Superb AV Club interview with Robert Eggers, director of The Witch:
In the early modern period, from the contemporary perspective, looking back, it’s clear that the evil witch is—it embodies men’s fears and ambivalences and fantasies about women and female power. In in that period, in this extremely male dominated society, the evil witch is also women’s fears and ambivalences about themselves and their power.
…But people understood that witches were truly a fairy tale, ogress, anti-mother, capable of the most horrible things. She really flew on sticks. If your children die, it could be a witch. If your crops fail, it could be a witch. So, how do I make that scary and real for an audience today? I have to really bring them back to the 17th century when that existed. I have to get all the details right in order for you to actually believe. It’s not just accuracy for its [own] sake.