Witch Hunt

Year: 2021

Actors: Anna Grace Barlow, Elizabeth Mitchell, Abigail Cowen, Gideon Adlon

Duration: 98 min

In present day New England, teenager Fiona and her younger sister Shae watch in helpless horror as Bureau of Witchcraft Investigation agent Hawthorne burns their mother Esther at the stake for witchcraft, which is illegal under the 11th amendment.In Southern California three months later, widow Martha Goode runs an Underground Railroad stop for fugitive witches out of the home she shares with her teenage daughter Claire and young sons Corey and George. Hiding witches behind their house's walls creates conflict for Claire, who has to keep this secret from her friends while trying to fit in by following the same popular prejudices against witchcraft as everyone else.Jacob Gordon, a coyote, picks up a witch named Gina from Martha's house to sneak her over the border into Mexico where witches can gain asylum. Detective Hawthorne pulls over Jacob's vehicle. Hawthorne takes Jacob into custody and uses a salt circle to burn his car while Gina is trapped inside.Martha opens the hidden part of her home for Fiona and Shae to wait for Jacob to escort them across the border. With Jacob missing, Martha ends up housing the girls for several days, which causes more stress for Claire as she continues wrestling with the confusing morality of her family's situation.Unsettling events happen while the sisters are in the home. Claire dreams of Esther burning at the stake. Shae has a frightening vision of a burnt witch within the house's walls.Outside their school, Claire and her friends see BWI agents putting witches aboard a prison transport bus. One witch tries to flee. A BWI agent shoots her. Claire has a sudden asthma attack throughout the altercation.Martha's suspicious neighbor Cynthia comes over to tell Martha that someone from their town was caught transporting witches. Martha feigns disgust by parroting Cynthia's bigotry.Claire writes a school paper on the 11th amendment. Claire's research covers Prop 6, which would restrict the rights of descendants of convicted witches simply for having magic in their blood.Claire has a nightmare involving the burnt witch. Fiona comforts Claire afterward. The two teens begin bonding over the hardships of their respective lives.Claire meets her friends at a movie theater showing a restoration of "Thelma and Louise." Claire sees their classmate Kelly getting turned away at the box office because a BWI list identifies her as being related to witches. Kelly argues with the cashier. Claire has another asthma attack. The box office window suddenly cracks. Kelly runs away thinking her anger triggered latent magic.Claire and Fiona continue bonding. When Claire learns Fiona has never been to a bar, Claire sneaks her out of the house to go to 'Saints and Sinners' tavern. There, Claire tells Fiona about "Thelma and Louise." The girls discuss the ambiguity of Thelma and Louise's fate since the movie ends on a freeze frame.Fiona demonstrates her magic by animating water from a glass. Fiona has Claire try the same trick. When the two of them join hands, all activity in the bar freezes and stools levitate to the ceiling. Frightened, the two girls move to leave. Reality returns to normal as the stools fall and patrons shoot the duo dirty looks. Back at home, Claire comforts Fiona for being the victim of unjust prejudice.Detective Hawthorne comes to Martha's house while investigating reports of witchcraft at the bar. Hawthorne detects magic in the home. Martha allows him to search, but forces Hawthorne to leave when he walks in on Claire undressing. Hawthorne threatens to return. Martha chastises Claire and Fiona for stupidly going out in public.Claire dreams of following a path of blue flowers to the border wall. Claire climbs the wall and sees Gina and Esther beckoning to her from the other side. In reality, Claire stands atop her house's roof in a state of sleepwalking while Martha and Fiona plead for her to wake up. Cynthia sees Claire fall without suffering any injury.At school, Claire and her friends spy on BWI agents retesting classmates who failed a routine witch detection test that Claire passed. The girls are tied to chairs, given snorkels, and pushed to the bottom of a swimming pool to see if anyone floats. No one does, but a girl named Amy dies. Claire gets upset at her friend Jen when Jen insists that Amy chose her fate.Claire returns home to find her mother and brothers missing. Fiona tells Claire that Hawthorne took them for questioning. Fiona also tearfully confronts Claire after having found her school paper on the 11th amendment. Claire tries explaining that she doesn't actually believe the viewpoints she wrote about.Hawthorne brings Martha and the boys back home. Hawthorne pulls his gun and accuses Claire of being a witch. Hawthorne threatens to shoot Claire unless she uses magic to stop him. Fiona and Shae create a distraction that causes everyone to scatter. Fiona and Shae become trapped behind the walls while the burnt witch, revealed to be Esther's ghost, emerges to attack Hawthorne. Smoke fills the house as a fire breaks out.Claire has another asthma attack, but channels it into magic she uses to break the wall to rescue Fiona and Shae. The house goes up in flames with Hawthorne inside. Everyone else escapes.Martha admits that Claire inherited the witch gene from Claire's father's family, who lives in Ciudad de Azul. After her husband died, Martha moved them closer to the border in case Claire ever needed to cross. Martha apologizes for keeping the truth hidden while passing Claire a collection of postcards sent by her father's family over the years. Knowing she wasn't capable of protecting her daughter forever, Martha tearfully tells Claire she can find safety with her father's family in Mexico.With Fiona and Shae as passengers, Claire races a truck toward the border wall. The frame freezes just before impact. (thanks to culturecrypt)

Genre: Action   Drama   Fantasy   Horror   Thriller