What actually happens
William trades the silver cup and Katherine blames Thomasin
In the 1630s, a Puritan settlement banishes William, his wife Katherine and their children: Thomasin, Caleb and the twins Mercy and Jonas. They build a farm beside a big forest, and Katherine gives birth to a fifth child, Samuel. While Thomasin is watching him, he disappears. The witch has taken him. Katherine spends her days crying and praying, and William insists a wolf took the baby. He takes Caleb hunting and admits that he secretly traded Katherine's silver cup for supplies. At home, Katherine blames Thomasin for both the cup and Samuel. The twins talk to the family's billy goat Black Phillip and say he talks back. That night the children overhear their parents argue about starvation and plan to send Thomasin away to work for another family.
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Fowler goes off after a hare
At dawn Thomasin and Caleb slip into the forest to look at a trap. Their dog Fowler goes after a hare, and Caleb runs after him. The hare spooks the family's horse, which throws Thomasin and knocks her unconscious. Caleb gets lost and finds Fowler's disemboweled body. Deeper in the thicket he reaches a hovel, where the witch comes out looking like an alluring young woman and kisses him. Thomasin wakes up and follows William's voice home. Katherine scolds Thomasin for bringing Caleb out there, and William steps in to defend her by admitting he sold the cup and was the first to take Caleb out there.
Caleb comes home ill and gets rid of an apple
That night Caleb stumbles back to the farm naked, delirious and ill. Katherine decides it is witchcraft and prays over him. The next day it happens: Caleb has violent convulsions, vomits a whole apple, passionately declares his love for Christ, and dies peacefully. This is the scene people dread, and it happens in the middle of the movie. The twins accuse Thomasin of being a witch, and she accuses them of their chats with Black Phillip. She also confronts William about sending her away. Angry at the lot of them, William locks all the children in the goat house for the night.
Nobody gets a good night in the goat house
Late that night the twins and Thomasin wake up and see the witch, now an old naked woman, drinking blood from a nanny goat. She laughs at them, then attacks the twins offscreen while Thomasin watches. In the house Katherine has a vision that Caleb and Samuel are back. She nurses Samuel, though in reality she has bared herself to a raven, which pecks at her. By dawn the goat stable is wrecked, as William finds, the goats eviscerated, the twins missing, and Thomasin unconscious with bloody hands. Black Phillip gores and kills him as she stirs. Katherine blames Thomasin for everything and tries to strangle her, and Thomasin kills her with a billhook in self-defense.
The ending, explained
Alone, Thomasin goes into the goat house and asks Black Phillip to speak to her. He answers in a man's voice and promises her the life she has been wanting. She accepts, and he becomes a handsome man in black clothes, tells her to undress and helps her write her name in a book. Thomasin walks into the forest with Black Phillip in his goat form and finds a coven of naked witches around a bonfire. They begin to levitate, and Thomasin joins them, laughing as she rises above the trees. Samuel, Caleb, William and Katherine are dead, the twins are missing, and Thomasin is the only one left, on the witches' side.
The post-credits ruling
There is no post-credits scene. You can leave when the credits start.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: not fine, and the body is shown.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is The Witch scary?
Yes, The Witch is a 6 out of 10 with high dread. It has some jump scares, but the fear comes mostly from a family that turns on itself and some disturbing images.
How does The Witch end?
Thomasin makes a deal with Black Phillip, signs his book and joins a coven of witches in the forest. In The Witch she rises into the air with them, laughing, and her family is gone.
Does the dog die in The Witch?
Yes, the dog dies in The Witch. Caleb finds the family dog, Fowler, disemboweled in the forest. The killing is not shown, but the body is. The family's goats are also found dead later.
Is there a post-credits scene in The Witch?
No. The Witch has no post-credits scene, so you can leave when the credits start.
Who is Black Phillip in The Witch?
Black Phillip is the family's billy goat, and the twins say he talks to them. In The Witch he speaks to Thomasin at the end, turns into a man and offers her the life she wants.
