The Worst Witch

Director - Robert Young (Bloodmonkey)
Starring - Fairuza Balk (American History X, The Craft), Charlotte Rae (The Facts of Life), and Tim Curry (The Rocky Horror Picture Show, It)
Release Date - 1986
Genre - Children's
Tagline - "Things never go right for Mildred Hubble"

Rating (Out of 5):

     I know I typically review very low budget horror flicks but sometimes I watch a movie from my childhood and want to review it as well.  I know most of you read this for the horror reviews and reading a review for a children's movie makes it weird but bare with me and you might actually enjoy the film as well.  I watched this movie every October, along with a slew of others, with my sister when I was little.  So this October I wanted to show a few of those films to my wife.  Movies like this one, Ernest Scared Stupid, Teen Witch, Mr. Boogedy, and Mad Monster Party are holiday classics that go unnoticed this time of year because it is during this time that horror movies finally come to the forefront.  True, these movies don't offer the screams that horror flicks do but they are entertaining and really do put you in the Halloween spirit.

     The film follows a young witch, Mildred Hubble (Balk), as she attends an all girl witch academy.  Mildred is a very clumsy and scatter brained little girl who tries hard at everything she does but always seems to come up short.   Along with that she has to compete at everything with another little witch who is "perfect" at everything she does.  She is often putting Mildred down and bullying her.  That is until Mildred turns her into a pig.  Along the way Mildred competes to be in the flying broom dance number for the grand wizard (Curry) who will be visiting the academy for their annual ceremony.  She breaks her broom before hand and the snooty witch bitch lends her a spare she has...after she curses it.  During the show for the grand wizard the broom goes crazy and Mildred crashes and drags all the other witches down with her.  The grand wizard is disgusted with the incident and leaves.  Mildred, depressed and disgusted with her self, leaves the academy and goes into the nearby woods.  Here she meets the twin sister of the headmistress of the academy.  Her, and her coven of evil witches, are planning to take over the school until Mildred stops them and turns them into bugs.  The grand wizard just happened to be flying overhead and saw the whole thing.  He takes Mildred back to the school where he tells everyone of her heroic deed.

     I loved this movie when I was a little Blacktooth.  It was so cheesy and a cliche of every children's movie you could think of from the 80's and early 90's.  The acting is great with the film consisting of some classic actors and actresses.  Tim Curry is billed as the star of the flick but in all actuality he is only in the film for about 10 or 15 minutes where he has to do a song and dance number.  Obviously, this a ploy to cash in on his Rocky Horror success.  The story is similar to Harry Potter and my wife, a huge Harry Potter fan, kept spotting all the similarities between the two.  I say it is safe to say this may be something Rowlings found inspiration in.  The effects are super cheesy and very dated but that is one of the reason I still love it.  It reminds me of the era I was watching it in when movies had horrible green screen effects and bright lights used for multiple reason light magic or lasers.  The characters are loveable, and hate-able, which helps tie you to the story and really feel for them.  Another reason it works great as a child's flick.  I highly recommend this one for the Halloween season.