Getting Through Robert Zemeckis' The Witches
The Witches (2020) sits on HBO Max, not Netflix, though you will see plenty of search results mislabeling it. I watched it last November with my kids and my wife. It is a strange creature — simultaneously the most faithful film adaptation of Roald Dahl ever made and also deeply compromised by studio interference. Let me walk through what happens, what works, and what does not, then point you toward where to actually find it. The film follows a young boy (Jacob Tremblay) whose parents die in a factory accident. He goes to live with his grandmother, played by Anne Hathaway, who tells him the horrifying truth about witches. They walk among us in human form, but they have telltale signs — goat-like feet, hooked noses, webbed fingers. The Grand High Witch (Octavia Spencer) plans to turn all of England's children into mice using a potion called-86. The boy accidentally drinks some of it himself and must stop her before she activates her plan. On paper, this is extremely close to Dahl's 1983 novel. And it is, frame by frame. The Grand High Witch's lair beneath the Grand Hotel in Margate, the mouse transformation scene, the way the children are lured to the hotel under the pretense of a free medical treatment — almost everything from the book makes it into the film. That level of fidelity is actually the problem, or at least part of it.
Dahl's original book is 176 pages. It is lean and brutal and deeply mean-spirited in the way that made it so effective for children in the first place. Zemeckis expanded it to 116 minutes by adding subplots, padding scenes, and inserting a romantic comedy beat between Hugh Grant's character and Colin FC's character that has absolutely nothing to do with the source material. The romance subplot was reportedly added because the studio wanted more adult appeal, but it slows the pacing to a near standstill in the second act. Octavia Spencer is magnificent as the Grand High Witch. Her performance — the creaky voice, the deliberate physicality, the moments of genuine warmth she shows toward the children before revealing her true nature — is the anchor of the entire film. She makes the character terrifying without relying on gore or shock value. There is one scene in particular, where she addresses the assembled witches and explains the philosophy behind turning children into mice, and Spencer delivers it with such chilling calm that you believe every word. It is the best performance in the film by a wide margin. Anne Hathaway is also good, though her performance feels slightly miscast in terms of tone. She plays the grandmother as warm and comforting when the book's grandmother is sharper, meaner, and far more dangerous-looking. The film softens her considerably, probably because they needed a more traditional nurturing figure for a family audience. This is a creative decision that works fine but flattens what was one of the more interesting characters in Dahl's original.
The CGI has aged poorly. For a 2020 film, the mouse transformations look inconsistent — some of them are convincing, others look like early-2000s video game cinematics. The production was plagued by delays and budget issues, and some of that shows. The film originally had a higher budget before COVID hit production schedules, and what you are seeing is a version that was trimmed and reworked under pressure. The film's biggest strength is its commitment to Dahl's world. Most adaptations of his work sanitize the dark humor and make everything feel like a Disney project. The Witches does not do that. It is genuinely unsettling at times. The scene where the boy discovers his grandmother's collection of witch photographs and realizes she has hunted and killed witches her entire life is quietly horrifying in a way that most family films would never attempt. The film trusts its audience to handle that kind of content. The biggest weakness is the tonal whiplash between the book's bleakness and the studio's desire for broad family appeal. You get genuine dread followed immediately by comedic relief that undercuts the tension. It is the same mistake that has plagued almost every Dahl adaptation since the 1971 Willy Wonka film — the belief that children cannot handle darkness without immediate relief.
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My practical advice if you are watching this with children: be prepared for some genuinely scary imagery. The Grand High Witch's transformation sequence, the mouse children wandering around helpless, the general atmosphere of the hotel — these are not mild scares. If your child is under eight, you may want to sit with them and narrate through the more intense moments. The film is rated PG for peril and mild thematic elements, which is accurate but not especially reassuring. One thing I noticed on a second viewing that I missed the first time: the film contains several Easter eggs referencing other Zemeckis projects. There is a brief glimpse of a Time Machine in the hotel's museum wing, and the Grand High Witch's plan has echoes of the technology themes from Who Framed Roger Rabbit. These are not important to the plot but worth noticing if you are a casual Zemeckis fan. The film performs respectably as a family Halloween watch but does not reach the heights of Dahl's best material. It is faithful enough to satisfy fans of the book while being accessible enough for newcomers. The performances carry it through its weaker moments, and Spencer's Grand High Witch alone makes it worth your time if you were going to skip it anyway.
You can stream The Witches on HBO Max. It is not available on Netflix despite what some sites claim. There is no official physical release beyond DVD and Blu-ray, and those copies are increasingly difficult to find in new condition. The HBO Max version is the highest quality source available. Rating: 6 out of 10. A competent, somewhat uneven adaptation that respects its source material more than most but is held back by studio meddling and aging effects work. Worth one viewing, maybe two if the kids enjoy it.
