When you think of Halloween and horror movies, you probably think of bloody, scary movies, with dark plots and adult themes. Now slashers and classic horror films are perfectly fine for a hallows eve watch party with adults, but what about kids? If you think about kids’ horror films, you’ll think more along the lines of Coraline and Nightmare Before Christmas which are both amazing horror films in their own right. But I’d like to draw your attention to another children’s film, the 1990’s film based on the classic children’s novel The Witches, by Roald Dahl.
Now Roald Dahl as an author is a master of frightening children, even in his other less frightening books. I remember being terrified of the unfriendly giants in the BFG and scared to bits by scenes and characters in James and the Giant Peach. So how does he achieve this in The Witches? To start off with, he begins by exploiting an existing fear in children, “Stranger Danger”. Road Dahl describes the witches as disguised nice ladies, who look just like any other woman on the street. So, the first thing Roald Dahl establishes is that maybe the witches do exist, you just haven’t seen them yet. A child is much more gullible than an adult, and they know a lot less about the world. So, to a child, the idea of witches that nobody knows about who hide in plain sight and steal children could be more real to them.
The movie also brings in a visual element outside of Road Dahls original writing, and it is done quite well. The witches are portrayed as horrible wretches, as women who have feet with no toes and bald heads. The head witch herself being a real piece of work, she is covered in bald and covered in wrinkles, with an unnatural nose and horrifying eyes. She is played by actor Angelica Huston, who does an amazing job in this role. Her whole demeanour is menacing even when she isn’t covered in prosthetics. She embodies evil in this film to make it that much better. And when I watched this movie as a kid, she was horrifying. It was a crafted combination of unease, masterful performance and a classic case of bodily horror, without being too graphic, as to not severely traumatize any children. However, the visual appearance of the Witches brings in a moral question about the portrayal of “evil” to children. Often when bad guys are portrayed in media, they are portrayed with undesirable features, such as warts, wrinkles, unkept hair and body, being overweight, which are all traits perfectly normal people in the real world possess. Of course, you and I know that the checkout lady and your local ASDA who has a wart on her chin doesn’t boil children in her spare time. But in childhood these portrayals of evil may help create and re-enforce negative stereotypes around beauty and how it relates to character. On the other hand, children’s horror doesn’t have the budget to be subtle and nuanced with their themes and plots. So, body horror in the form of these deformed horrible witches is a full-proof way to make sure kids are sleeping with the lights on.
The Witches has a brilliant story with creative horror elements and is personally one of my favourite movies to watch on Halloween night. Now I know that this isn’t a typical nail biter horror film, it’s probably not going to give you the adrenaline rush a classic horror film would. But I absolutely believe that it’s worth a re-watch this spooky season, especially with younger siblings if you want to give them a scare.