Lionsgate had The Witch on 4K UHD in April 2019, a base disc that’s been sitting in big-box keep cases for under $15 USD ever since. Second Sight commissioned a brand-new Dolby Vision HDR grade for their 2022 4K and got Robert Eggers’s sign-off on it before shipping.
The Limited Edition came out July 25, 2022, three months later than originally announced because Second Sight pulled the date back to finalize the grade with Eggers’s approval. Same 4K master as the Lionsgate, fresh Dolby Vision pass, region-free UHD with a Region B extras disc, a rigid slipcase by Peter Diamond, six art cards, and a 150-page hardback book of essays.
Eggers built the script from period court records and 1630s colonial pamphlets, and the Olde English dialogue carries that research into every line. Watching a Puritan family fracture as their faith stops protecting them is deep horror, and the ending is divine evil.
The film’s palette is grays and blacks with rare flashes of color. Candlelight stays candlelight against the surrounding void on the new grade, and the Black Phillip ritual scenes hold their depth instead of crushing into a single dark mass. The DTS-HD MA 5.1 mix is unchanged from prior releases, but Mark Korven’s score and the rear-channel ambient cues are precisely placed.
The Limited Edition went out of print fast and was running €200-300 on eBay through most of last year, but it’s recently back in stock at retail. Buy it before it goes again.
