Eight year old Luke Eveshim is visiting his grandmother Helga in Norway. She tells him stories about “witches“, who masquerade as ordinary women while hating children so much that they are willing to go to great lengths to dispose of them in all kinds of wicked ways. These witches, although appearing normal, all have certain traits: they have claws instead of fingernails, which they hide by wearing gloves. They are also bald, which they hide by wearing wigs, and they have toeless feet which they of course hide by wearing shoes. One minor trait that is not so easy for them to obscure, but requires looking them straight in the eyes, is that they have a purple tinge in their pupils. Oh, and of course they have a very powerful sense of smell which they can use to detect any child who should be unfortunate to be nearby. Helga has a sad story about a childhood friend, Erica, who was cursed by a witch to spend the rest of her life trapped inside a painting. So Helga knows that witches are real, and a very scary threat to children.
When Luke’s parents die in a car accident, his grandmother becomes his legal guardian. They move from Norway to England, and unfortunately he happens to encounter a witch almost immediately. Well, he stands his ground and resists her trying to tempt him, but when he and Helga take a holiday at a hotel by the English seaside, they happen to be there right at the time when The Grand High Witch, the leader of all the world’s witches, are holding a witch convention there. No one knows this, of course, as few people believe that witches are real. The Grand High Witch masquerades as the Royal Society of Cruelty to Children (oh, the irony) but Luke knows exactly what she is. He and his new friend Bruno Jenkins spies on the witches, and find out that they have made a magic potion which will turn all the world’s children into mice…and both he and Bruno ends up being given the potion, but manage to flee. How can they possibly stop the witches and their evil plans now?
The Witches is a dark fantasy film from 1990, directed by Nicolas Roeg from a screenplay by Allan Scott. It is based on Roald Dahl’s novel of the same name. This was the last film Jim Henson (creator of the Muppets) worked on before he died. Jim Henson Productions co-produced the film, and Jim Henson’s Creature Shop designed and built the prosthetics and animatronics. The filming took place in Bergen, Norway and England (Cookham, Berkshire and the Headland Hotel) in 1988, and was theatrically released in UK and USA in 1990. The film flopped at the box office, grossing only $15.3 million against its $11 million budget. Dahl also admitted to disliking the differences made from the source material, especially the ending, but the critics were generally very favorable and it has also developed a cult following over the years.
As a child born in Norway during the 80’s, I grew up with Roald Dahl’s novels and also enjoyed some of the films based on them. The Witches is one of my nostalgic childhood movies, one that I always found to be the sweet spot between cozy and slightly disturbing. I loved that the first part set it up to happen in my home country, and the scene including the girl trapped inside a painting and living out her life in it, was something that always gave me the chills! As a children’s film there are some truly grotesque moments here. Ah, the wonders of the 80’s and 90’s, when it was okay for children to be a little comfy-scared.
The witches themselves, especially The Grand High Witch wonderfully played by Anjelica Huston, are so grotesque when they remove their fake skin and wigs and reveal their “true“ selves. Some awesome body horror moments here, for sure! And while witches have been portrayed in numerous ways in everything from children’s movies to horror, I like the take on them here where they aren’t just women who started to dabble with black magic. They’re inherently evil non-human beings, living among us like normal people while hiding their true selves both appearance-wise and personality-wise. Yeah, you could add a ton of metaphors here for sure, especially when it comes to people hiding their true selves and using virtue signaling to make people think they’re such wonderful people. Like how the witches are masquerading as philanthropic good-doers, while in reality they are just out to wreak havoc and do evil stuff.
The movie is fun and whimsical throughout despite some of the rather dark themes, and Mr. Bean also has a role here! No, not really, but Rowan Atkinson’s role as Mr Stringer, the hotel owner, still looked exactly like Mr. Bean and it was the first through that popped into my head when watching this film as a kid.
The music score was composed by Stanley Myers, but a CD was never released. The entire soundtrack has remained obscure, but several times throughout the score the “Dies irae“ appears, which is very reminiscent of the fifth movement (“Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath“) of Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique (1830).
Nostalgia set aside, I know I would have loved this film even if I watched it for the first time today. The Witches is an excellent gateway horror film, a delightful dark fairytale filled with 90’s magic and great special effects, an oddly dark sense of humor for a children’s movie, and lots of charm and memorable characters.
A remake of the film (which I haven’t seen) was made in 2020, which flopped horribly and grossed only $29.3 million against a $100 million budget.
Director: Nicolas Roeg
Writer: Allan Scott
Country & year: UK/USA, 1990
Actors: Anjelica Huston, Mai Zetterling, Jasen Fisher, Rowan Atkinson, Bill Paterson, Brenda Blethyn, Charlie Potter, Anne Lambton, Jane Horrocks, Sukie Smith, Rose English, Jenny Runacre and a horde of bald witches
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100944/
