Based on American folk tales, the film is one of the most unnerving movies in recent memory. In his early 30s, writer-director Robert Eggers grew up in New England, fascinated by local history. "Fairytales, folk tales, comparative religion and mythology are my biggest interests," he says. "I've had witch nightmares ever since I was a kid, but I think generally, like American Horror Story or not, the mass culture idea of the witch as a classic Halloween decoration doesn't mean much."

So he set out to make a movie that honoured the older traditions about witches. "It took four years to get the film financed, so I had ample time to research," Eggers says. "I felt it was essential to create an utterly believable 17th century world where witches really did exist, so we could believe in them in the same way that someone in that period would have believed in a witch. I was reading copious books, working with museums and historians. I'm interested in creating a credible atmosphere that you can smell!"

In this way, Eggers planned to transport the audience back to 17th century New England and put them in the "mindset of these English Calvinists where that witch was real - a fairy tale ogress capable of doing horrible things. And you know, of course, how woods play out in fairy tales like Hansel and Gretel."

More: The Witch And 9 More Epic Occult Horror Films

As a child, Eggers loved the Hammer and Universal horror movies, mainly because they weren't very scary. But as a filmmaker, Eggers was influenced by movies that terrified him. "Now when I watch The Witch, sometimes I'm a little disgusted by how much of my film flagrantly reeks of The Shining," he laughs. "The Shining is one of the few classic horror movies that always scared me. I'm also a big fan of silent cinema, especially German expressionist silent films like Nosferatu. And the 1922 silent documentary Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages is really cool."

But his main goal with The Witch was to take the image of witches away from Halloween silliness or the New Age/Wiccan earth mother and make them properly scary again. "That was a challenge," he says, "but it was fun. It was really fun!"

Robert Egger's creepy new horror movie