THE WITCHES (1990)
A young boy stumbles onto a witch convention and must stop them, even after he has been turned into a mouse.
Despite how delightfully demented it is, The Witches isn’t all that different from what one would expect if they were to imagine Nicolas Roeg adapting a Roald Dahl tale. The Don’t Look Now (1973) director might not have made something as unsettling or inventive as the aforementioned film in The Witches, but he implements enough unique camerawork to lend personality to the film’s more grotesque elements. Roeg crafted a truly terrifying children’s film that succeeded in scaring the living daylights out of me as a kid (and which I’m sure is the case for many other children).
While Helga Eveshim (Mai Zetterling), the grandmother of young protagonist Luke (Jasen Fisher), is right to warn him about the evil nature and sly tricks of witches, the fate that befalls this youngster and his new friend Bruno Jenkins (Charlie Potter) pales in comparison to that of Helga’s childhood friend Erica (Elsie Eide). After being lured and kidnapped by a local witch, Erica is placed inside a painting owned by her family, where they can only watch on as she looks out at them mournfully through this work of art. Over time the girl in the painting becomes a woman, growing older until she’s stooped and hardly able to stand, before finally disappearing for good. This flashback scene might not be as viscerally terrifying as some of the prosthetics of the witches terrorising Luke and Bruno, but it haunts on an existential level to witness a young girl’s existence being compressed into a hopeless expression in a painting.
In keeping with this strange yet well-suited fusion between Dahl and Roeg, there is no salvation for little Erica. One doesn’t encounter this bleakness often in children’s films, whose sunny, saccharine nature shields young viewers from the horrors of reality, let alone the terrifying imagery that can be conjured in the realm of the fantastical. There is something of both forms of horror in this film, with the witches typically preying on neglected children, while their interest in luring kids also makes it impossible to ignore the connections between them and child predators. Children’s curiosity, adults’ neglect of them, and malevolent strangers potentially lurking around every corner are the background forces setting up one of the most horrific ‘stranger danger’ stories for kids.
It’s certainly effective. I can still remember the terror Erica’s fate instilled in me, at a time when such fantastical cruelties seemed like they could really happen. But although this early sequence is the film’s best scene, there are many other elements that make The Witches an entertaining watch. Anjelica Huston’s (The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou) wonderfully over-the-top performance is another high point, as well as adding significantly to the scare factor, though in hindsight it’s Roeg’s camerawork that best lends a horror-filled atmosphere to this film. Consistently employing handheld camerawork, there’s an uncomfortable, skewed perception of this world on display, suggesting doom even in a light-hearted, banal moment with Luke’s parents. The slightly teetering camera that observes the parents’ car suggests the worst, a prophetic visual cue given that they both perish that very night, with Luke and his grandmother being forced to cope with their sudden deaths.
The other benefit of the handheld camerawork is how seamlessly it turns banal locations into grotesque ones, especially when this is paired with unusual shot perspectives, particularly from high angles, with each aspect of filming messing with viewers’ spatial perception of the rooms these characters inhabit. There’s an Alice in Wonderland quality to many of the scenes at the Hotel Excelsior, where Luke and his grandmother are staying for some much-needed relaxation. Rooms appear crowded and objects seem bigger than they really are.
This only amplifies the witches’ grotesque physical features, which are fully unveiled in all their horrific glory in an extended sequence that earns every second of its length. Luke watches on helplessly as this conference of slightly odd women soon descends into a convention of witches, with their leader, Eva Ernst (Huston), having come up with the idea of turning children into mice. The unsuspecting Bruno Jenkins is their test dummy, with his transformation into a mice proving just as disturbing as when Eva tears off the mask she uses for a human face to reveal a hideous monster underneath.
It’s the chaos of these scenes that adds to their grotesque nature, invoking the anxiety of Terry Gilliam’s films (especially Brazil and Time Bandits). This heightens The Witches’ disturbing qualities, puts our protagonist in genuine peril (a very rare quality in a kids’ films), and adds a layer of gleeful theatricality to this affair. Only a director as original and off-kilter as Roeg could have crafted a worthy adaptation of one of Dahl’s most disturbing children’s stories, whose delightfully deranged creations make for one of the few truly horrifying children’s films. Knowing this, he wields this film’s silliness accordingly, like when Eva hurls a pram with a baby in it down a hill. You want to laugh, but tension seizes you all the same.
For as brilliant as Roeg’s influence is on this project, the story itself isn’t always absorbing. Not even excellent side characters like Bruno’s dad Mr Jenkins (Bill Paterson), who complains constantly about the Excelsior, the self-serious hotel owner Mr Stringer (Rowan Atkinson), or Marlene (Sukie Smith), a maid who is terrified of mice and having an affair with Stringer, can liven up a story that loses steam once Luke and Bruno must attempt to defeat the witches. It’s the lore around this movie’s villains, especially given the dreadful punishment levelled at young Erica, that proves more exciting than much of the goings-on at the Excelsior. Watching the witches command total control over this event is marvellous, such that seeing the children attempt to defeat them pales in comparison.
The Witches‘ child acting, though serviceable, is also a clear downgrade in quality compared to the rest of this ensemble cast, contributing to this plot gradually winding down in intrigue and entertainment value. It’s still heaps better than Robert Zemeckis’ 2020 adaptation of Dahl’s book, whose mediocre child acting is tacked alongside Chris Rock’s ill-conceived voiceover narration. Rock tells the audience about events happening right before their eyes, a baffling storytelling device that fails to entertain or justify its existence. While there are a few humorous one-liners and enjoyable VFX on display, the prosthetics and camerawork of the 1990 version are sorely missed in the newer adaptation, as is the tangible gleeful lunacy and horror that make Roeg’s adaptation remarkable. Anne Hathaway’s (Interstellar) interpretation of Eva is a portrayal dwarfed by a heavy accent instead of any memorable notes of malice. Octavia Spencer (Being John Malkovich) arguably provided the film’s best performance, but she’s been portraying motherly (or in this case, grandmotherly) roles for so long now that they all start to blend together.
Thankfully, Roeg’s 1990 version of The Witches exists as a rarity in children’s films. Its notes of absurdity tone down its terror, ensuring it just barely rides the line of acceptability for young audiences, while also adding a camp quality to its thrills that will be even more appreciable for adult audiences.
UK • USA | 1990 | 91 MINUTES | 1.85:1 | COLOUR | ENGLISH
Cast & Crew
director: Nicolas Roeg.
writer: Allan Scott (based on the book by Roald Dahl).
starring: Anjelica Huston, Jasen Fisher, Mai Zetterling, Charlie Potter, Rowan Atkinson, Bill Paterson, Jane Horrocks, Sukie Smith & Brenda Blethyn.
