twitches movie review for parents

[Movie Review] TWITCHES

• November 22, 2019 November 22, 2019
• Bryawna Holmes-Ludwig

The Disney Channel original film TWITCHES made its TV debut in 2005. For me, this was one of the most iconic films of the generation. The whole Parent Trap idea of twins getting separated at birth, finding each other, and then to make it even more exciting by finding out they’re witches from another world, was something that was totally surreal. I can still remember waiting in anticipation every October for it to be broadcast. I mean, what 5-10-year-old doesn’t love witches during October? But the thing is, the last time I sat down and watched TWITCHES , I was somewhere around 9 or 10 years old. It’s been nearly a decade since then, so I decided that because of the release of Disney+, it was high time that I gave it another watch to see just how much it lived up to the enormous expectations that my childhood memories and nostalgia had set for it.

After having watched the movie with fresh eyes, I can whole-heartedly say that it is still one of the best Disney Channel original movies to come out of the early-mid 2000s. The storyline of finding out so many surprising things about yourself at once can seem very overwhelming, but Alex Fielding ( Tia Mowry ) and Camryn Barnes ( Tamera Mowry ) handled everything with such excitement, skepticism, and grace that it’s astounding they had no idea what their past was before they met each other on their 21st birthdays. Of course, they both had their own reactions to the news (Camryn being overjoyed, while Alex was skeptical) which is completely understandable. I also thoroughly loved the references to how much they were asking of one another when they had just met less than 12 hours before the climax of the story took place. When I watched the movie as a kid, I didn’t understand why the twitches wouldn’t do anything to protect their home dimension of Coventry, but now that I’ve watched the film as an adult, it’s easy to understand why they wouldn’t want to push the original lives that they’ve had for the last 21 years off to the side s though it meant little to them.

The appreciation that both Alex and Camryn have for their lives and who means the most to them throughout the film is also something that I loved. Neither of them wanted to abandon their lives as soon as they discovered this new one because both of their lives were good, and that’s not something you always see. Many people who find out they have powers or they have a whole second life choose to abandon their old one for the change in pace, and I enjoyed the fact that neither Alex nor Camryn wanted to drop everything for the sake of Coventry. The only problem that I found with the plot that I did not have when I was a child watching the film is that it was very easy to tell who the antagonist of the film was going to be just at first glance, but I will allow that my age group is not the target audience. I never had a problem with it when I was younger because I didn’t look for any defining qualities pointing to a person’s character, which left me baffled when the villain was revealed just as intended.

Moving away from my newfound appreciation for the story and plot, I never noticed just how amazingly beautiful the set design for TWITCHES is. The movie came out in 2005, but the sets for Coventry are so intricate and beautiful. Between the stone walls, statues, and skyline created to bring Coventry to life, it’s hard not to think that the designers did an amazing job. The costuming was beautiful and whimsical for the characters who came from the Coventry like Ileana (Jennifer Robertson), Karsh (Pat Kelly), and Miranda (Kristen Wilson). It was also very fitting for Alex and Camryn who had very different ideas of what fashion meant.

To be quite honest, I didn’t know much of what to expect. I couldn’t remember much of the film before watching it because of how long it had been, but I am thrilled to see that my expectations were not unmet. The story, costuming, set design, and characters were all to die for and I’m ecstatic to see that almost none of my feelings for it have changed with age. It is still the same iconic Disney Channel original film that helped shape a generation of television that it was in the 2000s, and I hope that never changes. TWITCHES is now available to stream on Disney+.

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Tia Mowry (Alex Fielding) Tamera Mowry-Housley (Camryn Barnes) Kristen Wilson (Miranda) Patrick Fabian (Thantos) Jennifer Robertson (Illeana) Pat Kelly (Karsh) Jessica Greco (Lucinda) Jackie Rosenbaum (Beth Fish) Arnold Pinnock (David Barnes) Karen Holness (Emily Barnes)

Stuart Gillard

Twin witches who were separated at birth and were adopted by two different families meet on their 21st birthday and must use their powers to save the world in which they were born, where their birth mother still lives.

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• Disney Channel Original Movies
• Live-action films
• Disney films
• Halloween films
• Films based on books
• Birthday productions
• View history
• 2 Deleted Scene
• 4.1 Casting
• 4.2 Filming
• 7 External links

Magical twin sisters are separated at birth by their protectors, Karsh and Ileana, when the Darkness attacks their homeland of Coventry and kills the twins' father through a war that is going on. They survived because their father, Aron, gave all of his magic to the twins and whenever they are together they are safe; their combined power is enough to fend off the Darkness. For their protection, Karsh and Ileana flee Coventry and hide the twins safely in a non-magical dimension (Earth). Camryn (Apolla) grows up in an upper-class family and becomes a social butterfly. She wears a sun amulet, and always awakes with the sunrise. She likes to draw, and unknowingly draws extremely realistic pictures of Coventry and her birth mother, Miranda. Alex (Artemis) grew up in a middle-class home with a single mother (who died recently). She wears a moon amulet and is always up until the moon sets. She is a bookworm and is always writing stories about Coventry and their mother, unaware they are true.

On her 21st birthday, Halloween, Camryn and her friend, Beth, go shopping, while Alex goes looking for a job. At a fashion store, the two sisters meet for the first time. Alex goes running from the store, and Camryn goes after her. When she takes her hand in hers, their magic is released. They bond as sisters, trying to understand what's happened to them, and get to know about each others' lifestyles. This is when they meet Karsh and Ileana, who tell the story of Coventry, which Alex has been writing in her journal, thinking it was only a story she created. Alex doesn't want to take any part in restoring Coventry's light, and leaves with Camryn. Camryn manages to convince Alex to stay and the two bond and manage to cast a few spells (most of which cause something bad to happen to Karsh). They come up with the name Twitches, a fusion of the words twin and witches.

While at Alex's apartment, the Darkness arrives suddenly and chases them throughout the home. The sisters use their magic and barely escape. Camryn is now freaked out, and doesn't want to have any part of their destiny. She leaves for her birthday party on Earth. Alex feels as though she was abandoned, and goes to Coventry on her own. She meets Miranda, her mother, and Thantos, their uncle and stepfather.

While at Camryn's party, the Darkness once again attacks. She realizes who the Darkness is (Thantos), and goes to her sister and mother, after Karsh and Ileana were swallowed by Thantos. She makes it there just as Thantos arrives. Then it is revealed that Thantos is really the Darkness and swallows Miranda. He killed the girls' father, his own brother. Alex and Camryn combine their magic of light and love to destroy Thantos. They restore Coventry's light, and return to Camryn's home, along with Miranda, Karsh, and Illeana to have cake. The movie ends with the sisters cheering, "Go Twitches, go Twitches, it's our birthday, it's our birthday!"

Notes: It is revealed that Alex's real name is Artemis and Camryn's real name is Apolla. It is likely that they were named after the Greek Olympian Twins Apollo and Artemis, but on the contrary Apollo is a boy. Another allusion to the Olympian Twins is that Artemis is the goddess of the Moon while Alex (Artemis) wears a moon amulet and Apollo is the god of the sun while Camryn (Apolla) wears a sun amulet. Thantos is also derived from Thanatos, the Greek 'grim reaper'.

Deleted Scene [ ]

Alex, Camryn, and Miranda take a walk after the darkness has vanished, then Camryn just remembered that both of them have to leave for Camryn's Birthday party. Miranda opened a doorway (portal) back to Earth, but the portal was not opening, so they tried with their magic, but it didn't work and then Alex and Camryn realized that Miranda's Amulet was gone. Disappointed, she exclaimed "And so the real work begins".

• Tia stood-in for her sister Tamera when she was unavailable for a few scenes.
• Tamera Mowry as Camryn Elizabeth Barnes / Apolla DuBaer - one of the DuBaer twins. She wears the sun amulet and draws pictures of Coventry and the darkness when the sun rises. She has the Gift of Vision and her guardian is Illeana WarBurton.
• Kristen Wilson as Miranda DuBaer - Queen of Coventry and mother of Alex/Artemis and Camryn/Apolla.
• Patrick Fabian as Thantos DuBaer - The Darkness, main antagonist
• Jennifer Robertson as Illeana WarBurton - One of the twins protectors
• Pat Kelly as Karsh WarBurton - One of the twins protectors
• Jessica Greco as Lucinda Carmelson - Alex/Artemis's friend
• Jackie Rosenbaum as Beth Fish - Camryn/Apolla's friend
• Arnold Pinnock as David Barnes - Camryn/Apolla's adoptive father
• Karen Holness as Emily Barnes - Camryn/Apolla's adoptive mother
• Jessica Feliz as Nicole Carmelson
• David Ingram as Aaron DuBaer - King of Coventry and the twin's late father
• Lisa Ng as Partygoer #1
• Morgane Slemp as Partygoer #2
• Anna Hardwick as Talking Statue / Mime Artist

Production [ ]

Casting [ ].

The filmmakers wanted to cast twin actors for the twin witches. They found Tia and Tamara Mowry. Originally, Tia was supposed to play Camryn and Tamara was supposed to play Alex, but the two wanted their roles to be switched.

Filming [ ]

For the first few days of filming, the cast and crew had a hard time telling Tia and Tamera apart. Green screens, special effects and wind machines were used to simulate the magic tricks used throughout the movie. Special effects were used to create the magic tricks performed through the movie. Green screens had multiple uses when filming. They were used to simulate the transitions between Earth and Coventry, the moon and the sun on the same horizon in Coventry, and (with the inclusion of a wind machine) the Darkness' presence.

A sequel, Twitches Too , premiered on October 12, 2007 in the US, November 2, 2007 in the UK, and October 26, 2007 in Canada.

• Both star Tia and Tamera Mowry .
• The twins were separated at birth.
• Both met while at the mall.
• Tia Mowry's character comes from a woking class background, while Tamera Mowry's character comes from an middle class one.
• Tia Mowry's character adopted by a single mother, while Tamera was adopted by parents.
• Tamera Mowry's character was apprehensive about getting to know her biological parent, while Tia was more accepting.
• Kristen Wilson, who played mother Camryn and Alex's mother, was only 9 years older than them in real life.

External links [ ]

• Twitches at the Disney Channel website
• Twitches DVD site
• 1 Inside Out 2
• 2 Nostalgia

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Twitches Reviews

There's sort of... cheesy TV level magic but it worked.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | May 10, 2019

Twitches had the perfect mix of what I love: magic, drama, and the return of 90's teen stars, Tia and Tamera Mowry.

Full Review | Sep 10, 2016

Twin Sister Sisters' magic made for tweens.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 2, 2011

...though the Mowry sisters are personable enough, they simply cannot act...

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | Nov 4, 2006

For the Disney Princess crowd that's moving into their teenage years, Twitches should work. It's not bad, per se. But it is just another Disney Channel Original Movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Oct 17, 2006

Twitches (2005)

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The Twitches Movie Collection contains movies featuring twin actresses playing twins who were separated at birth and upon finding each other discover that they are witches with magical powers.

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Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, 'bewitched' twitches and twinkles.

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One of the many areas in which I am spectacularly ill-informed is prime-time television. You would be amazed at the numbers of sitcoms I have never seen, not even once. When you see 500 movies a year you don't have a lot of left over yearning for watching television. In the evenings, you involve yourself in more human pursuits. On TV you watch the news, talk shows or old movies. You don't watch sports unless your team is in the finals. You can sense I am edging up to the admission that I have never seen a single episode of "Bewitched." I knew it existed, however, because of my reading.

That makes me well-prepared to review the new movie "Bewitched," since I have nothing to compare it with and have to take it on its own terms. It is tolerably entertaining. Many of its parts work, although not together. Will Ferrell and Nicole Kidman are funny and likable, but they're in a plot that doesn't allow them to aim for the same ending with the same reason. It's one of those movies where you smile and laugh and are reasonably entertained, but you get no sense of a mighty enterprise sweeping you along with its comedic force. There is not a movie here. Just scenes in search of one.

The joke is this: Will Ferrell plays Jack Wyatt, a movie star whose career has hit bottom. Sales of his last DVD: zero. In desperation, he turns to television and finds himself considered for a starring role in a revival of "Bewitched." He will play the Darrin role. At least that's what everyone says. I assume Darrin was a character on the original show. I know (from my reading) that the show's interest centered on Samantha, who was played by Elizabeth Montgomery. I know from the movie that Samantha had a way of twitching her nose that was very special, and that they can't find an actress with twitchability until Jack spots Isabel Bigelow (Nicole Kidman) in Book Soup on Sunset.

He insists on using her in the role because (a) he wants a complete unknown, so he'll get all the attention, (b) the twitch, and (c) because already he is falling in love with her. What he doesn't realize, oh, delicious irony, is that Isabel is in fact a real witch. She has however just decided to move to the Valley, get a house with a VW bug in the garage, live a normal life, and find a guy who loves her for herself and not because she put a hex on him. Her father ( Michael Caine ) warns her that this dream is not possible, and indeed she has a lot of trouble giving up witchcraft. It's so tempting to charge your purchases on a tarot card.

The movie has been directed by Nora Ephron (" Sleepless in Seattle ," " You've Got Mail "), and written by her with her sister, Delia. They have a lot of cute scenes. I like the way they make Jack Wyatt an egotistical monster who wants three trailers, star billing and cake every Wednesday. He's hysterically in love with himself. His ego is of course no match for Samantha, who can make him act in Spanish if she wants to. Occasionally when things go wrong, she even rewinds the arrow of time, although even after a rewind, it's a funny thing; something magical happens, anyway.

The movie has fun with Ferrell on the star trip, and fun with Kidman's love-hate relationship with magic. It has a lot of good supporting work, including Jason Schwartzman as Jack's desperate agent, and Shirley MacLaine as Samantha's mother (her theory on actors: "Sometimes deep down there is no deep down"). If you watch "The Daily Show" you'll enjoy cameos by Stephen Colbert and Steve Carell . It might have been a good idea to bring in Samantha Bee, too, and have her interview Jack Wyatt ("You're staring at my boobs!').

Will Ferrell has become a major star in almost no time at all. One moment he was a "Saturday Night Live" veteran who had played backup in a lot of movies, and the next moment he had made " Old School " and " Elf " and "Anchorman" and " Melinda and Melinda " and had "The Producers" on the way, and he was big time. One reason for that is, you like the guy. He has a brawny, take-no-prisoners style of comedy that suggests he's having a lot of fun. Nicole Kidman, on the other hand, is an actor with more notes in her repertory (maybe Ferrell could have played a role in " The Hours ," but that remains to be seen). Here she is fetching and somehow more relaxed than usual as Samantha, and makes witchcraft seem like a bad habit rather than a cosmic force.

But what are they doing in the same movie? You have two immovable objects or two irresistible forces. Both characters are complete, right off the shelf. There's no room for them to move. Yes, Jack becomes a nicer guy after he falls in love, and yes, Samantha realizes that magic is sometimes just not fair. But they are separate at the beginning and essentially still self-contained at the end, and the movie never works them both into the same narrative logic. Still, that's a great moment when Jack shouts: "Guys! Make me 200 cappuccinos! Bring me the best one!"

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Bewitched (2005)

Rated PG-13 for some language including sex and drug references, partial nudity

102 minutes

Nicole Kidman as Isabel Bigelow

Will Ferrell as Jack Wyatt

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The Witches | 2020 | PG | – 1.5.3

The Witches SEX/NUDITY 1

The witches violence/gore 5, the witches language 3, the witches substance use, the witches discussion topics, the witches message.

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The Witches Parent Guide

The digitally enhanced witches are too frightening for the kids who are young enough to enjoy the story..

HBO Max: In this retelling of Roald Dahl's classic children's novel, a young boy falls afoul of a coven of witches who turn children into mice.

Release date October 23, 2020

Run Time: 106 minutes

Get Content Details

The guide to our grades, parent movie review by donna gustafson.

Never take candy from a stranger! And if you were ever tempted to disobey that cautionary advice, the movie Witches is sure to scare you into compliance.

After the death of his parents in a car accident (we see a lifeless limb in the vehicle), the surviving child (played by Jahzir Bruno) goes to live with his maternal grandmother (Octavia Spencer) in Alabama. Using a mix of good humor, home cooking and sage counsel, the kindly woman draws her grandson out of his depression and back into everyday life.

All the same, Grandma thinks it would be best to get her grandchild out of harm’s way, so she takes the boy to a place she is sure they will never be found. Unfortunately, the grand hotel of her choice turns out to be the venue where a coven convention is taking place, under the guise of a charitable organization. Presiding over the gathering is the Grand High Witch herself (Anne Hathaway).

It is only a matter of time before the paths of the predator and the prey will cross. Curiously enough, mice and rats, exterminators and even a cat, will play a big part in this hunt.

Based on Roald Dahl’s 1983 book The Witches , this film adaptation spares no expense in bringing this tale to life - and that proves to be one of the production’s biggest problems. With a predictable plot, one-dimensional characters and cliché stereotypes (including a greedy fat kid played by Codie-Lei Eastick), the screenplay is best suited for the youngsters the novel originally attracted. However, the digitally-enhanced portrayal of the witches, who turn from beautiful women into bald, clawed and child-murdering hags, makes this execution too terrifying for that same audience.

Perhaps the only viewers who will be pleased with this movie will be older Dahl fans who already have a feel for the dark humor and malevolent themes that creep into his work (examples of which can be seen in other movies made from his novels like: Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory , Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , James and the Giant Peach , Matilda and Fantastic Mr. Fox ).

Still, despite the long-resumés of the cast and director, all parents looking for Halloween entertainment should proceed with just as much caution as accepting candy from a stranger.

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Donna Gustafson

Watch the trailer for the witches.

The Witches Rating & Content Info

Why is The Witches rated PG? The Witches is rated PG by the MPAA for scary images/mmnents, language, and thematic elements

Violence: The dangers of witches are explained, including their desire to kill children. Characters experience fear and are frequently in peril. The aftermath of a car accident shows the limb of a deceased parent. A suspicious character with a mesmerizing pet snake tries to talk a child into taking candy. Characters who unwittingly eat magic potions are turned into animals – one is shown becoming a chicken, others become mice and rats. These transformations are depicted with seizer-like behavior, smoke coming out of nose and ears, and explosions that send the victim flying. Beautiful women turn into ugly witches with bald heads, skin sores, claw hands and toeless feet. Their faces are also disfigured, sporting large nostrils and gapping mouths with fang. A character’s arms stretch out after her prey in an unnatural, contorted way. A character’s hands get injured and black blood is shown. Characters scream when confronted by rodents, as well as chased them with brooms and hammers, set rat traps and leave them to be caught by predators. A brawl breaks out and people are shoved, pushed and hit (one in the groin), and property damage occurs. Characters experience grief because of the loss and abandonment of loved ones. Death is discussed. A child is teased, bullied and faces the displeasure of parents. A character is struck by magical lightening and disintegrates. Sexual Content: Women are seen in some revealing clothing. A woman removes a flask she has been hiding in her cleavage. A metal bra is shown. A man holds his groin after being hit. A child is seen in the bathtub – no private body parts are shown. Profanity: Infrequent use of mild profanity, terms of deity and name-calling. Alcohol / Drug Use: Characters make home health remedies (possibly voodoo magic) and diabolical poisons. Characters eat magical potions, hidden in food, that turn them into animals. Alcohol is infrequently consumed at home and at a hotel.

Page last updated February 5, 2021

The Witches Parents' Guide

What stereotypical cinematic tactics are used to create a sense of fear and suspense? Do they still work even though they are so often employed in the horror genre?

Why is it ironic that the witches belong to a charity called The Prevention for Cruelty to Children? What other dark humor is used? How does the script enhance common fears to make them scarier? What depictions are just outright terrifying?

When grandma talks to her grandson about the loss of his parents, she says, “I feel bad for you, but not sorry for you.” What do you think she means? What sorrows are Grandma also facing? How does she try to make sense of loss and grief? Why does she talk about learning from hard experiences? How does she feel about death?

Roald Dahl originally set his story in England. Why do you think the screenplay writers moved the setting to the American South? Does that context change anything about the themes of the story?

Loved this movie? Try these books…

This film is based on Roald Dahl’s book by the same name, The Witches.

A young girl named Mup tries to rescue her father from the witches who serve their evil queen. Follow her adventures in Celine Kiernan’s The Wild Magic trilogy, which begins with Begone the Raggedy Witches.

For a positive look at witches and wizards in training, you can read the Harry Potter series by J K Rowling. Laurie Calkhoven takes a look at the female characters in Calling All Witches! The Girls Who Left Their Mark on the Wizarding World.

Rescued by a witch, a young baby is accidentally fed moonlight instead of starlight. This makes her powerfully magical and gives her the ability to help her people. You can read her story in Kelly Barnhill’s Newbery Medal-winning book, The Girl Who Drank the Moon.

The most recent home video release of The Witches movie is October 24, 2020. Here are some details…

Related home video titles:.

Other Roald Dahl books adapted to the big screen include: Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory , Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , James and the Giant Peach , Matilda and Fantastic Mr. Fox .

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The Witches

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• Voices of Chris Rock as Older Hero Mouse; Jahzir Bruno as Hero Boy; Octavia Spencer as Grandma; Codie-Lei Eastick as Bruno Jenkins; Kristin Chenoweth as Daisy; Anne Hathaway as Grand High Witch; Stanley Tucci as Mr. Stringer; Morgana Robinson as Mrs. Jenkins; Charles Edwards as Mr. Jenkins; Josette Simon as Zelda; Orla O’Rouke as Saoirse; Eurydice El-Etr as Samantha; Ana-Maria Maskell as Esmeralda; Eugenia Caruso as Consuella; Me’sha Bryan as Chambermaid; Philippe Spall as Chef; Simon Manyonda as Sous Chef

Home Release Date

• October 22, 2020
• Robert Zemeckis

Distributor

Movie review.

After a recently orphaned boy (whose name is never heard but who is credited as “Hero Boy”) encounters a witch, his grandmother takes him to a hotel far away from home to hide him away and protect him from her.

As it turns out, Grandma’s had some experience with witches before. And there are three things you should know about them: they’re real ; they’re here ; and they hate children!

But there’s another big problem: The hotel Grandma chooses also happens to be the location where a coven of witches is holding its annual conference in order to receive orders from their leader, the Grand High Witch. She’s hatched a plan to turn all the children of the world into mice, then to squash them.

Hero overhears their plot, but before he can get help, the witches catch him and transform him into a mouse using a potion. He manages to escape—along with two other children-turned-mice, Bruno and Daisy—and now, it’s up to them to stop the witches from destroying all the children of the world.

Positive Elements

After Hero’s parents die early on in the story, he’s sad and a bit depressed. He doesn’t eat, doesn’t talk and doesn’t play. However, slowly but surely, Grandma finds ways to lift his spirits. She comforts him with hugs, food, dancing and a gentle reminder that even though she feels bad that he has to go through something so difficult at such a young age, it’s actually good for him since everyone has to learn at some point that life isn’t always fair.

When Hero becomes a mouse, he realizes that he doesn’t need to sweat the little things anymore (since there are obviously bigger concerns out there); he then becomes more brave, facing off against the witches. He decides to embrace his new life as a mouse, happy because he now has friends and family who love him no matter what.

Bruno worries that his parents will not like him as a mouse since they don’t really seem to like him as a human; Daisy wonders what will happen to her since she is an orphan. However, Grandma offers to take care of both of them and also points out that people should love you for who you are.

A man gives Grandma and Hero a ride from the bus station to Grandma’s house and helps them with their bags. A woman emphasizes “safety first.” When Hero realizes that his grandmother is ill, he makes an effort to be quiet so that she can sleep in, and he orders her breakfast.

Spiritual Elements

Grandma explains to Hero that witches aren’t human but rather demons disguised as women. (At one point, the witches as described as being “succubine,” i.e. having the trait of a succubus , a female demon.) They are bald and toeless and wear gloves to cover up the fact that they have claws instead of hands. They wear a lot of makeup to hide their demonic mouths (which, when fully opened, show off a row of fangs that extend all the way up to their ears). And they also have nostrils that move and flare up several inches past the normal width for a human when they sniff out children (which, notably, smell like dog excrement to them).

The Grand High Witch uses her powers to create a potion that turns people into mice and rats. (The transformation process causes their bodies to violently jerk, shoot into the air and become covered in purple boils before finally landing on the ground as rodents.)

She also levitates, moves objects without touching them, has super strength, shoots lightning from her hands (which reduces a fellow witch to ash) and extends her arms to great lengths. She bleeds black and is also the only witch that does have toes—one in the middle of each foot with a long, curved black nail.

Grandma uses a variety of herbs, elixirs and chants to heal people. She also burns incense, uses crystals to predict the future and believes in numerology (as was the architect of the hotel), and Hero suspects that she might be a voodoo priestess. However, Grandma also believes in God. In addition to attending church on Sundays, she tells Hero that God has a plan for every person and that only He knows when someone’s time on Earth is done.

Though people get turned into mice, they still retain the power of human speech. Several witches offer candy to children that’s laced with potions to turn them into animals. (One girl is transformed into a chicken, and Grandma explains that the chicken laid giant green eggs for the rest of her life.)

The Grand High Witch stays in room 666 of the hotel. Witches put a curse on Grandma to make her cough whenever one of them is nearby. A witch uses her powers to control a snake and disappear into thin air. Another witch magically turns one bar of chocolate into six. A mirror reveals a witch’s decrepit, demon-like face.

Grandma calls someone a “godsend” when they help her. Song lyrics say, “Lord have mercy.” One woman says, “Oh my Lord in heaven” and “Thank the Lord.”

Sexual Content

The Grand High Witch often wears tight and revealing clothing. She also hides potions in a metal brassiere (pulling down her dress to reveal the undergarment in one scene).

Violent Content

Hero’s rescued from an overturned car by emergency responders. He screams for his parents, and we learn that unlike Hero, they weren’t wearing their seatbelts when the car crashed, and both perished.

The Grand High Witch uses her strength to throw a podium across a room, flip over a stage and smash a bed frame. She kills another witch with her powers, eats a live maggot and threatens to rip a woman’s heart out.

After several people are turned into mice and rats, other humans and witches attempt to kill them using their feet, brooms, purses a mallet and a butcher’s knife. One rat bites a man’s groin. A mouse bites a witch’s finger. The Grand High Witch’s fingers are cut up when she accidentally puts them into a fan, and her toes get caught in a mouse trap. Bruno hurts his tail when it gets caught in a mouse trap.

A witch offers a piece of taffy imprinted with a skull and crossbones (indicating that it is lethal) to a child. Hero says that Grandma wouldn’t hesitate to give him a spanking if he deserved it (though he also notes that she would also give him a hug if he needed it). We see a picture of cartoon rat dead in a mouse trap. A member of the International Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children grabs her child roughly by his ear.

Crude or Profane Language

We hear the word “damnable” once. Some people also utter “curses,” instead of an actual profanity. God’s name is misused seven times. We hear the terms “crikey,” “stupid,” “fools,” “idiots,” “crap,” “jeez,” “shut up,” “patootie” and “varmints.”

Drug and Alcohol Content

A woman has a drink at a hotel bar.

Other Negative Elements

Bruno is called fat, stupid and greedy by the Grand High Witch. And although he says that he likes being “portly,” the movie pokes fun at this, and he later takes offense when Hero calls him “chubby.”

When Grandma and Hero check into their hotel, which primarily caters to rich, white people, the hotel staff (made up of primarily poor, black people) is shocked, since Grandma and Hero are also black.

Grandma says how dangerous it is for a child to take candy from a stranger. Hero imagines that he sees frightening imagines in some shadows, and even though Grandma comforts him, he is still scared. People lie, steal and manipulate. The Grand High Witch is repeatedly rude to the manager of the hotel. We learn that a girl ran away from an orphanage. Several witches have a nasty rash on their heads from the wigs they wear, and one pulls a maggot out of her rash.

If you’ve ever wondered how best to handle a “no-good, rotten, low-down, sneaky, sneaky witch,” then the answer is clearly to give them a taste of their own medicine. At least that’s how Hero and his friends handle it in this cinematic retelling of Roald Dahl’s novel, The Witches .

After realizing that there isn’t exactly a cure for being “mouse-afied,” Hero and his friends decide to transform the witches who cursed them into mice as well, thereby preventing them from harming any more children.

For an 8-year-old, that’s a lot to take on. Hero faces a lot of difficult circumstances in a very short time. He loses his parents, gets transformed into a mouse by witches and … well, actually, that’s about it. But when you consider how difficult it is for any child to become an orphan at such a young age, it seems a bit like overkill for that child to also become a mouse with a much, much shorter lifespan.

However, Grandma points out that God must have a reason for everything that happens in Hero’s life, so Hero chooses to make the most of it. Because now, in addition to a family and friends who love him, he also has a purpose: to save all the children of the world by wiping out the witches who seek to destroy them.

But despite those positive messages, we are still dealing directly with witches, witchcraft and specific terminology related to the occult. And this isn’t Oz, where there are good witches and bad witches. This is Alabama, where they’re all bad witches. Really bad, as in, demonic.

Then there’s Grandma’s syncretistic spirituality. At some points, she portrays as a Christian woman who believes in the goodness of God; other times, she’s also clearly involved in something like voodoo, which is obviously not in line with Christian truth.

The witches themselves can be pretty terrifying with their demonic appearances and tendencies. And things can get pretty violent in their penchant for exterminating all children like rodents— literally . And these elements could be a more than a little frightening for young or sensitive children.

Overall, the film’s main message focuses on overcoming whatever challenges life throws at you; and adults may well enjoy the acting talents of Oscar winners Octavia Spencer and Anne Hathaway. Still, The Witches ’ twisted blend of pagan spirituality and its creepy premise make this a movie many families may well avoid.

Emily Tsiao

Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.

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Chronicles a multi-faceted, 15-year span of pre-and post-Civil War expansion and settlement of the American west. Chronicles a multi-faceted, 15-year span of pre-and post-Civil War expansion and settlement of the American west. Chronicles a multi-faceted, 15-year span of pre-and post-Civil War expansion and settlement of the American west.

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Review: Stuffed with in-jokes for parents, 'The Garfield Movie' isn't a cat-astrophe

S ince 1978, cartoonist Jim Davis has explored the quotidian dramas of pet ownership via the daily travails of beleaguered Jon Arbuckle, his eager dog, Odie, and the titular tubby orange tabby, Garfield. If the comic strip (the most widely syndicated in the world) is the weekly sitcom version of their story, then “The Garfield Movie,” the latest effort to bring Garfield to the big screen, is the oversized action-adventure film, replete with references and comparisons to Tom Cruise.

Those Cruise-inspired Easter eggs are laid not necessarily for kids but for the adults who have accompanied them to the theater, such as when the score references “Mission: Impossible” while an ox named Otto, voiced by Ving Rhames (who plays Cruise’s techie Luther in the action franchise), lays out the plan for a heist. Later, a triumphant climax featuring airborne food-delivery drones offers the chance for a bit of the “Top Gun” theme while Garfield (voiced by Chris Pratt) brags that he does his own stunts , “just like Tom Cruise.”

The line is a bit of over-emphasis that this is the big, thrilling version of Garfield, not a “Jeanne Dielman” -style study of domestic life. In fact, after a quick framing device that shows us Garfield’s heartstring-tugging history as a starving stray kitten who encounters Jon at an Italian restaurant, the film speeds through a quick montage of our favorite Garfield tropes: He loves lasagna, hates Mondays, torments Jon and manipulates Odie.

We know him, we love him: Garfield’s unique characteristics have been printed on coffee mugs for years. Now, on to the high-stakes and highly contrived plot. Garfield and Odie are kidnapped by a couple of thuggish pups, Nolan ( Bowen Yang ) and Roland (Brett Goldstein), who are working for a Persian cat named Jinx (Hannah Waddingham). She wants them to collaborate with Garfield’s deadbeat dad, Vic (Samuel L. Jackson), on a milk heist as revenge for the time she did in the pound after a scheme she and Vic pulled.

The heist plot allows for the action, adventure and suspense to come into play, as well as the aforementioned Tom Cruise references, along with nods to film noir and early silent films (there are a lot of sequences set on trains). There’s even a “Rashomon”-like flashback as we see Garfield’s childhood abandonment from Vic’s perspective, changing the way we understand how Garfield found himself alone in that alley that night. The heist may make up the majority of the story, but it’s merely a means by which an estranged father and son can escape the emotional prison of masculinity and express their feelings to each other.

“The Garfield Movie,” directed by Mark Dindal and written by Paul A. Kaplan, Mark Torgove and David Reynolds, may sport a deep knowledge of film history to delight cinephile parents, but it is still a kiddie movie and comes with the same zany, harried energy one might expect from such a project. The aesthetic hews closer to the look of the comic strip than the CGI/live-action abomination of the two Garfield movies of the early aughts, which is on trend with other animated films that embrace an illustrated style, though this is less edgy than some recent examples (the “Spider-verse” movies, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” ).

Bill Murray voiced the rusty, rotund feline in “Garfield: The Movie” (2004) and “Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties” (2006) in his dry, laconic manner, and Pratt does a fine job taking over vocal duties. Harvey Guillén offers his voice for Odie’s noises and the rest of the voice cast (Nicholas Hoult as Jon, Cecily Strong as a Midwestern security guard named Marge) round out their world.

Though the film is formulaic and somewhat annoyingly energetic, it’s cute and irreverent enough, and manages to bridge the generation gap, offering up a kid-friendly flick that can keep adults somewhat entertained for the duration, proving that even after all these years, Garfield’s still got it.

Katie Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times .

Furiosa Parents Guide: Is It Safe for Kids to Watch? Age Rating Explained

By Subrat Mukharjee

Fans are buzzing with excitement over the release of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and are eagerly looking for Furiosa Parents Guide . While the film has received positive reviews from critics, its intense action sequences have sparked curiosity about its age rating. Consequently, many parents are wondering if Furiosa is safe for children.

Here’s everything you need to know about Furiosa Parents Guide and its age rating .

What is the Furiosa age rating?

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is rated R for its intense violence and grisly imagery.

Parents considering watching this film with their children should be aware of its mature content. On the other hand, viewers 17 and older can watch the movie without restrictions. However, those under 17 need to be accompanied by an adult.

As per the IMDb certification page , the film contains mature content. Basically, it includes violent sequences and graphic imagery. Thus, it’s essential for parents to accompany their children while watching it and not allow them to view it unsupervised.

Is Furiosa safe for kids to watch?

Furiosa has been rated R, meaning it’s not appropriate for children or individuals between the ages of 13 and 17.

Those seeking a Furiosa Parents Guide should consider its rating before scheduling any viewings with their children. In addition, young audience members aged 13 to 17 who wish to watch Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga in theatres must be accompanied by either their parents or an adult guardian.

The film contains several intense action sequences suitable for mature audiences. Additionally, it includes depictions of strong violence and graphic imagery, making it appropriate for viewers aged 17 and below with parental guidance.

Directed by George Miller, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga serves as a prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road and offers an in-depth backstory of Furiosa.

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Subrat is a passionate gamer who adores Hollywood films and series. In his spare time, he delves into the music of his beloved EDM artists, crafting distinctive blends spanning a multitude of electronic dance music genres. He has a deep affinity for the hip-hop community, diligently following its latest trends. His musical inspirations are largely drawn from renowned figures like The Chainsmokers, Skrillex, Travis Scott, Eminem, and Future.

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‘the substance’ review: an excellent demi moore helps sustain coralie fargeat’s stylish but redundant body horror.

In her second feature, co-starring Margaret Qualley and Dennis Quaid, the French filmmaker examines society's ghoulish obsession with youth and beauty.

By Lovia Gyarkye

Lovia Gyarkye

Arts & Culture Critic

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'santosh' review: two women form an unlikely alliance in a gripping indian police procedural, george lucas says ideas in the original "sort of got lost" in post-disney 'star wars' films, the substance.

In The Substance , a woman also takes fate into her own hands and combats underestimation, only this time she’s at war with herself, too. Fargeat combines sci-fi elements (as in her early short Reality+ ) with body horror and satire to show how women are trapped by the dual forces of sexism and ageism. Beauty and youth are the targets at the heart of this film, but the director also takes aim at Hollywood’s ghoulish machinations and the compulsive physical and psychological intrusiveness of cisgender heterosexual men. 

Fargeat flaunts an exciting hyperactive style. Ultra wide-angle shots, close-ups and a bubble-gum color palette contribute to the film’s surreal — and at times uncanny — visual language. The British composer Raffertie’s thunderous score adds an appropriately ominous touch, especially during moments of corporeal mutilation. 

During his final meeting with Elisabeth, Harvey doubles down on his offensiveness. By the time women reach the age of 50, he suggests to Elisabeth while stuffing his mouth with shrimp, it’s over for them. Fargeat heightens the perversity of Harvey’s blunt assessment with shots of his mouth masticating on shellfish bits. As he crushes the coral-colored creatures with his molars, Elisabeth stares at him with a faint disgust bordering on hatred. Quaid’s character lives in the more satirical notes of The Substance , and the actor responds with an appropriately mocking performance.

Harvey’s words, coupled with the blank stares Elisabeth now receives from passersby, drive the actress to seek a solution. She reaches out to the anonymous purveyors of The Substance, a program that allows people to essentially clone a younger version of themselves. While Fargeat’s screenplay leaves much to be desired when it comes to conveying the company’s scale of operations or how they function in her version of Los Angeles, the rules of the experiment are straightforward. After individuals spawn their duplicates, it’s critical they maintain a balanced life. Every 7 days one of them enters a coma, kept alive through a feeding tube, while the other roams free. Then they switch. The catch, of course, is the addiction of youth. 

Moore imbues her character with a visceral desperation, one that enriches the unsettling undercurrents of Fargeat’s film. She plays a woman who can’t quit the addiction of having youth at her fingertips despite its lacerating effect on her psyche. In one particularly strong scene, Elisabeth, haunted by a giant billboard of Sue outside her window, struggles to leave the house for a date. She tirelessly redoes her makeup and each attempt reveals the layers of anguish behind the actress’s pristine facade. 

Moore leans into the physical requirements of her role later in the film. Elisabeth eventually learns that upsetting the balance of the experiment reduces her vitality. Sue, greedier for more time outside the coma, becomes a kind of vampire, and Elisabeth wilts. Moore’s slow walk and hunched shoulders add to the sense of her character’s suffering. Special makeup effects by Pierre-Olivier Persin render Elisabeth’s withering even more startling and persuasive.  

Qualley does not have as meaty a role as Moore. Her character functions as Elisabeth’s foil, seeming to exist only to help us understand the perversion of Hollywood’s gaze on the starlet. That’s a shame, because The Substance ’s smart premise and direction promise more revelatory confrontations between Elisabeth and Sue than the one we are offered.

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‘The Substance’ Review: Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley in a Visionary Feminist Body-Horror Film That Takes Cosmetic Enhancement to Extremes

Coralie Fargeat works with the flair of a grindhouse Kubrick in a weirdly fun, cathartically grotesque fusion of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" and "Showgirls."

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“The Substance” tells the story of an aging Hollywood actress-turned-aerobics-workout-host, named Elisabeth Sparkle and played by Demi Moore , who gets fired from a TV network because she is now deemed too old. In a rage of desperation, she calls a number that’s been handed to her anonymously and gets hooked up with a sinister sci-fi body-enhancement program known as The Substance. She is given a heap of medical equipment sealed into plastic bags (syringes, tubing, a phosphorescent green liquid, a gooey white injectable food product), and she’s told about the protocol regarding her new self — which, the program warns, will also be her old self. “The two of you are one,” say the instructions. What does that mean?

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Fargeat, who has made one previous feature (2017’s “Revenge”), works in a wide-angle-lens, up-from-exploitation style that might be described as cartoon grindhouse Kubrick. It’s like “A Clockwork Orange” fused with the kinetic aesthetics of a state-of-the-art television commercial. Fargeat favors super-close-ups (of body parts, cars, eating, kissing), with sounds to match, and she also vacuums up influences the way Brian De Palma once did (though he, in this case, is one of them). We’ve all seen dozens of retreads of the Jekyll-and-Hyde story, but Fargeat, in her imaginative audacity, fuses it with “Showgirls,” and even that isn’t enough for her. She draws heavily on the hallucinatory moment in “The Shining” where Jack Torrance embraces a young woman in a bathtub, only to see her transformed into a cackling old crone. Beyond that, Fargeat‘s images recall the exploding-beast-with-a-writhing-face in John Carpenter’s “The Thing,” the bloodbath prom of “Carrie,” and the addiction-turned-dread of “Requiem for a Dream.”

What makes all of this original is that Coralie Fargeat fuses it with her own stylized aggro voice (she favors minimal dialogue, which pops like something out of a graphic novel), and with her feminist outrage over the way that women have been ruled by the world of images. At first, though, the over-the-top-ness does take a bit of getting used. Dennis Quaid plays the brash pig of a network executive, in baroquely decorated suit jackets, who has decided to fire Elisabeth, and when he’s having lunch with her, shoving shrimp in his mouth from what feels like four inches away from the audience, you want to recoil as much as she does. But Fageat is actually great with her actors; she knows that Quaid’s charisma, even when he’s playing a showbiz vulgarian as reprehensible as this, will make him highly watchable.

And Demi Moore’s performance is nothing short of fearless. She’s playing, in some very abstract way, a version of herself (once a star at the center of the universe, now old enough to be seen by sexist Hollywood as past it), and her acting is rippled with anger, terror, despair, and vengeance. There’s a lot of full-on nudity in “The Substance,” to the point that the film flirts with building a male gaze into the foundation of its aesthetic. Yet it does so only to pull the rug of voyeurism out from under us. Margaret Qualley makes Sue crisply magnetic in her confidence, and the fact that Sue knows how to package herself as an “object” is part of the film’s satirical design. She’s following the rules, “giving the people what they want.” It’s clear, I think, that Qualley is going to be a major star, and you see why here. She takes this stylized role and imbues it with a hint of mystery. For “The Substance” is finally a story of dueling egos, with Elisabeth’s real self and her enhanced self going at each other in a war for dominance.

“The Substance” does indeed play off “Showgirls” and the whole history of Hollywood cat-fight melodramas. The movie, in its visceral way, is deliriously ambitious (and, at 140 minutes, easily 20 minutes too long). But as it moves into the final chapter, its relatively restrained interface with body horror erupts into something cathartic in its extremity. Sue, at this point, has taken most of the life from Elisabeth, which means that Elisabeth has turned into a body so decrepit she makes the bathtub hag in “The Shining” look like Grace Kelly. But Fargeat is just getting started. The climactic sequence is set during the taping of the network’s New Year’s Eve special, which Sue has been chosen to host, and what happens there must be seen to be believed. Even if you watch horror movies all year long, this is still one of the rare ones to come up with a true monster , not just a mass of warped flesh but a deformation of the spirit. This, the film says, is what we’re repressing. It’s what we’re doing to ourselves.

Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival (In Competition), May 19, 2024. Running time: 140 MIN.

• Production: A Mubi release of a Working Title Films, A Good Title production. Producers: Coralie Fargeat, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner. Executive producers: Alexandra Loewy, Nicolas Royer.
• Crew: Director, screenplay: Coralie Fargeat. Camera: Benjamin Kracun. Editor: Jérôme Eltabet. Music: 000 Raffertie.
• With: Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, Dennis Quaid, Hugo Diego Garcia, Phillip Schurer, Joseph Balderrama, Oscar Lesage, Gore Abrams, Magtthew Géczy.

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New Streaming Movies

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