The Witches, A Review

Witches are real!

Roald Dahl’s The Witches follows the unnamed Hero Boy (Jahzir Kadeem Bruno) who is forced to move in with his Grandmother (Octavia Spencer, Truth Be Told) after both of his parents die in a car crash. Although saddened by his parent’s deaths, the boy eventually finds joy with his Grandmother again. This happiness is cut short however when the boy comes across a witch in his local store, prompting his Grandmother to explain her own personal history with the creatures. Looking to get away, the pair escape to a nearby hotel to hide out and calculate their next move.

At the hotel however, the boy finds himself trapped in the middle of a witches’ meeting. Led by The Grand High Witch (Anne Hathway, Ocean’s 8) the witches formulate a plan to turn all of the children in the country into mice, starting with Bruno Jenkins (Codie-Lei Eastick), another guest at the hotel. After he is discovered the boy is also turned into a mouse and he and Bruno escape with the help of Mary (Kristin Chenoweth, Holidate), the boy’s pet mouse who is also revealed to be a transformed child. The three meet up with the boy’s Grandmother and hatch a plan to stop the witches for good, but can such evil creatures really be stopped?

The Witches was such a fun film to watch and I enjoyed the rebooted version of the classic tale. The story itself is an exciting one and I love Dahl’s take on witches. The overall look of the film and the witches themselves was impressive and I liked seeing the same story now with improved CGI and special effects. Reboots these days are often hit or miss (Overboard, Heathers) but I have to say I really liked this new version of The Witches.

I liked how this remake of The Witches was able to build on the original book and film without making too many major changes. Things like adding the third mouse character or expanding on the background between the Grand High Witch and the Grandmother were all really good ways to modernise the film for a newer audience. This way, fans of the original book and film can watch without having to experience massive changes in narrative. It also meant we got to see the original book’s ending instead of the changed ending the first film went with (which Dahl apparently hated). Too many remakes these days make major changes to the source material so I liked how this newer version of The Witches was able to stay faithful, yet still be enjoyable.

Anne Hathway’s performance as The Grand High Witch in the film was very inpressive, yet I will say I still prefer Anjelica Huston’s original take. Going in, I think my biggest worry was that The Grand High Witch wouldn’t be as scary (because honestly Huston was terrifying), but I liked how Hathway was able to make the role her own. This version of The Grand High Witch was scary but in a different way, obviously Hathway didn’t wear all the major prosthetics, but I did like how this version added the elongated snake like mouths, they were very effective. I think as well Hathway played The Grand High Witch differently, she wasn’t stylish and sophisticated in the same way Huston was, instead the played the role with a childlike energy. This Grand High Witch was essentially a spoilt brat who screamed when she didn’t get her way, making her a very different kind of scary.

Going on from this point, I think the whole film overall was a lot less scary than the 1990 version. The original film was straight up terrifying and I think the 2020 version loses a lot of that scare factor. Maybe it’s just because I’m a lot older now, but this version felt more like a kid’s film? I know that The Witches is a book written for children but that never stopped the first film from really going the distance with the creep factor. This version was good but it really missed out on the scares overall.

I liked how this remake of The Witches explored the history between the Grandmother and The Grand High Witch in more detail, as this was only ever hinted at in the previous film. If anything I wish they’d gone deeper and showed more flashbacks of the pair together, since it is a very interesting aspect of the story. Obviously the Grandmother is this famed Witch-hunter but we never really get to know much about her past other than how to identify witches and a few examples of the witches’ wickedness. I think if The Witches were ever to be remade again I’d like a bigger focus on the Grandmother and Grand High Witch, it would be a new angle to the story and something we’d never seen before.

As well as The Witches, I have heard that several of Roald Dahl’s other books are getting rebooted, including Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. If done right, I think this will definitely be something worth watching and going off the quality of The Witches, I’m definitely excited. Dahl has written such a collection of weird and wonderful stories and since most were adapted back in the 90s, I’m excited to see what modern spin can be put on the classic tales.

Overall, I really enjoyed this reboot of The Witches. It might not have been as good as the original but I think the film suceeded in its own way. I liked the addition of the third mouse character and extended backstory between The Grand High Witch and Grandmother, it really added something extra to the story. Hathway’s performance was also impressive and I liked her more child-like Grand High Witch. A fun spin on a classic, spooky tale, this version of The Witches will be enjoyed by any fan of the original.