Week 5: The Wtiches

This week I watched the 90’s movie The Witches by Nicolas Roeg. This was the first time I’d seen this movie since I was a small child because I remember how it would give me the worst nightmares every time my older brothers would put it on. The witches in this movie can easily disguise themselves as normal looking women by wearing masks, gloves, and wigs to cover their warts and bald heads. However, you can always spot them by their purple eyes and the sensible shoes they wear since they don’t have toes and can’t wear pretty shoes. These witches attack children and will either kill them, trap them in paintings, or turn them into mice. There is one grand head witch who is considered godlike to all the other witches since she provides orders to all other witches on how to kill children. Without giving too much information away- the film is heavily based on female witch archetypes and how a little boy and his grandmother is able to take down these powerful witches. There is also a “good” witch in the film who looks and acts differently than the “bad” witches; being blonde, tiny, soft-spoken, and not excited by the idea of harming children. In contrast to her boss the head witch who has sharp facial features, a short black bob, and who craves the ultimate power that comes with being a witch of that standard. Overall, this is a good film and I didn’t mind re-watching it again after all this time because the removing of the wig scene is still creepy to this day.