The Witches

The Witches (1990) is a dark family fantasy you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Nicolas Roeg from the Roald Dahl book. Nine-year-old Luke grew up on his grandmother's witch stories, never guessing he'd soon meet the real thing.

On holiday at a seaside English hotel, Luke stumbles into a closed-door gathering of women who turn out to be witches in disguise. Their leader unveils a scheme to wipe out every child in the country using a potion that turns kids into mice. They catch the eavesdropping boy and test the formula on him first. Stuck in mouse form, Luke refuses to quit, and with Grandmother Helga he cooks up a way to turn the witches' own poison against them.

Anjelica Huston plays the Grand High Witch, and her shift from poised glamour to grotesque monster is the thing you remember. Jim Henson's workshop built the creatures and prosthetics, so the horror is tactile and genuinely nasty, none of it smoothed over by CGI. It runs scarier than your average kids' film and stays cheerfully creepy throughout — a great pick for a family Halloween night. Stream The Witches (1990) online on iFILM.