The Witches (2020)

Saw The Witches (2020), an adaptation of the Roald Dahl story which follows a young boy and his grandmother battling a secret society of witches who plot to transform all children everywhere into mice.  I wanted to see this film because I had fond memories of the 90s adaptation and wanted to see how this film's deep south setting would inform and inflect the film.  I guess I had forgotten however and deeply strange and paranoid the premise of the film is.  The final result is mostly harmless kiddy fare, but there are barely-hidden undercurrents which play uncomfortably in these modern, conspiracy-haunted times.

The chief protagonist, the Grand High Witch, is played extremely broadly as a CGI cartoon evil monster, hissing and belching out her lines.  We are told that witches such as she are not human at all but demons in female form.  The witches appear to be wealthy, single, white, and bent on destroying humanity for seemingly no reason.  In the 90s, I think this may have already had unfortunate associations, however in modern days, as the political right associates more and more with godliness, they cast their political enemies as satanic, demonic, child predators.  Although the film is (I guess) trying to be a fun little romp, it felt deeply sad and depressing to see this lovely, sensible grandmother earnestly telling her wide-eyed grandson about demons in female form.

The film is directed by Robert Zemeckis who is known for interesting visual effects (Forrest Gump, Who Framed Roger Rabbit) and for what it's worth the setting is used to great effect.  The trees and beaches and the hotel itself looks just gorgeous and the main characters are well-drawn.  The film opens with a sequence showing the grandmother melting her grandson's trauma and welcoming him into her life.  To me, this magic is far more impressive than merely turning someone into a mouse, and the witches themselves and their magic feels like a paranoid delusion taken too seriously by comparison.  They (the witches) are wacky and cartoony, neither scary nor amusing, but sort of off-putting and strange, like a nightmare someone else had.  I didn't like one.