The Witches
Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date (Streaming): October 22, 2020 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
47
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 31 Critic Reviews
Positive:
8
Mixed:
17
Negative:
6
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
ConsequenceBlake GobleOct 21, 2020
There are just enough goodies here for parents and well-prepared kiddies alike. The nifty VFX, performances, and modern updates are what make this remake an easy-enough treat. Read full review
75
The Film StageJordan RaupOct 21, 2020
With a grand score by Alan Silvestri that kicks up at every possible turn and extravagantly over-the-top Hathaway performance, this update on The Witches is a family-friendly Halloween treat that still boasts Zemeckis’ brand of the bizarre and a clear-eyed vision that seems all the more rare in today’s Hollywood. Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla DargisOct 22, 2020
Zemeckis improves on the first film adaptation, a 1990 oddity directed by Nicolas Roeg. There’s more heart in the new version and more emotion, qualities which can go missing in those Zemeckis movies that get lost in his technical whiz-bangery. Read full review
70
VarietyOwen GleibermanOct 21, 2020
Anne Hathaway’s performance provides the film with a sick-joke center of gravity, and Zemeckis, sticking to Dahl’s elemental storyline, stages it all with a prankish flair that leaves you buzzed. Read full review
66
PolygonKaren HanOct 24, 2020
If anything, this version could have benefited from being weirder. Given that weird is territory Zemeckis seems to specialize in, The Witches’ relatively tame nature is a letdown. Read full review
65
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeOct 21, 2020
This kiddie horror comedy will bring a bracing dollop of creepiness to your Halloween. Read full review
63
The Associated PressLindsey BahrOct 22, 2020
It’s not going to be as iconic as Roeg’s, but it should provide some nice family entertainment at home for Halloween. And, bonus, post-viewing nightmares and trauma should be minimal this time. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoOct 22, 2020
Some of the writing gets a bit clunky, the ending is pretty horrible, and there’s a performance at the center that kind of sucks in everything around it like a black hole, but most of that won’t matter to viewers of The Witches: They’ll be too scared to care. Read full review
60
ABC NewsPeter TraversOct 23, 2020
The British author's wickedly twisted children's book is transferred to the Deep South in the 1960s to provide a racial diversity meant to speak to a 2020 audience with a pertinent understatement that is otherwise in short supply. Read full review
60
Total FilmKate StablesOct 21, 2020
It’s ‘Hello Dahl-y’, as Anne Hathaway’s Grand High Witch brings camp not creepiness to Zemeckis’ entertaining fairytale. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyOct 21, 2020
I would love to have seen what a boldly idiosyncratic fantasist like del Toro could have done with this story. But there's plenty here for audiences looking for family entertainment that balances darkness with a buoyant sense of mischief. At the very least, it's a lively step up from Zemeckis' last two films, "Allied" and "Welcome to Marwen." Read full review
60
EmpireNick de SemlyenOct 21, 2020
A supernatural, effects-laden yarn like this is right in Robert Zemeckis' wheelhouse. Which makes it a little disheartening that it’s merely good, rather than great. Dahl's story still sings, but like a potion missing eye of newt, this new take is slightly undercooked. Read full review
60
Screen RantRachel LaBonteOct 21, 2020
The Witches is certainly bolstered by its performances and visuals (which is to be expected of a Zemeckis production), and while its speedy story will win over young audiences, it could've reached new heights had Zemeckis, del Toro, and Barris dared to add a bit more padding. Read full review
58
Vanity FairRichard LawsonOct 21, 2020
Most vitally, the film has frightening, wiggly moments that ought to send young viewers happily scooting forward on the couch, or just as happily hiding under a throw pillow. The film, at its best, is gross and silly and amiably unsettling, which may be all that counts. Read full review
50
Original-CinJim SlotekDec 23, 2020
Dahl’s work demands darkness and an edge, but instead there’s a bright Hollywood-y antic sense to Zemeckis’s The Witches, and the overused and unconvincing FX only serve to trivialize what we’re seeing. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliOct 23, 2020
It’s the same basic story recycled with slightly better special effects and a different cast. As lukewarm as I was toward the Roeg version, I was open to the possibility that Zemeckis could improve upon it – something he proved unable to do. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrOct 21, 2020
It’s rated PG, but trust me, it’ll give younger kids the screaming meemees. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Oct 21, 2020
Where is the Zemeckis who projected a cartoon-noir Christopher Lloyd into every child’s nightmares? The same director has thrown a softening, coddling filter over Dahl, preserving the shape of his source material while sanding down its edges. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattOct 21, 2020
This Witches, alas, has the misfortune of doubling down on all the late writer's eccentricities, while somehow finding only a fraction of his magic. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzOct 21, 2020
There is an element of sadness to this story that’s necessary to make it effective. Take that away and you’re left with a cute kids’ tale that doesn’t trust younger audiences to process the elements that can be difficult — and that make it better. Read full review
50
IGNRafael MotamayorOct 21, 2020
Zemeckis turns this beloved, dark story into a campy, weird, yet still fairly entertaining kid-friendly story of accepting oneself. The problem is that it pales in comparison to what came before. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperOct 21, 2020
The special effects are first-rate and the performances are way over the top yet entertaining, but The Witches is far too disturbing for young children and not edgy enough to captivate adults. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangOct 21, 2020
For much of this movie you may find yourself hoping that Zemeckis might somehow recapture the entrancingly macabre spirit of “Death Becomes Her,” still one of his greatest pictures and one of the few in which his flair for ever more outlandish visual effects feels perfectly in sync with the story he’s telling. But despite a few flashes of novelty . . . The Witches is pretty thin brew by comparison, concocted from mostly secondhand ingredients. Read full review
40
Screen DailyTim GriersonOct 21, 2020
The director doesn’t draw well-rounded performances from Bruno or Eastick, failing to capture the awe or confusion of youth. What we get instead are adrenalised chase scenes and needlessly showy special effects that lack charm. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawOct 21, 2020
The spell does not get cast. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineChris BarsantiOct 23, 2020
This is a sleek-looking vehicle that’s eager to be scary but not comfortable being ugly. Read full review
33
IndieWireDavid EhrlichOct 21, 2020
Zemeckis has made some unsuccessful films over the last 20 years, but The Witches is the most frustrating of them all because it feels like it could’ve been made by somebody else. Anybody else. Read full review
30
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreOct 22, 2020
It’s an adaptation without direction or purpose, with an unwieldy but deeply committed performance at its center. Hathaway looks to be having fun, at least. Someone should! Read full review
25
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiOct 22, 2020
Hathaway floats in the air a few times and the sides of her mouth are slit, a la Heath Ledger’s Joker, but even that deformation doesn’t make her frightening or threatening. You’re supposed to believe this woman wants all children dead, and instead, you believe she is sometimes rude to Bergdorf’s employees. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleOct 21, 2020
When it’s not repulsive, The Witches drags, but for one brief yet gripping sequence, in which the boy and his friends sneak into the head witch’s hotel suite. Read full review
20
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternOct 22, 2020
What was weirdly but deliciously scary has grown ponderously out of scale, even for witches at their malign worst. Read full review
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