#like rosemarys baby
Short version: Charlie’s family is determined to start a new life in their new town, but after only one day, his daughter Sailor goes missing under ominous circumstances. Charlie is contacted by someone claiming to be a witch-hunter, who tells him that not only is Sailor in grave danger, but that she was offered in sacrifice to the forest wytches by someone in the town.
What I thought: If you like horror, you’ll like Wytches. If you dislike horror on the basis that it’s too unbelievable, or too gory, or too raw in the human element, you will not like Wytches. I loved that it took the time to really explain what was going on and how all the mechanics worked, but I did not like that they went about it in that old annoying way, where they just say the made-up name for something and expect that to mean anything to someone who is hearing the name for the first time. Yeah, “Look for the Irons” might be good advice, but if you don’t know that Iron refers to a group of people that’s not useful information. Fortunately, the main character, Charlie, has some sort of sixth sense that tell shim when a super common word is being used in referance to something not common. Seriously. When he asks aloud to his reflection, “Where are you?” just musing to himself about his missing girl, he gets the reply written on his belly, “Here.”
I seriously thought that meant he was supposed to cut himself open, or maybe that the person who gave him the signal was in the room, but no, it somehow got correctly interpreted to mean “Here Point, Vermont.” Oh yes. But of course. That was going to be my third guess.
It’s sounding like I didn’t like this, but I did. The horror element was superb, just enough information given to keep you interested, just enough peril to keep you rooting for the players. The girl, Sailor, suffers from intense anxiety and panic attacks, even taking the time to explain exactly what that feels like when her father insists that she just “get over it.” It was a great way to show a real mental issue, and the fact that there were real terrors in Sailor’s life just made her all the more admirable when she worked past them. She’s resourceful, almost to the point of not asking for help when she needs it, because she believes that all of her issues come from within and should be solved the same way. Obviously that’s not how life works, and she pays the price for it.
The art was amazing. I kept thinking that Charlie was (at least physically) based on the dad from King of the Hill, but besides that, the range of expression and the diversity of the cast was very real, very much something I could believe. There was an odd splatter effect on all the pages that had to do with the weird occult stuff, I think having to do with whatever flavor of magic was being used t the time, and while that did make for panels a bit hard to see, it was interesting and not something I’ve seen often. Really, it gave the impression of blood or water on the “camera” as you sometimes see in movies that break the fourth wall, but in the end, it added more than it took away.
Read it if you liked: 30 Days of Night by Steve Niles, Squidderby Ben Templesmith, Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin, Anotherby Yukito Ayatsuji
