WITCHES. Directed by Nicholas Roeg; written by Allan Scott; produced by Mark Shivas for Warner Bros. Starring Mai Zetterling, Anjelica Huston and Jason Fisher. Rated PG.
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If you thought there haven't been any new fairy tales since the Brothers Grimm, then you haven't seen Witches.
It has all of the traditional elements—bright, resourceful child-hero, supernaturally evil villain, kindly grandparent, etc. And it adds some contemporary humor to concoct a fine tale that I suspect will age well and remain popular.
Luke (Fisher) has a wonderful grandmother (Zetterling) who feels obligated to warn him about the dangers of witches who prey on children. She tells him how to tell who the witches are so he can avoid them, but she doesn't go into how they can be destroyed.
Before long, naturally, he has an encounter with one himself. Then, Luke and Grandma end up spending a vacation in a hotel where they're having an actual witches' convention, of all things.
The plot from here out, while being generally predictable in most respects, has a lot of surprises for us as well. And all the way through, even in some of the most exciting sequences, there are liberal doses of humor to keep things in perspective.
Except for the well-staged slapstick bits, and the special effects, the laughs are probably too subtle for most of the kids to catch, but they add to the entertainment value of Witches for the grown-ups.
Zetterling is the most impressive of the actors. Her Grandma is wise and kind, but touchingly vulnerable as well.
Huston pulls out all the melodramatic stops as the Grand High Witch. But, then, how else would you play the queen of all the witches?
Fisher is cute, but doesn't project much emotion. He's actually better in the second half of the movie, when we just hear his voice.
Although Witches is rated PG, parents should carefully consider the "scare-ability" of their younger kids before taking them to see it. Director Roeg really knows how to terrify an audience (his 1973 thriller Don't Look Now is close to the top of my list of all-time scariest movies). And in this, his first children's movie, there are some quite frightening scenes, mostly in the first 20 minutes of the film.
There's no gore, and no cheap scares like witches jumping out from behind the door. Roeg does the job with atmosphere and artistic camera work, making our imaginations his partner in giving us the creeps.
September 12, 1990