The Witches

Dir. Nicolas Roeg. 1990, 91 mins. 35mm. With Anjelica Huston, Mai Zetterling, Rowan Atkinson, Jasen Fisher. A singular collaboration between vanguard filmmaker Roeg (The Man Who Fell to Earth) and visionary artist Jim Henson, The Witches adapts one of Roald Dahl’s most frightful books for children with phantasmagoric gusto. After a terrible accident makes him an orphan, young Luke (Fisher) moves to England with his grandmother (Zetterling). At a seaside hotel where grandmother can convalesce after an illness, Luke stumbles across a convention for the “Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children,” which he soon discovers is a devious cover for witches who are plotting to rid the world of children. Featuring extraordinary makeup artistry and puppetry by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, as well as an instantly iconic performance by Huston as The Grand High Witch, for which, along with The Grifters, she was named Best Actress of 1991 by the National Society of Film Critics, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and the Boston Society of Film Critics.

Tickets: $15 / $11 senior and students / $9 youth (ages 3–17) / free for MoMI members at the Senior/Student level and above. Order tickets. Please pick up tickets at the Museum’s admissions desk upon arrival. All seating is general admission. Review safety protocols before your visit.