The Witches

"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.