Halloween is right around the corner, so that means it’s time to get festive, whether that’s binging Halloween movies, throwing a Halloween party or just eating a bunch of candy all by your lonesome while watching scary movies on AMC. Either way, Halloween will always be a popular time of year, even if there’s an on going pandemic in the country. Now, there might not be in any big horror movie playing in theaters, as of right now, it’s still nice knowing that Hollywood is trying their absolute best for people to see their movies, just so that they can make something back in return. It’s not like this weekend’s The Empty Man was going to bring a resurgence of people back in time for Halloween (considering it underperformed at the box office), and there’s no telling when things get back to normal when it comes to audiences flocking back to the multiplex. The Witches was almost in that same situation, where it supposed to be released on October 9th, then getting pushed to Oct 16th to then getting pulled off the calendar entirely, the studio made the announcement that HBO Max would be picking it up and dropping it on October 22nd. With that announcement, a trailer and poster hit the webs as soon as the announcement was made and it seemed to be a perfect time to release a movie like this around Halloween. While The Witches is fairly probable and easy to predict, it’s full of dazzling and eye popping visuals, catchy music and a magical charm with a story that’s handled with pleasure. The original 1990 The Witches being excluded for the sake this 2020 remake, Zemeckis’ version stands on its own but the performance from Anne Hathaway exemplifies a performer that’s having the time of her life.
Set in the Southern state of Alabama in the late 1960s, a young orphaned boy goes to reside with his grandmother after a tragic event in his life. During his time living with his grandmother, they both have strange and sudden experiences with devilish witches, to which the grandmother decides to take her grandson away from these witches. They travel over to the seaside in hopes to seek comfort and safety, however they arrive same time that the world’s Grand High Witch has gathered her fellow witches from around the world to carry out her nefarious plans.
The biggest and most noticeable problem with The Witches is that it’s quite predictable. Predictability is, by no means, the worst thing in the world. Heck, you could almost make an argument that any great movie has it’s predictable moments. Nevertheless, The Witches is fairly littered with moments that one can sense from quite a distance. Without getting into spoiler territory, there are certain scenes in the movie where you could already grasp as to what events would follow next. There might be better examples of movies that are much more predictable than The Witches, however when they happen, it’s a bit disappointing.
The Witches might be predictable, but the good merits in this movie really bunch it up a lot. Robert Zemeckis, arguably, is one of Hollywood’s most treasured and favored filmmakers that’s ever lived. He’s been frequently credited for his amazing work in visual effects, by blending modern technology with old-school Hollywood storytelling and vintage aesthetics. Zemeckis suffuses most of his films with fantasy and superstition, science mixed with fiction. In some way, he’s kind of like the storyteller of a George Lucas and the spectacle of Steven Spielberg movie. So, when getting into its story and the how it’s guided, Zemeckis handled the story with energy, old-school fashion, pleasure and a lot fun and that’s easily one of the best compliments to give for this movie. Primarily, this is a movie that kids might enjoy more than adults, however there’s still a great level of charm in The Witches that brings back fond memories of movies like Beetlejuice or something like The Addams Family that’ll make the older viewers full of happiness and nostalgia. The Witches may not be as great as those movies, but what it does feature is the gratification and excitement that those movies had to offer back in the day.
Anne Hathaway is an actress that we need to talk more about when it comes to who are some of the greatest working actresses in Hollywood. We love her in films like The Princess Diaries or The Devil Wears Prada, but her true talent is displayed in movies like Les Misérables, where audiences see a side of her that has never been shown on screen before. Anjelica Huston is wonderful in the 1990 adaptation of The Witches, but Anne Hathaway might change that conversation. Anne Hathaway’s performance in The Witches as the Grand High Witch is one of the best performances of the year. She chews up the scenery with her commanding presence, but the best thing to contribute to her role is that Hathaway seemed as if she was having the time of her life by playing this character. Octavia Spence is great, the kids are nice, but the performance given by Anne Hathaway is one that film fans will cherish forever.
At the end of the day, The Witches is a super fun little treat for the season of Halloween. It’s not gonna end up on anyones best of the year list, but the level of entertainment and the performance that Anne Hathaway gives in The Witches stands as a worthy reimagining of the 1990 version.
My grade for The Witches: B
Zane's take at the Cinema's 