The Witches **** (1990, Anjelica Huston, Mai Zetterling, Jasen Fisher) – Classic Movie Review 5869

‘As far as children are concerned, a witch is easily the most dangerous of all the living creatures on Earth.’ It is perhaps quite surprising to find Nicolas Roeg directing the 1990 film The Witches for executive producer Jim Henson (who also contributes the fake mice from his Creature Shop). But this amusing curio, written by Allan Scott and based on a story by Roald Dahl, proves to be a refreshingly weird, creepy, broadly entertaining frolic.

Based on the 1973 novel, the film follows the story of a seven-year-old young boy called Luke (Jasen Fisher) and his lovely grandmother Helga (Mai Zetterling), who arrive at an English hotel. There the guests seem to be nice members of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, but actually the Grand High Witch (Anjelica Huston) is presiding over a hag convention that plans to poison all of Britain’s children and turn them into mice.

Despite being captured and turned into a mouse himself after eavesdropping on the witches’ wicked plans, Luke (Fisher) sets out to foil their dastardly plot with the help of his grandmother.

Roeg’s stylish direction lends a nice bristling edge to the resulting escapades, Huston has fun as the evil villainess (‘a witch never gets caught… don’t forget that she has magic in her fingers and devilry dancing in her blood’) and Rowan Atkinson turns in a neat cameo as the hotel’s pedantic manager, Mr Stringer.

It has a PG certificate but it may be frightening for younger children.

Also in the cast are Bill Paterson, Jane Horrocks, Jenny Runacre, Brenda Blethyn, Charlie Potter, Sukie Smith, Rose English, Annabel Brooks, Emma Relph, Nora Connolly, Rosamund Greenwood, Angelique Rockas, Jim Carter and Roberta Taylor.

The Witches is shot by Harvey Harrison, produced by Jim Henson and Mark Shivas, scored by Stanley Myers, and designed by Andrew Sanders, and with special visual effects by Optical Film Effects.

Jasen Fisher was born on 8 May 1980 in Chicago, and is known only for Hook (1991), The Witches (1990) and Parenthood (1989). He grew up to be 6′ and went to William Fremd High School, graduating in the Class of 1998.

In Januray 2019, it was announced that Anne Hathaway is to star as the Grand High Witch in Robert Zemeckis’s remake of The Witches, in the role played by Anjelica Huston in the 1990 classic.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5869

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