The devil is in the details in this 'New England fable'

THE Witch is not a scary horror film. You won't be squirming (much) or tossing your popcorn in the air or watching through splayed fingers over your eyes like the audience normally would at James Wan's (Insidious, 2011; The Conjuring, 2013) flicks.

But prepared to be spooked nonetheless by writer-director Robert Eggers' haunting low-budget debut feature: a period Blair Witch Project, minus the nauseating hand-held camerawork and found-footage gimmick.

Working outside the conventions of the horror genre, the film works its terror mostly only after you leave the cinema so expect it to stay under your skin and then creep up unexpectedly when you are deciding to take a late-night short-cut through the tree-lined park connector.