The Witches

With a deliciously wicked performance from Angelica Huston and imaginative puppetry by Jim Henson's creature shop Nicolas Roeg's dark and witty movie captures the spirit of Roald Dahl's writing like few other adaptations.

A young boy and his grandmother have a run-in with a coven of witches and their leade

Official Trailer: The Witches

REVIEW: The Witches

a wickedly enjoyable time beckons

OSCAR WINNER ANNE HATHAWAY REVELS IN THE CHANCE TO TURN BAD

The witches in The Witches may choose to congregate in secret but why they congregate is no secret at all.

These witches hate children. With a passion.

According to this everlovin covens loathsome leader The High Witch (a gleefully deranged Anne Hathaway) their work will not be done "until every child in the world is rubbed out squashed".

This is why these calculating crones are hiding in plain sight at a high-end hotel populating a fake convention run by the equally fake Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.

Any kid who dares accept an invitation from these ladies to join them for some chocolate will indeed be rubbed out. But not squashed.

Initially at least a child who falls foul of the witches in The Witches will be miniaturised into a mouse and forced to live like Stuart Little (minus the fancy clothes and sports car).

This not-so-cosy arrangement was first filtered through the twisted mind of the celebrated author Roald Dahl in his 1983 book The Witches then later ported over to a wonkily charming film adaptation starring Anjelica Huston in 1990.

This entertaining new version is much truer in tone to the book where the line separating the silly and the sinister is often blurred.

The orphan 10-year-old who will unknowingly step back and forth across that line (and yes be changed into a mouse for his trouble) is known only as The Boy (newcomer Jahzir Bruno).

This quiet sensitive child was merely tagging along with his grandmother (Octavia Spencer) on a short holiday when he first crossed paths with The High Witch and her gang.

Now The Boy and several other cursed child-mice are scampering for their lives all over the hotel hoping like hell the spell might be reversed before the convention ends with a group squashing.

Parents who think their kids might like a ticket to The Witches should pause to consider the totally justifiable M-rating that has been accorded the movie.

There is definitely some genuinely frightening stuff happening here. The kind of stuff that could keep a sensitive child up at night fearful of a visit from Hathaways sedately evil posse.

For those old enough to go with Dahls demented flow however a wickedly enjoyable time beckons.

The Witches is now showing in general release.

Director: Robert Zemeckis (Back To the Future) Starring: Anne Hathaway Octavia Spencer Jahzir Bruno Stanley Tucci.

MOVIE REVIEW by LEIGH PAATSCH from the December 10 issue of The Herald Sun Digital Edition.
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