The Witches

The Witches – Witches are all around us and, as they have through all time, they hunt and wipe out children that they find. A young boy and his grandmother stumble on a convention where all the witches in the country are gathered, as led by the Grand High Witch herself. They have a new dastardly plan that will mean killing thousands of children at a time. But with the plan revealed, can it be stopped before it is too late?

The Witches (1990) – Nicolas Roeg

By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22209418

Rating: PG

Running Length: 91 mins

Starring: Anjelica Huston, Mai Zetterling, Jasen Fisher

Genre: Comedy, Horror

REVIEW: ‘THE WITCHES’

‘The Witches’ was released in 1990 as a co-Jim Henson production and based on the Roald Dahl book of the same name. Dahl books are known for toying with a comically dark cruelty, like a nasty pantomime wrapped up in inventive childish wonder. However, out of all his books, none are so genuinely scary as The Witches.

The terrifying Grand High Witch (Anjelica Huston) rules over all witches, who live disguised among us. Luke (Jasen Fisher) along with his grandmother (Mai Zetterling) discover a secret plan by the Grand High Witch to kill all the children in England, and later the world, by turning them into mice. Huston portrays the arrogant and evil Grand High Witch with total aplomb. Her mesmerisingly arrogant and evil performance is scary enough for adults, never mind the intended audience of children!

Considering the amount of puppet work that a Jim Henson production uses, the movie has aged really well. Animatronic mice talk and scutter about, whilst the Witches themselves are impressively disgusting, warped, and warty. Unlike most Dahl stories the actual setting is quite subdued. This is an English seaside resort hotel, not a magical chocolate factory, but given the screen filling presence of Huston, the threat is more than enough to make up for this. The camera work delights in skimming over low angles, tilting to maximise the revulsion of the witches, and filling the screen with cackling harpies galore.

The Witches is something of a forgotten gem now, although it is undoubtedly ingrained into the minds of all of us who saw it when young. It tiptoes around too scary and just scary enough but the balance of fun wonderous moments to scene chewing evil parts is well balanced out. It’s the sort of movie that isn’t made any more, so strap yourselves in and enjoy!

CONTENT: IS ‘THE WITCHES’ SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN?

An early voiceover states that ‘witches stalk children’ and ‘hunt them to kill them’.

A close up shows an elderly lady missing most of her little finger. It is implied she lost the finger escaping from a witch.

Voiceover states that you can never be sure if a woman you meet is a witch or a kind old lady, but states that they have glowing purple eyes. This is shown in close up.

A story told by Luke’s grandmother shows a child called Erika who was taken by a witch. The dialogue states that ‘witches don’t murder children with knives or guns’. Erika is shown to be trapped inside a painting. She never moves to the naked eye but each time the painting is shown she is in a new position. The ‘child’ in the painting gradually ages until becoming an old woman, before fading away to nothing.

Luke’s parents leave the house and don’t return. It isn’t specifically stated how, but it is clear that they have died somehow. His grandma tells him this whilst in tears although Luke does not react.

Luke is in a treehouse and a woman offers him chocolate and invites him to look at a snake she has. He notices her eyes glow purple so he shouts for help. This is a strong ‘stranger danger’ moment.

Luke’s grandmother staggers with her head in her hands and collapses. Luke panics. She is later seen with a doctor who tells her she needs to take it easy.

The witches gather in a hotel meeting room. The Grand High Witch peels off her human face in close up to reveal a disgustingly withered and hook-nosed face underneath. Other witches remove their wigs to show blotchy bald heads, and kick off their shoes to reveal that they have no toes. One witch argues back and is blasted by lasers that shoot from the Grand High Witch’s eyes. She burns and melts away whilst other witches cackle. She screams but no injury detail is shown.

The Grand High Witch describes what will happen to a child who eats chocolate poisoned with her potion. She says says, “Child shrinks, child grows fur, child grows a tail. Child is no longer a child. Child is…a mouse!”

Luke makes friends with a child called Bruno. Bruno is overweight and his entire character is that he is obsessed with food. He has no other personality beyond wanting to eat.

A boy is led to the witches and fed the poisoned chocolate. He begins to burp, and green gas pours out of his mouth He starts to convulse, and each quick close up shows more and more of him becoming mouse-like, such as mousey ears and teeth. The camera rotates around him as he shrinks and the witches all cackle around him. He then emerges from his clothes as a mouse. All the witches try to stamp on him to kill him but he escapes.

A child is discovered hiding after having overheard all of the witches’ plan. There are very claustrophobic camera shots as they all chase him and gather around him. Given how much of a threat the witches are these shots could be quite scary. He smashes a glass pane door with a chair and escapes. A withered hand grabs at him but he shakes it off. One witch sees a baby in a pram, and gives it a push so that it will roll down a steep cliff towards sharp rocks. The mother screams, “My baby!” before matters change and the baby is safe.

Luke’s grandmother was earlier shown to be feeling unwell. There is a scene with her on the hotel bed where she can’t be woken up. Luke panics.

A child is grabbed by the witches. They pull at his hair and pin him down, force-feeding him the poison. He goes through the same transformation scene at the other child.. The witches chant ‘kill him’ and try to stamp on him.

Two mice who were children talk to each other. One tries to get back to his father but the other says “he’ll kill you!” The other responds, “My own father?”

The children seem to be ok with being mice and don’t complain or show signs of being upset. One is attacked by a cat and hides in plant pot, shouting for help.

One of the mice is presented suddenly to his mother who screams and can’t hear the mouse saying, “Mother! It’s me!”.

A witch accidentally gets turned into a mouse. She is stamped on and killed with a large green goo-like splat.

Lots of characters become mice. The mouse transformation effect is used for a large group of people who all shake, shudder, squeal, and emit green gas. There are lots of close ups in this scene. Eventually the hotel is overrun with mice and the staff stamp on them and attack them with brooms, cleavers, and blunt objects, causing plenty more green goo splats. One character’s eyes roll back and disappear before the face falls entirely and a distorted huge mouse face is shown.

CAN I SEE A CLIP?

VERDICT: IS ‘THE WITCHES’ FOR KIDS?

Definitely slotting into that rare ‘horror for kids’ genre, The Witches is a movie that you will have to best judge the temperament of your own child due to the fact there are several frightening scenes involving children being threatened. This is especially true in a ‘stranger danger’ kind of way. The movie does little to lessen these moments – indeed, it revels in them – instead choosing to balance out the scary scenes with lighter scenes. If you are unsure we would recommend watching this movie without your children first, but otherwise we would recommend that it is appropriate for ages 8 and up.

• Violence: 2/5 (mice are attacked and squashed to death)
• Emotional Distress: 2/5 (some tears about Luke’s parents deaths)
• Fear Factor: 5/5 (everything about the witches, the Grand High Witch face peel in particular. Transformation into mice is unpleasant)
• Sexual Content: 1/5 (it is implied that a character is attracted to the Grand High Witch and he talks about her being a ‘marvellous woman’)
• Bad Language: 0/5
• Dialogue 5/5 (lots of mentions of murdering children, the viciousness of witches, and death. Jokes at the overweight child’s expense)
• Other Notes deals with themes of not trusting adults, self sufficiency, making the best of a bad situation, resisting disaster, and being brave in the face of danger.
• Luke’s grandma, Helga, smokes constantly throughout the movie.

Words by Mike Record