You won't be disappointed!

n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Gwen Mayfield is a schoolteacher who has a nasty experience involving witchdoctors in Africa so returns to teaching in England at a small village . Quickly being accepted in to the close knit community she starts having suspicions that things aren't what they seem . Is she being paranoid or is there more to this village than meets the eye ? I remember seeing this many years ago late one night on channel 4 but fell asleep . As I said it was late one night and this might have had everything to do with it rather the film's content itself . The screenplay was adapted by Nigel Kneale from a novel by Norah Lofts and if Kneale adapted someone's grocery list I'd still find it compelling . In some ways THE WITCHES resembles the writer's one off teleplay from 1975 MURRAIN about a vet finding the local's persecuting an old spinster who they believe to be a witch . Everything is delivered in a slow deliberate manner which is in no way a criticism because the slow pace allows time for the performances to breath and for the audience to second guess the direction the story might be heading in . This is a very nice combination of Gothic drama meets the cinema of Alfred Hitchcock and doesn't need a lot of incidence in order to hold the attention . There is a slight problem in that if you stop to think about the villagers would have detailed knowledge about Gwen's bad experience in Africa so that's a bit of a plot hole but apart from that everything else is well paced and involving you're more than willing to overlook any flaws There is a problem and a seriously major one and that is the story's climax in the last ten minutes which has to seen to be believed and is so bad you'll leave the film thinking the other 90 per cent was just as bad which it certainly wasn't . Nigel Kneale suggests that he thinks the whole idea of witches and black magic is nonsense and tries to convey this with the witches coven at the end but director Cyril Frankel seems to have taken this a bit too literally and the witches dancing about give the impression that they're doing a parody of an acid house party from 1988 with the suggestion that here's also a bit of sex going on. It's absolutely hilarious and laugh out loud funny when one instinctively feels it should have been disturbing and grotesque and there's a serious clash between the writer's vision of the story and that of the director which tends to sink the entire film as a production

Moving back to a small English village, a teacher learns her position in the school places her in jeopardy of the satanic cult of witches in the area looking to sacrifice one of the students to complete a pagan rite and tries to stop it before it's too late.This was quite an enjoyable and exceptionally fun old-school witchcraft horror that had a lot of fun about it. The slow-building mystery about the tribe slowly taking over the village is quite exceptional and just completely overwhelms with it's ability to utilize the Gothic atmosphere of the surroundings, with it's splendid outdoor landscapes, closed-off township and just off-kilter vibe of the residents who are harboring a grave secret in grandest Gothic tradition and making for a generally creepy time as it goes about it's paces. Though not really doing a whole lot in terms of action, the continuous references to the past troubles with the voodoo cult are just plain eerie and handled well, from the doll and the witch doctor in full costume appearing out of nowhere and the connection to the town as the small things begin piling up one-by-one where it becomes obvious that the whole town is witches. That culminates in the fun, chaotic finale of the interrupted ceremony that includes lavish decorations, a splendid Gothic dungeon and even a sacrifice that nearly comes through to fruition. All in all, there's a lot to like with this and it's inclusion of witchcraft powers and voodoo sorcery, yet this does tend to take a while to get going and really explore it's story. While it's never boring, a lot of the film is devoted to one of two scenes playing out: her freaking out by something that reminds her of the past battle or witnessing something horrific that no in town believes in since there's no evidence of what she saw, and those tend to repeat themselves throughout until it's all put together and really resolves everything, meaning this has quite a lot of repetition amongst the lack of action which can get old quite quickly. Nonetheless, this has a lot of good qualities to override that.Today's Rating/PG-13: Violence.

Joan Fontaine, in her last theatrical film, stars as a teacher who has been on a sabbatical because on her previous job, she was traumatized by natives in some remote village who were practicing voodoo and witchcraft. To move forward and away from such things, she takes a new post working for Kay Walsh and her minister-brother. But he's no longer a man of the cloth. That's very mysterious. In fact, just when Joan was trying to not find trouble, it finds her. A young boy and girl in love are told to stay away from each other and its dramatic turn leads to turmoil for Joan. What started out as a somewhat interesting and promising little film seems to go awry with out-of-control antics. On the whole, I'm not much of a horror buff, but I do like the early black-and-white ones of the genre, like The Haunting, etc., where less is more. (In fact, I was only watching this because it was a Joan Fontaine film.) And, while it would have stayed on my to-watch list until I watched it, I still feel like it was essentially a waste of time, considering the disappointing and silly resolution. If you're a Joan Fontaine fan, this is one film that doesn't fit in with her usual roster of good films and could definitely be missed. Period.

When listing all the numerous horror/thriller successes that the legendary British Hammer studios brought forward, "The Witches" is a title that rarely ever – in fact NEVER – gets mentioned. It's also fairly easy to figure out why in this case, and it's not just because the film wasn't directed by one of the studio's most prominent directors (Terence Fisher, Val Guest, Freddie Francis…) and/or because it wasn't starring any of the regular genre icons (Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Michael Gough…). "The Witches" is, simply put, a vastly inferior product and hardly even worthy of the Hammer quality label. The story, although nearly bursting with great potential and endless possibilities, is incoherent and dull. There nearly isn't enough action or suspense, the stupendous filming locations and scenery are sadly underused and the climax – which finally comes after an incredibly tedious middle section – is preposterous, dumb and makes you regret all the precious time you wasted until then. You know you're in trouble when the most exciting and horrific sequence of the entire movie deals with the lead actress being overrun by horde of sheep! The lovely and charismatic Joan Fontaine stars as Mrs. Mayfield; a schoolteacher who's still somewhat mentally unbalanced following a trauma she experienced whilst residing in a primitive African tribe. She's more than happy to accept a peaceful teaching job in the British countryside, but nightmares ensue when it gradually appears that nearly the entire community takes part in witchcraft rites. "The Witches" is insufferably talkative and predictable throughout. The only aspect that I didn't see coming was how ridiculous the climax sequences would be… The spastic dancing and imbecilic facial expressions of the people in the crowd make it one of the most pitiable endings I've ever seen. I feel sorry for Joan Fontaine, even more so because – reportedly – she personally approached Hammer Studios in order to turn the novel into a movie.