A woman arrives at a rural English village to take up a role as a teacher at a school. She has not long recovered from the mental trauma of experiencing voodoo rituals close at hand when she had previously worked in deepest Africa and before long she finds that the inhabitants of her new home are acting in strange ways that serve as a reminder of the sinister encounters with black magic that haunt her past.
The Witches is quite an unusual film from the British production company Hammer. While it did fall under their typical horror bracket, it was considerably more subtle in approach and starred an actress who had been on the Hollywood A-list, even winning an Oscar, namely Joan Fontaine. In fact, she owned the film rights to the novel 'The Devil's Own' by Peter Curtis on which this film was based and it was Hammer who she ultimately turned to in order to get it made. It was adapted for the screen by genre specialist Nigel Kneale who wrote the scripts for the three 'Quatermass' movies for Hammer. Despite the names involved it's a film which doesn't seem to have connected with audiences at the time and was unsuccessful at the box office. Nowadays, it seems to have a bit of a mixed reputation, with some finding it tame and poorly executed, while others liking its more atypical attributes. I've seen it twice now and have moved from being someone in the former category into one in the latter. At first I did find it underwhelming but I am glad I gave it a second chance as a further viewing made me realise that this one has an interesting ambiance and overall tone which I found to be nicely different from what Hammer normally went with.
Being a story about witchcraft, it could be categorised alongside two other Hammer productions in The Devil Rides Out (1968) and To the Devil a Daughter (1976) but it has more in common with the non-Hammer British cult classic The Wicker Man (1973) on account of its sunny countryside setting populated with slightly oddball locals and occult sacrifice hovering in the background. I'm not going to pretend that this one is close to being as good as that stellar movie though, but it should be acknowledged that it was playing around with some similar ideas seven years before it. Whatever the case, this still has some good things about it. For one thing, I loved the tranquil setting, which was a nicely unusual location for a coven of witches to inhabit. It made for a change to play the events out in the sunny afternoon, as opposed to the more expected dead of night. The witch idea itself was one with a lot of merit too, with little clues and weird undercurrents being used to sign-post the occult as opposed to the less subtle approach that Hammer usually used. It could probably be said that the denouncement could have been better executed perhaps and there maybe could have been a little more suspense overall but I thought that on the whole this one's understated approach and sun-kissed English countryside setting had me intrigued and involved. Definitely one of the more unusual Hammer productions out there and that is not exactly a bad thing.
The Witches is quite an unusual film from the British production company Hammer. While it did fall under their typical horror bracket, it was considerably more subtle in approach and starred an actress who had been on the Hollywood A-list, even winning an Oscar, namely Joan Fontaine. In fact, she owned the film rights to the novel 'The Devil's Own' by Peter Curtis on which this film was based and it was Hammer who she ultimately turned to in order to get it made. It was adapted for the screen by genre specialist Nigel Kneale who wrote the scripts for the three 'Quatermass' movies for Hammer. Despite the names involved it's a film which doesn't seem to have connected with audiences at the time and was unsuccessful at the box office. Nowadays, it seems to have a bit of a mixed reputation, with some finding it tame and poorly executed, while others liking its more atypical attributes. I've seen it twice now and have moved from being someone in the former category into one in the latter. At first I did find it underwhelming but I am glad I gave it a second chance as a further viewing made me realise that this one has an interesting ambiance and overall tone which I found to be nicely different from what Hammer normally went with.
Being a story about witchcraft, it could be categorised alongside two other Hammer productions in The Devil Rides Out (1968) and To the Devil a Daughter (1976) but it has more in common with the non-Hammer British cult classic The Wicker Man (1973) on account of its sunny countryside setting populated with slightly oddball locals and occult sacrifice hovering in the background. I'm not going to pretend that this one is close to being as good as that stellar movie though, but it should be acknowledged that it was playing around with some similar ideas seven years before it. Whatever the case, this still has some good things about it. For one thing, I loved the tranquil setting, which was a nicely unusual location for a coven of witches to inhabit. It made for a change to play the events out in the sunny afternoon, as opposed to the more expected dead of night. The witch idea itself was one with a lot of merit too, with little clues and weird undercurrents being used to sign-post the occult as opposed to the less subtle approach that Hammer usually used. It could probably be said that the denouncement could have been better executed perhaps and there maybe could have been a little more suspense overall but I thought that on the whole this one's understated approach and sun-kissed English countryside setting had me intrigued and involved. Definitely one of the more unusual Hammer productions out there and that is not exactly a bad thing.