritus at Harvard Divinity School.

  It was the latter in-depth conversation that revealed fascinating insights into Eggers’ internalized approach to Puritans’ hopes and sufferings, and the influence Hall’s own research had on it. Indeed, the reason why someone would sell their soul for a handful of butter can be found in essays like Hall’s “Witchcraft and the Sadness of Everyday Life.” The historian and filmmaker discussed as much.

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  “Puritanism is such a barrier,” Hall told Egger. “What struck me as I read through the reams of Salem depositions was how a young boy is asked, ‘Well, what did the devil promise you? Why did you make covenant with the devil?’ And he says in complete innocence, ‘I wanted a pair of shoes.’” Hall also points to the story of Elizabeth Knapp, a Puritan teenager in Groton, Massachusetts, who in 1672 (20 years before the beginning of the Salem Witch Trials) was believed to be possessed by the Devil.

  Said Eggers, “The Knapp case was one of the big influences for sure.”

  The case involved a 15-year-old girl who was a domestic servant for the family of Samuel Willard, a prominent Puritan preacher with a penchant for fire and brimstone. Beginning with complaints of physical pain, Knapp eventually displayed convulsions, laughing fits and “hysterics,” and hallucinations. After seeking a medical solution, Willard eventually concluded Knapp was possessed by the Devil, and pushed her to confess that she had been assaulted by the Dark One before making a pact with him and letting him into her bed.

  “It is such a multilayered text,” Hall said said of the preacher’s recorded journal on the matter. “Willard, the minister, asks Knapp, ‘What does the devil mean to you?’ ‘Well, he’s going to take our ashes from the fireplace.’ You fall over laughing when you see this, but you realize this is a fifteen-year-old-girl who’s sick to death being the slave, the domestic slave.”

  Eggers eventually compared Knapp’s likely sorrowful plight to that of Thomasin, as played by Anya Taylor-Joy in The Witch. While Thomasin lives with her family, she is treated with suspicion and loathing by her mother after the disappearance of her baby brother Samuel. In essence, she becomes the household’s domestic slave. Further her mother Katherine (Kate Dickie) wishes to rid the farm of Thomasin and sell her into servitude to another family.

  “As you say, taking the ashes out seems silly or mundane and, as you say with the title of your piece, it’s so… sad,” Eggers reflected on the Knapp case in comparison to The Witch.

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  It’s a fascinating detail and one that underscores the haunting quality of Eggers’ movie. While the fear of witchcraft is clearly rooted in a form of sexism to modern eyes (although not all witches who were hanged were women), it was considered a fact of daily life in the minds of the educated and uneducated alike during the 17th century. In 1597, the highly intellectual man who would be crowned King James I wrote the Daemonologie, which he brought with him to the English throne. It spread across England and her colonies the fear of evil spirits and demons, and most especially witches. It also provided a handy guide on how to hunt them… which had bloody effects even a century later in Salem.

  But to the women often accused of witchcraft, like Thomasin, a deal with the devil could mean rewards as great as their imaginations, which could be profoundly hampered in a Puritan or Calvinist upbringing. And as The Witch is a “New England Folktale,” wherein the events occur just how a Puritan would assume witchcraft works, so too are the Devil’s greatest temptations. Butter and a dress.

  This is one of the many fascinating tangents Eggers and Hall’s conversation goes on as they consider predestination, Puritan separatists, and the evolving view on the Puritan lifestyle among historians. Eggers himself mused, “Their lives were like a work of art.” You can find the whole conversation when A24 prints the second edition of The Witch screenplay book.

  David Crow is the Film Section Editor at Den of Geek. He’s also a member of the Online Film Critics Society. Read more of his work here. You can follow him on Twitter @DCrowsNest.

  

  Moreover, Black Phillip's transformation into a human form would align with the beliefs and folklore surrounding witches. In witchcraft lore, witches are often associated with shape-shifting abilities, enabling them to take on various forms, including that of an animal or human. Black Phillip's potential human form could be seen as a nod to these traditional witchcraft themes. Additionally, the idea of Black Phillip in human form poses intriguing questions about his origins and true nature. Could he be a fallen angel or a demonic entity in disguise? Does he possess a human-like consciousness while in goat form? These speculative queries contribute to the enigmatic charm of Black Phillip as a character. In conclusion, the concept of Black Phillip existing in human form stimulates fans' imaginations and invites deeper analysis of his role in the movie. While his portrayal primarily involves a black goat persona, the notion of a human form adds complexity and mystery to the character, providing room for interpretation and discussion..

  Reviews for "The Cinematic Evolution of Black Phillip from Goat to Human"

  - John - 1 star - I was really disappointed with "Black Phillip the witch human form". The movie lacked a coherent storyline and the acting was subpar at best. The characters were poorly developed, making it difficult to connect with any of them. Additionally, the special effects were laughable and did nothing to enhance the overall experience. I had high hopes for this film, but it fell flat on so many levels. I would not recommend wasting your time or money on this movie.

  - Sarah - 2 stars - I had heard so many great things about "Black Phillip the witch human form", so I was excited to finally watch it. However, I found the movie to be slow-paced and confusing. The plot was hard to follow, and I was left with more questions than answers by the end. The performances were average, nothing stood out. The movie had potential, but it failed to deliver as a horror flick. I wouldn't necessarily say it was terrible, but it didn't live up to the hype for me.

  - Karen - 1.5 stars - "Black Phillip the witch human form" was a complete waste of my time. The story was convoluted and didn't make much sense. The characters were uninteresting and lacked depth. The pacing was off, and it felt like nothing really happened for the majority of the film. I was hoping for a scary and thrilling experience, but all I got was boredom. The movie tried to be atmospheric, but it just ended up being tedious. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone looking for a good horror movie.

  Decoding the Meaning Behind Black Phillip's Human Form in The Witch