Taglines: Saving the world from witches is a tall order for a boy they’ve turned into a mouse!
The Witches movie storyline. During a holiday with his grandmother Helga (Mai Zetterling) in Norway, Luke Eveshim (Jasen Fisher) is told stories about “real” witches, female demons with a genocidal hatred for children, all of whom emit an odor obnoxious to witches. Helga tells him that her childhood friend was taken and cursed to spend the rest of her life trapped inside a painting.
After Luke’s parents are accidentally killed, Helga becomes Luke’s legal guardian and they move to England. While building a treehouse, Luke is accosted by a witch, though he sees through her ruse and avoids his potential death, hiding at the top of the tree. On Luke’s birthday, Helga falls ill. Her doctor advises them to spend the summer by the sea.
They stay at a seaside resort, where Luke meets and befriends a gluttonous but friendly boy, Bruno Jenkins (Charlie Potter), while getting on the bad side of the hotel manager, Mr. Stringer (Rowan Atkinson), after his pet mice frighten a maid who is having an affair with the manager. Also staying at the hotel are a convention load of witches, masquerading as the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, with the Grand High Witch (Anjelica Huston), the leader of the world’s witches, attending their annual meeting.
The Witches is a 1990 British/American dark fantasy film based on the children’s novel of the same title by Roald Dahl. It was directed by Nicolas Roeg and produced by The Jim Henson Company for Lorimar Film Entertainment and Warner Bros, starring Anjelica Huston, Mai Zetterling, Rowan Atkinson, and Jasen Fisher.
As in the novel, the story fantasises witches who masquerade as ordinary women and kill children, but are foiled and exterminated by a boy and his grandmother after the boy is turned into a mouse. The film was very well received by critics but performed poorly at the box office.
The Witches (1990)
Directed by: Nicolas Roeg
Starring: Anjelica Huston, Mai Zetterling, Jasen Fisher, Rowan Atkinson, Bill Paterson, Brenda Blethyn, Charlie Potter, Jane Horrocks, Anne Lambton, Jenny Runacre
Screenplay by: Allan Scott
Production Design by: Andrew Sanders
Cinematography by: Harvey Harrison
Film Editing by: Tony Lawson
Costume Design by: Marit Allen
Set Decoration by: Robin Tarsnane
Art Direction by: Norman Dorme, John King
Music by: Stanley Myers
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: August 24, 1990
Hits: 175
