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Movie Review: The Witches (2020)

Academy Award Winners Anne Hathaway and Octavia Spencer star this HBO Max family horror flick.

By Gladys W. MuturiPublished 3 years ago 6 min read
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Anne Hathaway as The Grand High Witch, Josette Simon as Zelda, and Orla O'Rourke as Saoirse in The Witches (2020) Credit: HBO Max

Director Robert Zemeckis directs and reimagines Roald Dahl's The Witches this time in a different time period, a different location, and a diverse cast.

Instead of adapting the works from Roald Dahl 1983 novel or the 1990s film that starred Anjelica Huston, Mai Zetterling, and Rowan Atkinson, they retell the tale in Alabama during the 1960s instead of the novel's 1980s England, and the boy protagonist is African American (Kenya Barris idea!!!!!) same with his grandmother character.

The film trailer did catch my eye and my interest.

October 22nd, 9:35 p.m.

The narrator (played by Chris Rock) tells the story about his experience as a child through slides and the audience were children. The film opens in a car wreck, a young boy (played by Jahzir Kadeem Bruno) the only survivor in the wreck getting out of the vehicle with the help of the firefighters while his parents are already dead. He stays at the station until His Grandmother (played by Octavia Spencer) came to get him and stay with her. The setting of this film takes place at Demopolis, Alabama, in 1968, five years after segregation ended. At his Grandmother's house, the house is blue and small. Inside the home, it is well-decorated like every other 1960s decorated home. His Grandmother tried everything she could to cheer him up until he came around. His Grandmother got him a small white mouse and he decided to name Daisy. Everything went well until the First Witch Zelda (played by Josette Simon) spies on them at the window dancing in the living room in the middle of the night. Her outfit looks sensationally wicked and her voice was raspy like Eartha Kitt's voice. At the store, we see The Witch, again, (the same witch from the window) handing the Boy a saltwater taffy and her snake slithering from her sleeve staring at the Boy. The Boy tells his Grandmother about the woman he met at the store. Grandmother tells him that woman at the store wasn't a woman but a witch. She tells him a story about her childhood friend Alice Blue and how she witnessed Alice encounter with the Grand High Witch (played by Anne Hathaway), then she was later transformed into a chicken. How sad!

Grandmother makes a plan for them to leave town like a little vacation away from the Witches. His Grandmother makes a reservation stay at the Grand Imperial Island Hotel they meet Mr. Stringer, a hotel manager (played by Stanley Tucci) welcoming them to the hotel. Inside the hotel, the Boy sees a rich British family Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins and their chubby son Bruno Jenkins (played by Charles Edwards, Morgana Robinson, and Codie-Lei Eastick), they seemed like an unlikely snobby family not a fan of their sons eating habits.

The Grand High Witch with her black cat Hades in her arm and the rest of the fellow Witches enters the hotel for some kind of fake philanthrophy organization called International Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. The Grand High Witch questions what would happen if mice are crawling around the hotel. Mr. Stringer responds that he will contact the exterminator. The hilarious part was instead of The Grand High Witch saying rats she said "brats" referring to the children but Mr. Stringer corrects her by saying the word "rats" but the audience knows what she means. The next day, Grandmother allows the boy to get out and walk around the hotel. He stops at the ballroom, where the Witches are supposed to have their "conference", he sees and befriends Bruno where he was waiting for the "nice lady" (Grand High Witch) to give him his six chocolate bars at 12:25. The Boy enters the empty ballroom trying to find a spot for Daisy to do her tricks until The Grand High Witch and her fellow Witches enters the ballroom and the boy hides underneath the stand while the Grand High Witch stands above him. The meeting begins when the Grand High Witch tells the Witches to start the removal. The Witches removed all of the wigs, shoes, and gloves. All the Witches were bald, have three clawed fingers, have no toes except for the Grand High Witch who has one middle toes in both feet, (just how Roald Dahl describes them in his novel). The Grand High Witch develops a plan to use her potion to transform every child into a mouse. The Grand High Witch lures Bruno with chocolate bars just when Bruno was close to taking the candy bars. He magically transformed into a mouse. The Witches try to stomp Bruno the mouse until Daisy, the mouse, (voiced by Kristen Chenoweth) talks and rescues Bruno. The Grand High Witch finds the Boy hiding in the vent, pulls him out, and pours the potion into his ear transforming him into a mouse. After they went up to Grandma's suite, Grandmother is stunned to see the Boy mouse-aified but still loves him either way.

Daisey/Mary (played by Kristen Chenoweth), The Boy/Charlie Hansen(played by Jazi Bruno ), Bruno (played by Codie-Lei Eastick) are now mice. Credit: HBO Max

So they developed a plan to take the Grand High Witch potion put it on their split pea soup to turn them into mice. At the restaurant or dining scene, the witches taste the soup and later transformed into ugly looking rats causing the hotel guests to panic.

At the end (which was bland), the narrator appears still as Older Adult Mouse starting his organization Witch Hunters, a kids organization, where kids using the potion that the Grand High Witch made to transform every witch into rats, and his grandma still alive and supportive. Such a bad ending.

My thoughts on this film

This film is a fun-loving, sweet film that everyone can love however the ending could've been better instead of the narrator still a mouse why can't he be already human and the Grandmother still alive and have grays on her hair. Anne Hathaway's Grand High Witch character has an amazing voice of an evil witch. I love Octavia Spencer's character as the boy's Grandmother. She makes her character more loving, caring, and nurturing to the young boy. I love watching her I was even concerned with the way she coughed in the film when she senses a witch. They made animatronic mice look so darn cute better than the 90's film version and the witches transform to rats more uglier which made more sense. Composer Alan Silvestri did incredible job with the music and the costumes were very suitable for this film. This movie is something you might watch again.

Lesson Learned: Kids never take candy from strangers or witches.

Production companies: Warner Bros. Pictures , ImageMovers , Double Dare You Productions , Esperanto Filmoj , Necropia Entertainment

Director: Robert Zemeckis

Producer(s): Robert Zemeckis , Jack Rapke , Guillermo del Toro , Alfonso Cuarón , Luke Kelly

Writer(s): Robert Zemeckis , Kenya Barris , Guillermo del Toro

Based on the children's novel The Witches by Roald Dahl

Cast: Anne Hathaway , Octavia Spencer , Stanley Tucci, Jahzir Kadeem Bruno, Chris Rock, Codie-Lei Eastick

Music: Alan Silvestri

Cinematography: Don Burgess

Editor(s): Jeremiah O'Driscoll , Ryan Chan

The Witches is now streaming on HBO Max

The Witches is now streaming on HBO Max

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This review is sponsored by David's Cookies Also, Halloween is around the corner and if you're looking for a sweet treat for Halloween try David's whimsical crate

Chocolate Chip Brownies, Chocolate Chunk Cookies, and Butter Pecan Meltaways

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About the Creator

Gladys W. Muturi

Hello, My name is Gladys W. Muturi. I am an Actress, Writer, Filmmaker, Producer, and Mother of 1.

Instagram: @gladys_muturi95

Twitter: @gladys_muturi

Facebook: facebook.com/gladystheactress

YouTube: @gladys_muturi

patreon.com/gwmuturi

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