The Witches (1966) User Reviews

Starts strongly on the most part, finishes terribly

[TheLittleSongbird · 6/10 · 30 June 2015]

The Witches is a very watchable film, but also an uneven one, Hammer have done some very good to great films but this is not one of them. It's one of those cases where the first half, which was reasonably strong despite a few problems, fares far more strongly than the second half, which was incredibly problematic and awful at its worst.

Visually, The Witches, as with most Hammer efforts, looks great. The scenery and sets are both beautiful and eerie, it's stylishly shot and the lighting helps give off an effectively creepy atmosphere. The music is resolutely haunting and has a thrilling intensity while also having the ability of being intimate when it calls for it.

The script does lack horror and mystery, but flow-wise and structurally it flows well and is decently written, and while the film is reasonably tame by today's standards the atmosphere still has a creepiness and the first half interests and entertains mostly. The direction is very competent in the first half and shows great technical assurance but falls flat in the last thirty minutes. The cast are very good and are the best thing about the film aside from the visuals. Joan Fontaine has been better, but the vulnerability of her character is very deeply felt, Alex McCowan has a lot of fun with his role while Kay Walsh's excellent performance steals the film.

As said, the first half is reasonably strong. It does have its flaws, it does move too slowly in places and the prologue was rather vague and somewhat irrelevant. It's always professionally made and well-acted on the whole, and is intriguing and entertaining, with a great creepy atmosphere and some decent suspense.

However, the second half really disappoints. It gets really tedious, gets increasingly confused, suspense, mystery and horror are non-existent and it dissolves into camp, which I don't think was intended. The film's biggest flaw is the climax, which has to be the worst ever ending for a Hammer film with its inept choreography, even worse dancing and it was just too amateurish to even be considered unintentionally funny.

Overall, good first half, but very bad second half. An uneven film, with a lot of strengths and some big flaws. 6/10 Bethany Cox

"The verdict was misadventure."

[utgard14 · 6/10 · 9 July 2015]

Joan Fontaine's final film is a horror flick for Hammer. She plays a teacher recovering from a nervous breakdown after surviving a terrifying experience with witch doctors in Africa. She takes a job in a small English village and seems happy there, despite the odd behavior of some of the locals. When weird things start happening, Joan investigates and discovers a plot to sacrifice a young girl in a pagan ritual.

Joan does a fine job in her final movie. She would do some more TV work but this is it for her long film career. The rest of the cast is made up of solid British actors. Cyril Frankel's direction is good. He manages to evoke a fair amount of atmosphere for a picture that takes place almost entirely in daylight. In some ways it's a precursor to The Wicker Man. It's nowhere near as good as that film but there are some similar plot elements. The screenplay is from Nigel Kneale, best known for being the creator of Professor Quatermass and for his screenplay for the excellent 1957 Abominable Snowman film. Reportedly Kneale was dissatisfied with this film because he intended it to be a dark comedy that poked fun at witchcraft but Hammer wanted a serious horror movie so all comedic touches were removed. Well they missed a few because some of the most memorable parts of the movie, such as Joan being overrun by a flock of sheep and every scene of Kay Walsh in her pagan ritual get-up, are very funny. It's a decent movie of its type. Not really scary but interesting, particularly for Fontaine fans.

Good performances cannot save confused, wayward story...

[moonspinner55 · 6/10 · 1 June 2014]

Female schoolteacher in an English village senses something strange is afoot while observing the townspeople's cold reaction to the budding relationship between a local teenage boy and girl; turns out, they want to keep the lass a virgin, and soon the boy is mysteriously out of the picture. Hammer Films thriller, an adaptation of the novel "The Devil's Own" by Peter Curtis (aka Norah Lofts), begins promisingly but deteriorates in the final stretch. The prologue, with missionary teacher Joan Fontaine being run out of Africa by witch doctors, is rendered vague and nearly useless by it not being used as a proper bridge to the main story (she's shaken up, but the experience certainly hasn't taught the heroine anything about black magic). The fine location shooting and tidy production are both impressive, and the cast is nearly terrific (save for the two central students, who are wooden). The plot unfortunately derails at a critical juncture: the boy's father drowns, rampaging sheep spoil some evidence in the mud, Fontaine learns too much and vows to testify at an inquest...but then wakes up in a nursing home with amnesia! From this point on, "The Witches", which has heretofore built up a good amount of tension within its curious scenario, loses all credibility and finesse--and the supporting cast is made to hop around in the dirt, groping one another and gibbering like possessed fools. It's a letdown for Fontaine's fans, although she manages to retain her dignity even as the picture lapses into camp. **1/2 from ****

Witch me a skin for dancing in ... quick, where's that athame?

[Gothick · 16 December 1999]

The Witches, which is much better known in America by its US release title The Devil's Own, is one of those legendary films made great because the supporting actress completely upstages the star. (Think Grayson Hall in Night of the Iguana, or Sylvia Miles in Midnight Cowboy.) In her autobiography, Miss Joan Fontaine, who had acquired the film rights to the novel years before, complains at length about the "primitive" working conditions at Hammer studios, the small size of her dressing room, the awful food and the unprofessional British actors she had to lower herself in working with. We all know that the real bee in her bonnet was that a movie she had basically designed as a vehicle for HER talents ended up being taken over by Miss Kay Walsh, a superb dancer and talented actress who had had an extensive career in films and theatre (check out her IMDB listing--you'll be impressed). Luckily Fontaine was (to her credit) too much of a pro herself to let her dissatisfaction show on screen. She turns in a credible performance as a woman teacher attempting to recover from a traumatic encounter with witch doctors in Africa by taking a slow, quiet gig in an apparently sleepy, quaint olde English village. Well, guess who rules the roost in this town? As the title clues you in, it's none other than ... the Witches!!!

As boss witch supreme Stephanie Bax, a character one of the reviewers of the time described as a "lesbian-like writer," Kay Walsh dominates the action from the moment she appears. Of all the various witch films of the Sixties, this one probably has the most realistic atmosphere and the most plausible plot. The traditional opposition between village wise women (capably embodied here by Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies as Granny Riggs--be sure to keep an eye out for her stogie-chomping aristo witch in 1967's The Devil Rides Out) and the kind of ceremonial magician played by Miss Walsh is portrayed quite matter-of-factly in the script. The kind of witchcraft practiced both by the Walsh and the Ffrangcon-Davies characters is a pretty accurate portrayal of practices actually current in Sixties England, for instance in the circles around Robert Cochrane and other figures who were gaining a lot of media attention in those days. The campy elan of Miss Walsh's dances as High Priestess (one wonders how they dealt with all the hot wax that must have flown off the lit candles in that antler-crown of hers) is very London West End on one level, yet also seems a poetic evocation of a learned ceremonial magician taking over a traditional village circle for her own corrupt ends on another level. Excellent work by Miss Walsh and the choreographer.

Also worthy of mention is the appearance of Martin Stephens, who made memorable such earlier Sixties fantasy films as The Innocents and Village of the Damned (in which he had the unenviable task of acting opposite George Sanders--who hated children!). Martin retired from films shortly after appearing in the Witches. Among the others, Alec McCowen turns in a brilliant little gem of a performance as Kay Walsh's traumatized brother.

For all its excellence, Hammer historians give second place for this film to Don Sharp's 1964 outing, Witchcraft. Let's hope somebody hurries up and releases that one on home video soon!

Nice Joan Fontaine Vehicle

[Tommy-5 · 7/10 · 14 February 2006]

1966's The Witches rates in the upper half of 1960's era horror. Its not outstanding but it is very interesting. I would certainly recommend it for viewing, just don't expect a classic.

Leading lady Joan Fontaine was still an impressive screen presence at this time and she portrays the courageous but vulnerable headmistress Gwen Mayfield very well.

But - a little bit about the story. Heroine Gwen suffered a nervous breakdown when in Africa, brought on by a traumatic experience with tribal witchcraft. Gwen recovers and takes a teaching job in a quiet, out of the way English village. Little did she know that even greater horror than what she experienced in Africa awaited her! It takes her awhile to realize that the town is home to a witch's coven, a coven that she will unwillingly be admitted into.

Before we get to this point, the story unfolds with some fairly decent character development. The too-jolly meat cutter Mr. Curd, the dour Granny Rigg and her overly-protected grand daughter Linda, Linda's boyfriend Ronnie and the brother sister team of Alan and Stephanie Bax, very capably portrayed by Kay Walsh and Alec McCowen as the village leaders, are the main characters which keep life interesting for Gwen. One gets a clear sense of life in a small English village, a place where fear and superstition become horrible reality.

The problem with reviewing The Witches is, if too much of the film is detailed, the ending is predictable and viewing ruined for those who have not seen it. Keep in mind this is a Hammer film and is similar to other films of the day, such as The Plague of the Zombies, (1966, also by Hammer), and 1960's City of The Dead, (AKA Horror Hotel), to name a couple.

If you are a fan of horror, and I suspect you are if you are reading this review, then you are probably already aware of this film and its exciting conclusion. This was one of Ms. Fontaine's last major screen roles so view it for this reason if for no other.

Intriguing Beginning, Terrible Conclusion

[claudio_carvalho · 6/10 · 17 February 2006]

After being threatened by witchcraft in Africa, Gwen Mayfield (Joan Fontaine) has a nervous breakdown and returns to England. She is invited to teach in a private school, owned by the wealthy Alan Bax (Alec McCowen) and his sister Stephanie Bax (Kay Walsh), in the village of Heddaby. After a period in the place, she witnesses weird events with locals, and she realizes that the place is indeed a coven and her student Linda Rigg (Ingrid Brett) is being prepared for a sacrifice.

"The Witches" is a Hammer film that can be divided in two parts: the first one, with the arrival of Mayfield to Heddaby, is intriguing and suspenseful. Joan Fontaine, in her last work in the cinema, performs a fragile and vulnerable woman due to a trauma in Africa, and wondering if there are witches in the village. The second part, when she returns from the mental institution, is simply awful. The long ritual of the witches is disgusting and silly, and spoils a promising film. Kay Walsh, the former wife of David Lean, has a great performance, highly above the rest of the cast. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "A Face do Demônio" ("The Face of the Demon") Note: On 10 Dec 2018 I saw this film again.

Not One of Hammer's Highlights

[Witchfinder-General-666 · 5/10 · 7 February 2009]

I am an enthusiastic fan of the British Hammer Studios and love almost all films by this fantastic production company. Yet I have to say that I was quite disappointed with "The Witches" of 1966, which is probably my least favorite Hammer film so far. This is not due to the fact that it is not set in the 19th century, or that the topic is not about vampires or mad science. Some of Hammers greatest films are actually set in the 20th century. "The Devil Rides Out" of 1968, for example, which is doubtlessly one of Hammer's most brilliant productions, is set in the 1930s and handles an occult theme. And I also liked all other occult Hammer films I've seen, even the underrated " To the Devil a Daughter". Whether one is a Hammer fan or not, it cannot be denied that Hammer's films are always entertaining, and anything but boring. This is not really the case with "The Witches", however, as, in spite of being only 90 minutes long, this is so far the only Hammer film that I found too long. By no means is this to say that the film was a complete disaster, however. It certainly is eerie at many points, the suspense is just not consistent enough. English School teacher Gwen Mayfield (Joan Fontaine) has made experiences with black magic when out-posted in Africa. Back in England, she takes a job as a teacher at the countryside. Witchcraft seems to be present in the small village too, however... Joan Fontaine was a fantastic actress, and, in fact, IS, as the lady is still alive but hasn't made any films since 1994. Fontaine is great in her role, and her performance is certainly one of the greatest qualities of the film. The other performances, especially that of Kay Walsh, are also very good. The English countryside setting is magnificent for a story of the kind. The film has atmosphere and is often uncanny, yet it is undeniable that it also has its lengths and even becomes ridiculous occasionally. Also, the film is quite predictable. About fifteen minutes to the end the 'rules' of an occult ritual are read, and I knew exactly what was going to happen. Overall, "The Witches" is decent enough, but, as far as I am concerned, it is disappointing for a film from my beloved Hammer Studios.

The Acid House Orgy

[Theo Robertson · 6/10 · 17 March 2014]

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

One of the craziest witchcraft in small-town England movies ever made

[AlsExGal · 5/10 · 25 February 2021]

Joan Fontaine is purportedly the star of this picture, but it is English actress Kay Walsh in the second female lead who really monopolizes the picture and brings it to its crazy end.

Walsh was a preeminent English actress, married to David Lean at one time, and starring with Sir Alec Guinness in five films, including Oliver Twist, Last Holiday and Scrooge. She first made an impression in In Which We Serve and she won a BAFTA nomination for Best Actress in The Horse's Mouth. She even collaborated with Lean, helping to write and edit his movies, and acting in several.

I'm not sure how she ended up as the kinky head of a devil worshipping cult, wearing a buck's horn headdress, chanting some foreign language and preparing to sacrifice the town's teenage virgin, so that she (Walsh) could extend her life as a young and beautiful girl again.

The choreography, if you can call it that, was incredible: Walsh in her crazy robes and horns shouted commands to the hypnotized townspeople who responded by writhing on the floor, lifting first one arm then another, lifting right leg then left; eating sacred slithery mud that Walsh has blessed and thrown to them; then simulating **** on the floor with the nearest member of the opposite sex.

This movie has to be seen to be believed. It has just enough fanatical elements to move it along: Fontaine suffers a nervous breakdown in Africa due to voodoo, then moves to England and finds a local cult in the tiny country town she has come to recover in. Walsh and her cracked brother take her in and there she learns about the local cult. There's a crazy grandma who works her own kind of magic with potions; a sadistic butcher who skins and guts rabbits at the counter of his shop; someone putting voodoo dolls in the trees; and somehow it all comes together and works with the final scene worth the price of admission.

Not among Hammers' best, but not all that bad.

[Hey_Sweden · 6/10 · 25 May 2013]

This interesting if not altogether successful production for Britains' legendary Hammer Studios has a generally intriguing plot (it's scripted by Nigel Kneale, based on a novel by Norah Lofts) but it tends to become much less interesting after a crucial turn in the story, and leads to a less than satisfactory resolution. That's too bad, because the material did have some potential.

Perhaps part of the problem is that Hammer was always so good with their period pieces that there's a lack of truly oppressive atmosphere with this contemporary set tale. After a hell of a start, the film, which could indeed have used a more masterful director like Terence Fisher at the helm, slowly loses its grip.

Joan Fontaine made her last appearance in a theatrical feature here, from then on only acting on TV. The star of Hitchcocks' "Rebecca" and "Suspicion" plays Gwen Mayfield, a teacher who after a traumatic experience in Africa comes to the small English village of Heddaby to instruct at its local school. She'll soon come to suspect that some of the citizens are up to no good...but she'll have no idea just how big the problem is.

The lovely Ms. Fontaine is appealing and sympathetic in the lead, and she receives solid support from an exemplary cast - Kay Walsh, Alec McCowen, Ann Bell, Ingrid Boulting, John Collin, Michele Dotrice, Gwen Ffrangcon Davies, Duncan Lamont, Leonard Rossiter, and Martin Stephens. As could be expected, this is a good looking Hammer production, well designed and photographed and featuring an eerie score composed by Richard Rodney Bennett.

Admittedly, this can't compare to the best that Hammer has to offer, but it remains watchable enough until its finale. It may work better for those who aren't fans of the studio to begin with.

Six out of 10.

For Joan Fontaine Or Hammer Completists Only

[ferbs54 · 5/10 · 13 December 2007]

"The Witches" is a different type of Hammer picture. There are no vampires, zombies, monsters or crumbling Carpathian villages to be found, and the story takes place in as charming and sunny an English village as one could ever hope to find. In this tale, Joan Fontaine (pushing 50 here but still very beautiful) is convalescing from a nervous breakdown that she suffered after her teaching stint in the African voodoo country. She comes to the aforementioned quaint English town to begin her new job as headmistress in a small private school, and soon becomes embroiled in that town's witchcraft, devil practices, and the attempted sacrifice of one of her girl students. Unfortunately, what sounds smashing in synopsis turns out to be a rather slow-moving film, and not at all scary or suspenseful. What should have been the most exciting section of the picture--the coven/sacrifice at the end--is just ridiculous, with a bunch of old-timers flouncing around and flailing like so many epileptic jackasses, and with a silly-looking head priestess with a multicandled headpiece. Still, the picture DOES have its small merits. Fontaine, here in one of her last film roles, is well cast and acts impeccably, and the beautiful shots of the English countryside will surely make you want to pack up and move. Still, I didn't care for this Hammer outing as much as I had hoped, and still don't understand what happened to Kay Walsh's character at the end, or why the presence of Fontaine's teacher was necessary. Bottom line: This picture is for Joan Fontaine or Hammer Films completists only. Others would be well advised to watch "Rebecca" or "Horror Hotel" for the 10th time and call it a night.

Highly Influential Horror Film

[basilisksamuk · 8/10 · 25 February 2008]

Surprisingly original Hammer Horror that can be seen as a precursor to later, more famous films.

Although it may look hammy by some standards the structure and content of this film were clearly very influential on later films. From the Hammer stable it has an influence on "The Devil Rides Out" and, as another reviewer has stated it has much in common with Robin Hardy's "Wicker Man" but coming seven years earlier. It is also striking how the grotesque village characters and the rituals they follow seem to be prototypes for the Satanists in "Rosemary's Baby." On the face of it an entertaining Hammer film which can be seen as rather ordinary on one level but a closer viewing suggests to me that this film is far more influential than it has previously been given credit for.

Hammer's Curate's Egg

[jimpayne1967 · 6/10 · 14 August 2015]

This should be one of Hammer's best. A strong cast led by Bona Fide Hollywood royalty who has top class support from some fine actors including Alec McCowen and Leonard Rossiter two of my favourite characters. With the normally reliable Nigel Kneale providing the screenplay this should be a classic. The film looks great- and the print quality is way up from the pretty much contemporary The Reptile which I also saw recently- and it is bursting with ideas but is still nothing more than quite good. The feel of the movie has touches of The Night of the Demon in that the pace is deceptively leisurely and it foreshadows the likes of Rosemary's Baby in that apparently down-to-earth, benevolent types are revealed to be devil worshippers and most obviously the Wicker Man in that a young girl is used as bait to tempt an apparently untouchable outsider into mayhem but it is vastly inferior to those three films and indeed the aforementioned Reptile which although cheap looking and bedevilled with laughable effects remains tense, disturbing and best of all unpredictable throughout. There are good bits in the Witches all right - the skinning of a hare by the apparently affable butcher (my excellent compatriot Duncan Lamont) and the scenes in which La Fontaine acts with children are small moments of real excellence- but it is not scary and the ending makes no sense even before the ludicrous, cheesy finale in which the deeply disturbed McCowen suddenly seems like a swell fellow. There are obvious weaknesses in the story- it has a happy ending for a start- which a better director would have been better at papering over, characters like Fontaine's fellow teacher played by Ann Bell go nowhere and above all that the lush, vaguely butch journalist sibling of McCowen (played by Kay Walsh) is so obviously a 'wrong un' destroys any possibility of suspense. And that is a pity because Ms Walsh was good and steals every scene she is in. Fontaine is also part of the problem. Uncharitably she may have been a touch old for her role but in the film's early scenes she is fine especially, as mentioned earlier, when she is acting with the little children. She suits the low key early scenes but as the film progresses her expression freezes as does her badly over lacquered hair. I gather she did not enjoy the experience of working on such a low budget film and most of the time it is hard not to avoid the impression that she thinks she is above the film she is in. Maybe she is but she is emphatically outperformed by Walsh, McCowen and Rossiter in the scenes she shares with these great actors. The Witches should be a classic but it is not- but it is not a total failure either.

First seen on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater in 1979

[kevinolzak · 2/10 · 1 October 2020]

1966's "The Devil's Own" was the actual title of a 1960 Norah Lofts novel that provided this final screen role for Hollywood legend Joan Fontaine, who purchased the rights before finding a willing producer in England's Hammer Films. Other published titles for the story include "The Little Wax Doll" and "Catch As Catch Can," Nigel Kneale's treatment issued in Britain as "The Witches," a bit obvious perhaps yet still anonymous. For all the author's bellyaching about the studio's adaptations of his Quatermass serials ("The Quatermass Xperiment," "Quatermass 2," and "Quatermass and the Pit"), Kneale's own attempt to adapt someone else's work turns out to be downright embarrassing for everyone involved, in particular Joan Fontaine, who signified her own disappointment by retiring from any further screen work. The pre credits sequence displays an admirable level of tension as Joan's Gwen Mayfield fails to avoid a confrontation with an African witch doctor for some unknown transgression in her line of duty as a teacher, spending several months recovering from a nervous breakdown. This apparently plays into her being hired as head schoolteacher in the quiet country village of Heddaby, where Duncan Lamont's local butcher cheerfully introduces himself by skinning a rabbit in full view of the camera. Two students appear to be problems, as pretty Linda (Ingrid Boulting) isn't allowed to be courted by shy Ronnie (Martin Stephens), her elderly Granny (Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies) torturing the girl to no avail for both are falling in love. The bright and eager Ronnie suddenly falls under a hex, a wax doll found with its head cut off, the boy and his mother fleeing to stay out of further danger. Ronnie's father decides to pay a surprise visit on old Granny, and is found the next day drowned in what the coroner reports as 'misadventure.' Gwen's suspicions about witchcraft turn out to be correct, but this is where the picture completely falls apart, a repeat of her earlier African breakdown followed by a memory loss of 12 months; by the time she returns to Heddaby we know where it's going but not the heights of hilarity that ensue. Director Cyril Frankel had delivered one prior classic for Hammer, 1959's "Never Take Sweets from a Stranger,' but here he's hamstrung by a script that's only half a decent film, left without a suitable finish, the so called witches coven reduced to dancing like New Years party goers when not eating what appears to be dog feces or writhing on the dirt floor of a disused church. Those who aren't reduced to laughter at this point probably deserve to suffer the same torture as actually viewing this bitter pill!

Hocus Pocus

[BaronBl00d · 28 December 2000]

Joan Fontaine plays a woman traumatized in Africa that eventually takes a teaching job in the English countryside. This is your typical Hammer fare with a pretty good story of re-provoking the trauma within Ms. Fontaine as she discovers that a coven of witches resides in her new home town. The script has some good suspenseful moments and the acting is good all around. Ms. Fontaine does a better-than-average job in her role, yet is easily upstaged by Kay Walsh, a writer friend of Ms. Fontaine's character. A fun film to watch..the end is a bit hokey but what the hey...it's the sixties!

Witches crack'd.

[ptb-8 · 6/10 · 12 April 2014]

Minor Hammer Horror from the mid 60s has several very effective components: a terrific location of banal evil in a very picturesque village, excellent acting by everyone, even the kids and families who genuinely live there, astonishing and beautiful art direction sets and interiors, and some major acting from Hollywood Oscar winner Joan Fontaine. I am sure this was not the experience depicted in THE MIRROR CRACK'D but far more like that of making THE WICKER MAN eight years later. I felt a lot of THE WITCHES led to THE WICKER MAN and together would have made a fabulous double feature. I enjoyed this "women's matinée horror" entry in Hammer's lexicon, the sort of horror film your Mum would come home one day and tell you she saw it at the Odeon on a shoppers' session while you were at school. Unfortunately, the 'ghastly ritual climax' is very poorly depicted and looks more like the local amateur dance and theatrical society were hired to be 'devil worshipers'. It really is badly directed and cast. Joan delivers o all counts and the after effect is one of nodding approval. Benign devil coven antics, if that's possible. However I loved the color photography, the eerie daylight village feel and the beautiful interiors of every home. Yes it's the Women's Home Beautiful Hammer Horror. Girl star Karen Dotrice from MARY POPPINS and THOMASINA makes a juicy teen sacrifice. I think Matthew Garber from the same films also appears as her love interest early on.

Devilish deeds in an English Village

[MrOllie · 7/10 · 17 January 2013]

Joan Fontaine who is the only actor(male or female) to have won an Oscar in a Alfred Hitchcock film, is the lead star in this little Hammer horror movie. She plays Miss Gwen Mayfield who is appointed Headmistress of a small village school after recovering from a nervous breakdown in Africa. Upon taking up her position at the school, which is located in a pretty and charming looking English village, strange and unusual things begin to happen. Idyllic English villages are the perfect backdrop for sinister goings on involving witchcraft and this film delivers accordingly. Although the film is nothing really special, I enjoyed it and have watched it several times. There are quite a few well known British character actors popping up throughout the film playing small parts, such as Leonard Rossiter and Ann Bell. UK soap fans will also spot Rudolph Walker (who plays Patrick in EastEnders)appearing very briefly at the start of the film. You won't get too many shudders watching this movie but I think you will enjoy it.

Rubber Hammer

[Leofwine_draca · 4/10 · 14 July 2014]

Hammer Horror films usually strike with the force of a mallet: all-out exercises in suspense, sadism, bloodshed and excitement. By contrast, THE WITCHES is an atypical Hammer movie which shares the same kind of colourful tableau but a film whose thrills turn out to be decidedly anaemic, hitting with all the effect of a rubber hammer.

Now, I don't mind subtlety, but something doesn't sit right with this film. The normally reliable Nigel Kneale doesn't seem to have his heart in the material, hence the way it all turns very silly towards the end. The film it most resembles is the black-and-white chiller, NIGHT OF THE EAGLE, but that's a classy and atmospheric masterwork in comparison to this lukewarm outing.

There are things that keep you watching here, of course; there always are in a Hammer Horror. I particularly liked the depiction of rural village life in the 1960s; it's picture postcard stuff, the sort of thing to make me nostalgic for a time I never actually knew. A shame, then, that the conspiracy storyline is so insipid and slow-moving; THE WICKER MAN this ain't! Imported Hollywood starlet Joan Fontaine is good value for money, but even she can do little with either the material or her histrionic character. I ended up playing spot-the-actor with the likes of Michele Dotrice and Leonard Rossiter in an attempt to pass the time; unfortunately, this really is that dull.

A slightly unusual occult horror film from Hammer

[Red-Barracuda · 6/10 · 19 October 2017]

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.

What a waste of Hammer-time!

[Coventry · 3/10 · 7 September 2012]

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.

Pastoral drama/mystery starts and ends with witchy horror

[Wuchakk · 6/10 · 25 May 2022]

A schoolteacher who had been traumatized by witchdoctors as a missionary in Africa (Joan Fontaine) gets a gig at a remote English village where she starts to suspect witchcraft being practiced. Kay Walsh plays the educated matriarch of the town.

"The Witches" (1966), also known as "The Devil's Own," is obscure Hammer Horror that obviously influenced the cult flick "The Wicker Man" (1973). It's mostly a slow rural drama/mystery that opens and closes with overt witcheries.

Speaking of which, people complain about the "awful" and "laughable" conclusion, but it was innovative and no doubt shocking in 1965 when it was shot. Whilst cinema flirted with Satanism & witchcraft in the early 60s with "The City of the Dead," "The Masque of the Red Death" and "Devils of Darkness," this one went one step further by depicting a devilish ceremony more explicitly, which strikes some modern viewers as cheesy and amusing.

Sure, today it's about as scary (and choreographed) as Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video (1983), but the mundane story definitely needed something outlandish and outrageous by that point. It paved the way for the popular flicks "The Devil Rides Out" and "Rosemary's Baby," both released two years later.

Blonde Ingrid Boulting stands out on the female front as Linda. Meanwhile you might remember striking Michele Dotrice (Valerie) from "The Blood on Satan's Claw" (1971).

The film runs about 1 hour, 30 minutes, and was shot in Hambleden, England, which is a half-hour drive due west of London, with studio stuff done at nearby Bray Studios.

GRADE: B-

Relatively pedestrian but very enjoyable

[tomgillespie2002 · 5/10 · 13 June 2011]

After a terrifying experience in Africa, involving native voodoo witch doctors, Gwen Mayfield (Joan Fontaine) has a nervous breakdown and returns to home. Once recovered she takes a job as head mistress in Heddaby, a small quaint English village. She is introduced to brother and sister Alan and Stephanie Bax, who had given her the job. Alan is a distant character. He'd always wanted to be a Reverend, but 'could never do this'. His evidently tortured soul wonders through the film, zombie- like, impotent to the happenings in his village.

Gwen begins to suspect there is something strange going on in Haddaby, when two of the school children she is teaching, - Linda and Ronnie (Ingrid Brett & Martin Stephens) - are kept apart from one another. A sinister plot to make sure Linda keeps her virginity. Gwen delves deeper into the escalating events in the village, and is slowly driven to a relapse of her breakdown, as the idea of witchcraft, and human sacrifice circle in her mind. She is constantly reminded of the imagery that had brought her first nervous disposition in Africa. The film cleverly draws parallels with the ancient 'arts' of the folkloric black arts of witchcraft and voodoo.

Based on the book 'The Devil's Own' by Norah Lofts, the always excellent Nigel Kneale (writer of such British classics and The Quatermass Experiment et al), weaves a tale of increasing anguish, and conspiratorial plotting. Amongst this is a line of dialogue completely out of place, but an absolute joy. After Gwen relapse and memory loss, she is placed in a nursing home. She is sat in the 'TV' room, where an old, knitting lady states, "You're the lady that's lost her memory. I've got veins". Well, it made me chuckle.

A Hammer film, co-produced with Seven Arts, this is not one of their greatest films. It is relatively pedestrian. But very enjoyable. The ritualistic climax does move far too close to camp farce, as the townsfolk writhe ridiculously around the floors, dressed in rags for inexplicable reasons. Joan Fontaine (who owned the rights to the book), suitably over acts, using her contorted face to emote pain, confusion, and a little bit of horror. It's one of those films that fits perfectly with a wet, lazy, Sunday afternoon. Well, that's how I like to spend those types of days.

www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

The timing let this movie down

[markbee-72711 · 8/10 · 26 October 2019]

I'll keep this brief. This movie is very well acted and directed. It works quite well as a supernatural whodunit story. Unfortunately it was made too early. If it had been made three years later the ending would have been more visceral.

Almost-Perfect Scenic Horror Train Derails Itself Near Trips' End

[josephbrando · 7/10 · 12 March 2012]

The first 70% of this film is really terrific. It is just the kind of horror film I enjoy - housing a killer combination of great atmosphere, extremely smart dialogue, quick pacing and psychological terror. There is a top-notch British cast who delivers lines so mundanely shocking, that you will find yourself hitting the rewind button to make sure they said what you thought you just heard. The film's plot takes some twisted unexpected turns and you're really engrossed - when suddenly, as you near your departure, you suddenly find yourself in some strange comedic witches coven music video. I kid you not, these "witches" practice their rituals while ridiculously dancing in sync like Britney Spears' backup dancers - only about 4x as old - and spurting out dinky incantations! What a shame! Still I cannot strip the film of its merit - the beginning is so marvelous that I still gave it a 7. But be prepared for a terrible ending.

These Witches are Bad! Baaaaad!

[JLRMovieReviews · 3/10 · 4 November 2013]

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.