This 90s children’s film still traumatises me as an adult

I was only 10 years old when my first film scarred me for life. 

Picture the scene: I was scrolling through TV channels in my bedroom and stumbled upon a film I’ve never heard of before that seemed right up my alley – The Witches.

As a self-proclaimed weird kid, ghosts, ghouls, and goblins had always appealed to me. That’s why you find me writing the Horror Haunt column – I love all things spooky.

I was hooked before I’d even hit play. What I didn’t expect, however, is the impact it would have on me.

Based on the Roald Dahl novel of the same name, the film focuses on a coven of evil witches who masquerade as ordinary women to go about their daily business – ridding the world of children by turning them into mice.

During a vacation with his grandmother Helga (Mai Zetterling) in Norway, eight-year-old Luke Eveshim (Jasen Fisher) is warned of the witches, and when he discovers them to be real, he must find a way to foil their plans and bring down the group led by Grand High Witch Eva Ernst (Anjelica Huston)

Director Nicolas Roeg takes the beloved children’s novel and turns it into straight nightmare fuel from start to finish with terrifying creatures, spine-chilling dangers, and death around every corner.

Needless to say, I loved every single minute, and it’s become a staple in my collection of gateway horror films and nostalgic comfort watches.

Now a parent, I recently rewatched The Witches to gauge whether it might be appropriate for my eldest to see for the first time, and it remains one of the most terrifying films I have ever watched, even 35 years since its release.

It is wild to me that The Witches was given a PG rating, (this was in the days before the 12A certificate) given it’s an entire film about a group of women that can peel their skin off and want to eradicate children.

If you’ve seen the film, the one scene that likely sticks in your mind is the one in which the witches, including Miss Ernst, reveal their real forms as they’re ordered to ‘remove their wigs.’

How poor little Luke didn’t scream and run for his life when secretly witnessing these women shed their shoes, as well as their hair and actual skin to reveal the horror show underneath is beyond me. It is a masterclass performance from Huston and a marvel of practical effects, but it is also sheer terror condensed into less than 10 minutes.

But The Witches is chilling long before we get to this moment. The film doesn’t waste a second on pleasantries, opening with Helga’s short story explaining the child-killing witches and her hatred for them, tapping directly into the idea of ‘stranger danger’ as she warns Luke ‘You can never be sure if it’s a witch you are looking at or a kind lady.’

It sets the tone of the fantasy elements at the centre of the narrative, but also the very real fear of child abduction and death that remains terrifying no matter your age of viewing.

The Witches also challenge children on the people they likely trust the most at a young age – motherly and grandmotherly figures. It paints them as aggressors who can cause harm to them, something we still often do not see in films, instead opting for predominantly male antagonists.

Roeg’s filmmaking style makes The Witches even more nightmarish, with extreme close-ups of every grisly detail of the titular villains, and canted angles for an even more unsettling, sickening vibe.

The power of that was only confirmed by the lukewarm response to the controversial 2020 adaptation of Roald Dahl’s novel, with Anne Hathaway stepping into the role made famous by Huston.

As IndieWire put it, ‘Roeg’s version may have scarred a generation of kids for life, but at least they remembered it.’

The film isn’t shy of the idea of death, revealing early on that Luke’s parents were killed and establishing that children are not immune to the tragedies of the world.

This is hammered home when the witches’ evil plan is carried out – both Luke and his pal Bruno Jenkins (Charlie Potter) are turned into mice. Despite beating the witches at their own game and managing to be restored to their regular human selves, it highlights that children won’t be spared from traumatic events simply because of their youth.

We very nearly could have gotten a bleaker ending, with the novel of The Witches ending with Luke remaining as a mouse, being told he will only live for nine years at most.

None of this would have been possible without Dahl’s 1983 novel, exploring a time in a child’s life in which they begin to question their realities, as well as the safety and dangers of the world.

He made readers distrust every ‘nice old lady’ we saw, checking for a purple glint in any stranger’s eye while questioning if they could do us harm, both in our childhood and through to our adult lives.

The Witches and its most iconic scenes remain as memorable as they are because of its villains. Not only do they look like literal monsters, they act the part in every sense of the word as they utilise their sex appeal and natural charm to manipulate adults, while getting closer to children to axe them off.

Some films marketed towards children are scarier than any R-rated slasher flick – and The Witches is a chilling example of that, like no other.

The Witches is now available to stream on NOW TV and Sky.

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