What is the work?[]
The VVitch (or Witch) is a 2015 "folk horror" movie as well as the directorial debut of Robert Eggers. Taking place in the 1630s, the film follows a Puritan family who gets excommunicated from their plantation due to their heretical views going against the doctrine. They relocate in the woods, and... naturally, things go badly for them. Demonic phenomenon starts to befall the family as they make baseless accusations against each other for smoking some of that devil lettuce performance of the dark arts.
Who is he? What has he done?[]
Black Phillip is the goat. What? He is portrayed by a literal goat who apparently was also not the best actor on set. Black Phillip is the main antagonist of the film who is strongly implied that he is Satan himself who is out to create witches and bind their souls to him. The little brats Jonas and Mercy would play with Black Phillip and make up some song about him too. However, all is not right when Samuel, the youngest member of the family, being a baby boy and all, is stolen by an elderly witch who kills him, grinds him into a paste, and lathers a broomstick and unholy body with the ointment based on the idea that witches sacrificed infants to fly.
Phillip "whispers" to the twins saying that a witch had spirited away baby Samuel. This leads to Thomasin, the eldest of the children, kind of shooting herself in the foot by proclaiming that she was the witch of the woods. It would come back to bite her later.
The family patriarch, William, goes out to hunt for wildlife with his son Caleb. Things don't go so well with nary a rabbit to be found. Eventually, Caleb goes further and gets bewitched by a witch. After he goes missing, he returns home in a worse condition and dies proclaiming his love for Christ (and really should have taken up being a poet had he survived).
Things increasingly look bad for Thomasin with the two little brats conveniently forgetting their prayers and convulsing. This leads to William deciding to lock his remaining children in with the goats; he tries to convince Thomasin to confess to being a witch, but she retorts calling him out for stealing pottery. Another witch comes and kidnaps Jonas and Mercy (good riddance).
William arrives to see the livestock slaughtered and... Black Phillip standing on his hindlegs. Instead of fighting back, William realizes how much of a sinner and hypocrite he had been and allows the malevolent goat to gore him, knocking his body into a stack of lumber. Katherine, the matriarch who had been driven off the deep end by Black Phillip (including a part where she thought she was feeding Samuel, but... crow) is so enraged and heartbroken, she tries to murder her remaining daughter forcing Thomasin to take her out.
Now all alone, she follows Black Phillip into the house demanding he speak to her. After it seemed like she was losing her mind... comes the best dialogue in horror movie history with the goat asking Thomasin if she would like the taste of butter or, better yet, if she would like to live deliciously. All she had to do is sign her name in his book.
When she said she could not, she needn't worry for he would guide her hand. Black Phillip takes on a human form and creepily touches Thomasin as he directed her hand. With her soul now belonging to him, Thomasin gets nakey and joins a coven of witches in the woods who all levitate in the air. And thus the self-fulfilling prophecy becomes reality.
Mitigating factors? Freudian Excuse?[]
Nope. To start with, something I had no idea was a thing: many view the ending where Thomasin becomes a witch as "empowering" I guess maybe from a feminist standpoint or something of that variety. It almost reminds me of those people that misinterpret the ending of Midsommar as "happy" because the main character of that film gets a new community... even though they were the ones who orchestrated everything to make her break and become dependable on them. In much the same way, there is nothing empowering with the VVitch's ending. Black Phillip destroys an entire family and preys on Thomasin's inability to live alone not to mention creepily touching her as she signed his book.
And of course, moral agency. Black Phillip is more or less Satan and is capable of speaking English to Thomasin in the conclusion of the film. Even then, you could make the argument that he had some expressions and mannerisms when he was disguised as a goat such as by standing on his two hindlegs in mockery of William before killing him.
Other than that, he's a baaaaad goat.
Heinous standard[]
Sets it. He is the one who is responsible for the devastation of the Puritan family since all the witches follow his command thereby all their actions can be laid at his hooves. Everything from the baby snatching and killing and poisoning the livestock, he oversees it all and he holds several of the souls of the witches with his book.