Roald Dahl’s classic children’s horror novel has been made into a movie once again with The Witches, and the 2020 remake made major changes to the story from the original novel and the 1990 movie with the same name. Roald Dahl’s The Witches follows an unnamed narrator and his grandmother as they face off against an organization of evil Witches, and try to stop their nefarious plot to eliminate all of England’s children by turning them into mice.
The 1990 film adaptation of The Witches was produced by Jim Henson, and The Witches is considered one of the scariest children’s movies ever made. The 2020 remake promised to significantly depart from the 1990 movie by changing the setting and time period from the source material. Written by Robert Zemeckis, Kenya Barris, and Guillermo del Toro, this version of The Witches tried to lean even further into the terrifying dark comedy while updating the story for a modern audience.
Although the 1990 adaptation of The Witches did not do well at the box office when it was released, it has amassed a cult following in the years since. The 2020 remake was marketed as a major blockbuster and had been scheduled for a theatrical release before it was pulled from the release schedule due to the coronavirus pandemic and moved to HBO Max. Considering all of the changes that The Witches 2020 made, how does it compare to the success of the 1990 cult classic — and to the reputation of the original novel?
How The Witches 2020 Story Compares To Roald Dahl’s Book
One of the most significant changes that The Witches 2020 makes to the novel is changing the setting. Instead of England and Norway in the 1980s, The Witches 2020 takes place in Alabama in the 1960s. The unnamed white narrator is replaced with a young Black boy named Charlie Hansen (Jahzir Kadeem Bruno) and his grandmother Agatha (Octavia Spencer.) Subsequently, this changes the central mythology in The Witches: the titular Witches, led by the Grand High Witch (Anne Hathaway) are specifically targeting children who they claim no one will miss, meaning underprivileged children or children of color, like Charlie.
While the setting change to 1960s Alabama in The Witches 2020 was an opportunity for the movie to add a layer of social commentary, that thread is quickly abandoned after Charlie and Agatha arrive at the hotel, and unfortunately it is not picked up again. From that point on, The Witches 2020 progresses almost exactly like the novel. Although the failure to follow through on the 1960s setting is a disappointment, The Witches 2020 still maintains the horror-fantasy feeling of Dahl’s original novel, imbued with a lingering sense of dread from the very start, when a Witch tries to abduct Charlie and he and Agatha flee to a hotel to escape. The Witches 2020 is an excellent and faithful adaptation of the original novel, for better or for worse.
How The Witches 2020 Story Compares To The 1990s Movie
Unlike The Witches 2020, the 1990 adaptation maintained the novel’s original time period and setting. In this version, the narrator is a boy named Luke Eveshim, and he and his grandmother travel to the hotel after she falls ill from diabetes and her doctor recommends that they go to the coast. In contrast, in The Witches 2020 they are already on the run from Witches by the time they arrive at the hotel and accidentally stumble on their nest, and the constant threat of discovery pervades the movie from the very beginning.
The decision in The Witches 2020 to make the narrator and his grandmother Black instead of a well-off white family is a major improvement to the story. Much like Jordan Peele’s Get Out, the change adds a layer of realistic fear and terror regarding Charlie’s precarious place in the world and the institutional threat that the Witches represent to him. Even though the thread is dropped, it’s important to the story that the Witches are deliberately targeting underprivileged children — it turns Charlie’s fear of the Witches into something much more realistic and prescient, and it’s something that was missing from the 1990 film.
The other significant change The Witches 2020 made was to the special effects. The Witches 1990 was produced by puppeteer Jim Henson, and was an incredible showcase of the practical effects and puppetry that he used to bring the fantasy element of the film to life. The Witches 2020 suffers comparatively from an overuse of CGI that sends the film to the precipice of the uncanny valley. The most terrifying moment in The Witches 1990 is when the Grand High Witch (Anjelica Hutson) peels off her face to reveal her true, grotesque form, and The Witches 2020 never manages to match the visceral horror of its predecessor.
How The Witches 2020 Ending Compares To The Book & 1990 Movie
The Witches 1990 made the controversial decision to change the ending of Roald Dahl’s novel. In the book, the narrator remains a mouse for the rest of his life after his transformation. He accepts the reality of his much shorter lifespan, saying that he doesn’t want to outlive his grandmother anyways, and the lack of a happy ending contributes to the high stakes and horror in the book. The 1990 movie has a radically different ending, where the long-suffering assistant of the Grand High Witch becomes good and transforms the narrator back into a boy. Roald Dahl famously hated the new ending, to the point where he was threatening to remove his name from the film entirely.
The Witches 2020 returns to the original ending from the novel — with a twist. Like in the book, Charlie never turns back into a boy, resigning himself to live his life as a mouse. Unlike the book, The Witches 2020 reveals that Charlie, now a much older mouse voiced by Chris Rock, is already preparing an army of children trained to take down the Witches with the Formula 86 Delayed-Action Mouse-Maker that he used to destroy the Grand High Witch and her cohorts. Comparatively, the novel ends with the narrator and his grandmother planning to travel to Norway and destroy the Witches there, while at the end of The Witches 2020, it’s clear that plan is well underway.
The Witches 2020 might be a better adaptation of the novel, but that doesn’t mean it’s a better movie. The Witches 2020 keeps the terrifying ending of Dahl’s book, but sacrifices the gut-wrenching effects and legitimate horror of the 1990 film. Although social commentary is introduced, The Witches never follows up in a meaningful way. The Witches 2020 is a beautifully made movie and The Witches 1990 is a terrifying one — but Roald Dahl’s original novel is the best The Witches of them all.
