23- Grand High Witch (Anjelica Huston). Roald Dahl’s “The Witches”.
“The Witches” is a 1983 novel by Roald Dahl, which was was adapted into a dark fantasy film in 1990 of the same name. The movie stars Anjelica Huston as Miss Ernst, the Grand High Witch. The film was produced by Jim Henson Productions and as such includes puppetry and creatures one would expect from his production company. “The Witches” was the last movie Henson worked on directly before his death, and was similarly the last film made based on Dahl’s work prior to Dahl’s death. While it’s portrayal of witchcraft is unequivocally negative, Anjelica Huston’s characterization of the Grand High Witch is truly one to be reckoned with.
This film incorporates many themes about witchcraft one finds in this sort of production. The plot (of the movie at least) revolves around a young boy, Luke, and his grandmother, Helga. When Helga was a child, a friend of hers had been captured by a witch and forced to live out her days inside of a painting. Helga has since sought to destroy witches, and I believe is considered a witch hunter in the novel. Years later, after the death of Luke’s parents, Helga becomes his legal guardian and the two take a vacation to a seaside hotel.
While on vacation, they discover that a group of English witches are meeting under the guise of a charity conference. Luke had been told by his grandmother that witches are evil female demons with a deep seated hatred of children. With limitless powers, witches are able to transform children into all kinds of creatures. The witches, in a move to conceal their abhorrence for children, gather as the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
While snooping around, Luke discovers their meeting and uncovers their worldwide plan. Lead and funded by the Grand High Witch, witches across the world will open candy shops and confectionery stores, selling candy and sweets laced with a tincture that will turn children into mice. The Grand High Witch wants to rid the entire world of children, starting of course with those in merry old England.
Luke is discovered by the Grand High Witch who turns him into a mouse, which is how he spends the majority of the movie. Shit goes down, and of course, goodness prevails and Luke destroys the witches. One witch, however, Miss Irvine, is spared as she changes sides and decides to help Luke bring down the Grand High Witch. Miss Irvine further assists Luke by restoring him to his human form and giving him information on the location and secret identities of all of the witches in America (with the assumption being that he will continue his witch hunting).
This movie in many ways reminds me of Hocus Pocus (#25). In each, the witches have an all encompassing hatred for children, and their ultimate demise is perpetrated by a child whom they’ve turned into a familiar (Binx as a cat in Hocus Pocus, Luke as a mouse here). This malevolent portrayal of witchcraft is further illustrated by the fact that the Grand High Witch and her league of witches conceal their true form. Disguised as average mortal women (with the Grand High Witch as an exotic femme fatale), their true identities are hideous and grotesque creatures. Yet again, the Hag/Vixen dichotomy is perpetuated, with their unmasked and ugly nature being inhuman and otherworldly (cue Jim Henson).
Dahl highlights several key tropes from traditional fairy tales through this novel which certainly found their way into the film adaptation. Again, we see children being taught to fear the witch. Feminine power and autonomy is synonymous with maleficence and corruption. The age old association of witches despising children (to the point of killing/consuming them) is further reinforced, and the women’s true self as inhuman, demonic hags is again visualized. The movie does take a positive spin, however, when the one witch changes sides and helps overturn the evil regime. Nevertheless, this does remain a relative side plot to the overarching theme that witches are evil.
Regardless, I still freaking love this movie, mostly because Anjelica Huston really does steal the screen. She portrays the Grand High Witch in such an elegant and enigmatic way that, aside from the ulterior motives of child transmutation, part of you really wants to see her come out on top. Her interpretation of this character helps make it go down as one of the top witches in cinema, and one of the best child fantasy/horror films of that era. I believe Anjelica Huston perfectly summarizes the dichotomy of this character when she discussed a dress she had purchased with her costume designer for the role. The dress was rejected by the director as “not sexy” enough, about which she recalled: “That was the first time I’d imagined that this horrible creature in a children’s movie should have sex appeal. It simply had not occurred to me. But of course Nic (the director) was absolutely right. His vision was diabolical and dark and brilliantly funny. If a witch was to be at the center of this plot, she needed to be sexy to hold the eye.”
I’m sorry Robert Zemeckis, but giving Anne Hathaway a gaping maw of razor sharp fangs and a long snake tongue isn’t producing the physical reaction in me I think you were going for.
