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    Spellcaster!

    Spellcaster!

    Lifestyle and Entertainment

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    App

    Spellcaster is an all-in-one resource for witches and magic users. Consult the tarot cards, view...

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Sarah (7798 KP) rated The Witches (2020) in Movies

Mar 6, 2021  
The Witches (2020)
The Witches (2020)
2020 | Adventure, Comedy, Family
3
6.9 (16 Ratings)
Movie Rating Watch
Not a patch on the original
The Witches is a 2020 retelling of the Roald Dahl children’s story, from director Robert Zemeckis. Remakes and reboots have been commonplace in the movies for quite some time, so it’s no surprise that The Witches has been given a Hollywood makeover, especially as it has been 30 years since the original film adaptation was released in 1990. I will readily admit that the original film is a childhood favourite, so this remake has very big shows to fill.

This time round, the story has been transported to late 1960s Alabama. It follows a unnamed boy (named in the credits as simply ‘Hero Boy’), played by Jahzir Bruno, and his grandma (Octavia Spencer) as they encounter a witch in their home town, prompting her to whisk him away to a seaside resort. Unbeknownst to them, this seaside resort is also where the Grand High Witch (Anne Hathaway) is due to unveil her dastardly plans to transform the world’s children. In his bids to thwart the witches plans, Hero Boy bumps into some familiar names, greedy English boy Bruno Jenkins (Codie-Lei Eastick) and put-upon hotel manager Mr Stringer (Stanley Tucci).

I was very sceptical about this in general, and while I think my scepticism was most definitely warranted, I was at least pleasantly surprised that moving the action from England to 60s America worked. It gives the film a different vibe with a new setting (with some very good costume and set design too), yet still keeping the same base story. However I’m afraid that’s the only good change that they’ve made in this entire remake. The 60s setting works, but the hotel itself lacks the beauty and grandeur of the hotel in the original. Gone are the imposing shots of a beautiful old hotel set on top of a cliff with its gorgeous landscapes (which incidentally is a real life hotel called The Headland which is on my travel wish list), and instead replaced with something that looks good on the surface, but is sadly lacking in realism and has obviously been entirely computer generated.

And this is the major problem with The Witches (2020), it’s over reliance and overuse of CGI. Everything in this, from the mice to the hotel exteriors to the witches true appearance, are all computer generated, and not particularly well at that. The mice look pretty bad and unrealistic, but the worst of all is what they’ve done to the witches. The changes themselves may have worked had this used practical effects, but sadly the CGI only serves to highlight how ridiculous the changes are. From the missing two fingers on each hand to the elongated mouths with demon like tongues, the witches to begin with seem creepy but after this initial shock, you see how absurd and laughable they really are.

Unfortunately even the performances can’t save this adaptation. Octavia Spencer is as reliable as always and Jazhir Bruno and Codie-Lei Eastick are quite adorable, but the rest of the fairly decent cast are sadly misplaced. The usually loveable Stanley Tucci is given absolutely nothing to work with, not even giving him a chance to try and match up to Rowan Atkinson’s original Mr Stringer, and Chris Rock is sadly out of place as the voice of older Hero Mouse. However the worst offender here is Anne Hathaway. Admittedly she isn’t helped much by the poor transformations to the witches appearance, but all the CGI in the world couldn’t fix her questionable Eastern European accent and hammy performance. The fact that Angelica Huston put in a more sinister and believable performance with 90s facial prosthetics and practical effects is a credit to her and only highlights how bad a choice Hathaway was for this role.

While parts of this remake aren’t entirely condemnable, as some aspects do stick closer to Dahl’s original source material, overall it is a far inferior adaptation that loses everything that made the 1990 film such a classic. Gone are the sinister witches and the dark stories of missing children (the girl stuck in the picture is an image that has always stuck with me), instead replaced with a far too lighthearted story with an over reliance on CGI. The most worrying thing of all is that even Robert Zemeckis and Guillermo Del Toro being involved couldn’t save this.
  
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Dork_knight74 (881 KP) rated Don't Knock Twice (2017) in Movies

Jun 19, 2019  
Don't Knock Twice (2017)
Don't Knock Twice (2017)
2017 | Horror, Mystery
7
5.8 (4 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Not bad
This twisted tale wasn't too bad. It had decent acting, ok cinematography and an interesting story. A little slow paced at times but a few twists in the plot kept it interesting along with a pretty decent "creep" factor throughout. Not the greatest horror story ever told but definitely a unique one for a dark night. Witches and demons and betrayal will keep your interest to the end. Worth a watch.
  
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David McK (3372 KP) rated Kaibab Unbound (The Iron Druid Chronicles , #0.6) in Books

Jan 28, 2019  
KU
Kaibab Unbound (The Iron Druid Chronicles , #0.6)
Kevin Hearne | 2011
6
7.3 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
The second short story bundled with Kevin Hearne's 'Hounded' in which Atticus O'Sullivan and his dog Oberon encounter some witches up to no good (of course) while on a short vacation.

Compared to the previous short story, this shows more the nature of Atticus connection to the land (he's a 2000+ year old Druid, remember), especially with the forest setting. It also takes the saying "nature, red in tooth and claw" quite literally!