The Witches Review

The latest game news from IGN - one of my fave channels ever - check it out The Witches debuts on HBO Max in the U.S. on October 22 and opens in theaters internationally on October 28. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Witches are real. They wear gloves to hide their claws. They don't have any toes, and they all wear wigs to hide their bald heads. And apparently, they are colorful, CGI-Joker-lite, and quite dull. Based on Roald Dahl's 1983 novel of the same name, The Witches is Robert Zemeckis' remake of Nicolas Roeg's 1990 horror film for kids about a young orphaned boy (Jahzir Kadeem Bruno, making his feature film debut) who goes to live with his Grandma (Octavia Spencer) after losing his parents in a car accident. Already closer to death than any child his age should be, things quickly turn bad when Grandma starts getting seriously ill, and even worse when the nice little trip they take to an opulent seaside resort on the Gulf Coast turns into an unexpected battle against a coven of witches that plan to turn every child on Earth into mice. Robert Zemeckis has had a fascinating, if super inconsistent, career. He started out as a possible successor to Spielberg, thanks to his ability to mix character-driven stories with cutting-edge visual effects to deliver grand spectacles that pull at your heartstrings. But then, Zemeckis started to rely more and more on CGI as the driving force of the story, leaving all substance behind. While Back to the Future and Who Framed Roger Rabbit remain indisputable classics, his streak of motion-capture CGI movies -- Polar Express, Beowulf, and A Christmas Carol -- feel like a director chasing the shadow of his former self. Even if Zemeckis, alongside co-writers Kenya Barris (Black-ish) and Guillermo del Toro change the setting from England and Norway to 1967's Alabama in an attempt to add some historical and cultural context and nuance to this new version, The Witches feels not entirely unlike watching Tim Burton's remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: you get a colorful and entertaining enough film that completely fails to capture the heart of the story and leaves a sour aftertaste. [ignvideo width=610 height=374 url=https://ift.tt/37t2scQ] Roald Dahl's The Witches is not only a celebrated tale that has captivated and scared millions of kids around the world, but the 1990 adaptation by Nicolas Roeg is a cult classic in its own right. Because of this, it's nearly impossible not to compare Zemeckis' remake to the 1990 version. Roeg, who had already made a name for himself in horror with Don't Look Now, infused the film with an odd blend of sex appeal and disturbing horror imagery, which made the witches terrifying even before we discovered their hideous appearance. The Witches was also the final film that Jim Henson personally worked on before his death, and his work elevated the film to new terrifying heights that still hold up today. More than anything, the problem with Zemeckis' take on The Witches is that it lacks the sense of danger and darkness that Dahl's story, and even the movie itself, hints at. Even though it seems to be telling a story about the dangers of trusting strangers — no matter how nice and kind they may look — and about accepting your own mortality, Zemeckis gives us a completely harmless and comedy-heavy fantasy adventure. Every time the story hints at a sinister implication for what's happening on screen, Zemeckis instantly undercuts the tension with cartoonish humor. That he also decides to replace nearly all practical effects in the original for some very obvious and distracting CGI does nothing but diminish the gravitas of the story. Not that the film looks entirely bad; on the contrary, Zemeckis knows how to deliver grandiose productions that look out of this world. The lavish production design for the holiday resort and the fantastical costumes really pop. At times, the director even uses CGI to create a bigger sense of immersion in ways that can't be done practically. The problem is that, as luxuriant as the film looks, The Witches remains surface level throughout its runtime, more interested in spectacle than heart. Nowhere does this feel more obvious than in the change in setting. It's not like moving the action to '60s Alabama inherently requires the film to dive into racism or politics, but the script clearly wants you to think it's using this change for something significant, but doesn't. Early on, when we first arrive at the resort and the kid asks his Grandma if they'll be safe from witches, Grandma answers that witches are interested in taking kids that people won't miss or look for if they disappear. The Witches implies that it'll have some deeper commentary on race or socioeconomics, but it soon becomes clear that the film is using this as window dressing with zero interest in pursuing the implications of its setting. Still, even if Zemeckis doesn't take full advantage of the story he's telling, and seems disinterested in character or commentary, he still manages to provide a basic family-friendly spectacle. Families looking to introduce a less traumatic more lite version of Roald Dahl's classic to kids may enjoy this comedy-heavy take, especially once Anne Hathaway jumps on screen. Completely different from Anjelica Huston's iconic Grand High Witch, Hathaway decides to go full camp for her turn as the head of the coven. Using a strange amalgam of Scandinavian accents that sound more Russian than Norwegian, and an over-the-top performance straight out of Fright Night, Hathaway looks like the lovechild of Heath Ledger's Joker and Mortal Kombat’s Mileena and Baraka. If The Witches is this year's Cats, then Anne Hathaway is the film's Judi Dench, fully aware of the mess she's in, and chewing every scene she's in like she's a better-dressed Willy Wonka. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=worst-reviewed-movies-of-2020&captions=true"]

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