Digital: Children turn to mice in 1990s Roald Dahl flick The Witches

EDITOR’S NOTE: This post was part of our It’s Mice That takeover on April Fools’ Day 2014. You can read our explanation post here or peruse the mice archive here.

I have to say I wasn’t quite prepared for the trip down memory lane to the unbridled terror of 1990 children’s horror film The Witches. Aside from that bit with that girl who gets kidnapped in that horrible alleyway and ends up in the painting (UGH!) I somehow didn’t really find this film that scary back in the day. You know who did? The author Roald Dahl, who said it was “utterly appalling.” Oopsie! Sorry, Roald.

A few minutes spent on YouTube with some clips of this film taught me two things: the first that movies for kids these days are rubbish compared to the terrifying, Angelica Houston-starring classics made back then in the good old days, and two, the special effects in the 90s weren’t actually as bad as everyone makes out. In The Witches the filmmakers managed to seamlessly capture the moment the star of the film turns into a mouse in front of our very eyes, and then shoot him and his chubby mouse friend Bruno running around the dark underbelly of the hotel at floor-level for the rest of the film. Anyone who says that CGI beats the technology in the 80s and 90s is a liar, I’d go for these lo-fi special effects any day of the week.