The Witches
From the great Muppet creator Jim Henson comes this classic bursting with enchantment and adventure. Academy Award winner Anjelica Huston stars as the Grand High Witch in this exhilarating tale.Year: 1990This splendid adventure-fantasy from 1990 was adapted from Roald Dahl’s book and directed by maverick British filmmaker Nicolas Roeg, who turned out to be a perfect (if seemingly unlikely) interpreter of Dahl’s fiendishly clever tale of witchcraft in contemporary England. Scary, funny, and wildl
Rating: 
(out of 111 reviews)
List Price: $ 9.98
Price: $ 30.55
Witch Fire (Elemental Witches, Book 1)
- ISBN13: 9780425216149
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
After a chaotic marriage and a rough divorce, all Mira Hoskins wants is stability and normality. But when sexy Jack McAllister enters her life, she discovers that what you want isn’t always what you need. Jack is a powerful witch with the ability to command fire and is anything but normal. As the head of a security detail for The Coven, a national organization that governs national witches, Jack has been assigned to watch over Mira. She is a natural born witch with the ability to call the ai
Rating: (out of 47 reviews)
List Price: $ 7.99
Price: $ 3.47
Related Witches Products
Review by Sheldon S. Kohn for The Witches
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“The Witches” is one of my favorite films. The film combines the substantial filmmaking talents of Nicholas Roeg with the wonderworking of Jim Henson and an unforgettable performance from Angelica Huston. Every time I watch this film, I find something new to like about it.Since I have seen the film numerous times, I was a bit disappointed that the DVD did not contain any special features, such as a commentary from the filmmaker or one of the actors. Other than the most basic chapter selection, the DVD does not offer any of the bonuses that one would like to see. Fortunately, the film itself is so good that it is worthwhile to buy this disc in spite of the substandard packaging.From the very beginning of the film, we are thrown into an imaginative world where witches reside in literally every small village and where no child is safe in any country. As the credits roll across the screen, Roeg treats us to a ride on a broomstick, to a witch’s-eye view of the frozen Scandinavian countryside.The film then introduces us to Luke and his grandmother, the protagonists of this tale. We learn that the grandmother has long been fighting the witches and even has lost part of her finger in the struggles. After tragedy strikes the young boy’s parents, the pair travel to England, which is literally infested with witches. Fortunately, Luke has been well-warned how to recognize them and can play safely in his tree house when other children would be in grave peril.The delicious irony compounds when the grandmother takes Luke to a seaside resort hotel for her convalescence. It is the precise time when all the witches of England are meeting under the cover of the Royal Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Children. In a closed-door session, the witches remove their wigs and uncomfortable, yet practical, shoes, letting us see them in all their repulsiveness. The Grand High Witch (played to perfection by Angelica Huston) reveals her plan to turn all the children of England into mice. Of course, the witch’s plan goes astray, and tables are turned on all the witches in one of the most delightful scenes in all of modern cinema. Every time I watch it, I think to myself how much fun it would be to make a film like this one.This is a charming, delightful film with enough diversions to keep children fascinated, told with enough skill to keep adults interested. It is a keeper, worth watching many times.
Review by Amanda Richards for The Witches
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That woman with the purple eyes
and ugly square-toed shoes
The one who’s scratching at her scalp
is certainly bad news!
Does she look faint when kids draw near
or hold her nose and run?
If women like this roam the world
God bless us, everyone
Convention time at the hotel
we goggle at the sight
of Grand High Witch Angelica
whose wig is on too tight
Her followers cheer gleefully
as she takes off her mask
revealing all her ghastly warts
and gives them one big task
“Quit your jobs,” the Chief Witch says
“and open candy shops,
free chocolate should do the trick
we’ll pull out all the stops”
The witches have an evil plan
to rid the world of brats
those stinky, smelly rotten kids
will now be meals for cats
But all bad deeds must have a hitch
their plan’s been overheard
a clever boy is eavesdropping
and has heard every word
Soon he’s crawling through the kitchens
and dropping in the cress
too many cooks DO spoil the broth
and make an awful mess
The ending differs from the book
it’s really very sappy
I’m sure Dahl’s rolling in his grave
because they made it happy
Rated: 3.5 stars
Amanda Richards, July 29, 2006
PS – The sound quality on this DVD is not up to standard, and you’ll need to watch it with remote in hand to make volume adjustments. There are no sub-titles or closed-captioning, and the packaging is of the cheaper variety.
Review by R. C. Walker for The Witches
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“Witches” is a marvellous film: cleverly written and wittily produced. Alas, this is a mutilated copy: the usual tactic of corporate greed. The original, filmed in a ratio of 1.85:1, this copy has been mutilated — slashed and hacked to leave a visual aspect of 1.33:1.
If you want to buy this butchered version, go ahead. Just remember that you’re missing about a third of the original. If steak is $5 s pound, would you pay $5 for 11 ounces? Just remember that the butcher still has his or her thumb on the scale, waiting to get your money again when she/he later offers correct weight for the price.
If you still want to buy this thing, let me know. I have some riverside property in New Orleans I’d like to sell you.
Review by John Farr for The Witches
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Roald Dahl, best-known for his “Charlie and The Chocolate Factory”, also penned this dark little tale, which is brought to vivid cinematic life by gifted director Nicolas Roeg (“Walkabout”, “Don’t Look Now”). The late Jim Henson’s distinctive talents are on display in some of the rodent and witch representations, and the film also boasts broadly amusing turns by Anjelica Huston (as The Grand High Witch) and Brits Brenda Blethyn and Rowan Atkinson in supporting roles.
Review by Susan Y. Schoonover for The Witches
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I enjoy Roald Dahl’s books and was eager to see the film adaptation of THE WITCHES. The movie is well crafted with awesome special effects for the year it was made and Jim Henson’s mouse puppetry is convincing. However I was disappointed by the DVD in several ways. First of all the sound was just awful especially with the Norwegian, British, and er High Grand Witch accents. To compound matters there is no close captioning of any kind on the disc so the viewer needs to be in a quiet room and listen very carefully. Needless to say the the DVD is also devoid of any special features.
As to the story I actually found the first part quite disturbing for a “family film”. Luke’s loving Norwegian grandmother tells him an awful story of a childhood friend who was imprisoned in a painting by a witch until her eventual “disappearance” in old age and the story is so realistically enacted it is really quite sad and chilling. Grandma also shows him the scar where her little finger was before an encounter with a witch and gives him some warning advice as to how to recognize the creatures. The next morning Luke and his grandmother learn Luke’s parents have both been killed in an accident. Shortly after Grandma Helga comes down with a serious case of diabetes and she and Luke leave for a vacation at an English seaside village.
At their vacation hotel they run into a convention of witches and this more surreal part of the story is actually more light hearted and comical despite some intense scenes. The filmmakers give a happy contrived ending to the story unlike what Roald Dahl wrote in the novel. I usually strongly object to filmmakers altering such major plot points but Helga and Luke had suffered so much earlier in the film I was glad to see them experience some joy. Really young or really sensitive viewers will probably find this story too disturbing to be enjoyable.
Review by SereneNight for Witch Fire (Elemental Witches, Book 1)
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I was disappointed in this novel. I found it difficult to get into and kept putting it down. The writing was rather…Blah. Not awful, but sort of boring. The story seemed just filler for sex scenes. I thought the sex scenes were pretty good though a trifle repetitive. I probably would’ve culled them down to three scenes. Jack and Mira (our witch couple) were bland. I didn’t care what happened to them… They had sex, trained, fought evil, had sex…. Hmmm….
2 Stars. Perhaps if the storyline had been stronger I might’ve been more into what happened in the book. As it was, this couple could be any generic romance couple.
Review by Jennifer Ray for Witch Fire (Elemental Witches, Book 1)
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Unsuspecting Mira Hoskins is one of the most powerful elemental witches, an Air Witch, born to two Air Witches who met their fate when she was still a young child. Raised by her godmother, she has no idea of her true legacy, much less the fact that witches and magic really exist.
She is even less prepared to meet Jack, the Fire Witch to whom she finds herself irresistibly drawn. Thrown together when Jack is assigned as her bodyguard to protect her from a group of evil witches intent on sacrificing Mira for their own nefarious purposes, desire burns hot between these two. Sure, Fire and Air Elementals are naturally drawn to one another, but the attraction she feels for Jack appear to go uncomfortably further for that. After surviving one bad relationship and broken marriage, Mira isn’t in the market for another and is determined to keep this thing with Jack purely physical. Easier said than done.
But Jack has issues of his own – secrets he can’t share with Mira, and those secrets threaten to destroy her feelings for him forever.
Bravo! I was already a fan of author Anya Bast after reading some of her eBooks from another publisher, but her new print release through Berkley moves her up my list of favorite authors and cements her as an auto buy! Witch Fire is a bewitching start to what promises to be a fascinating new series – Elemental Witches.
Mira is a perfect romantic heroine – a little broken from a bad marriage, but still warm and caring and ready to love again, even when she does not think so herself. She has a forgiving nature, which proves a balm to Jack’s long tortured soul and mind when she discovers the secrets he has hidden from her. Although she was not raised with knowledge of her powers, she quickly accepts her new role and the responsibility her powers bring her.
Jack is strong and heart-breaking as he punishes himself for a past that was beyond his control. Watching him penalize himself for a wrong he believes he perpetrated on Mira’s family long ago tore me up, especially as he denied both himself and Mira the love both so desperately needed in each other’s arms. But by the same token, this made the happy ending so much sweeter when Jack finally discovers redemption in the arms of his soul mate.
I loved this Elemental Witches, Book 1: Witch Fire, and cannot tell you how excited I was when I read on Bast’s blog that she is pretty much done with its sequel, Witch Blood! I will be counting the days until Book 2 of this exciting paranormal series is ready for review… But having read Witch Fire, I learned I cannot begin reading one of Anya Bast’s books too close to bedtime, as I will be up all night until I finish it!
Series Order:
Witch Fire (Elemental Witches, Book 1)
Witch Blood
Review by K. Payne for Witch Fire (Elemental Witches, Book 1)
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This book had way too much sex in it for me. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against sex scenes,but this was page after page after page of sex. Once Mira started coming into her gift and using her powers it was great and I really got into the storyline, but I don’t know if I’ll buy book two of the series because it was a little hard core for me. Anya Bast is a great writer, but I definately think she would appeal to more readers if she would tone down the sex a little!
Review by Aegis Nod for Witch Fire (Elemental Witches, Book 1)
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Mira Hoskins is a twenty-something waitress at Mike’s Downtown Diner in the downtown Minneapolis-St Paul area. Her divorce has finally gone through, and she’s rebuilding a life she hadn’t expected to piece back together. Things are looking up, as much as they were looking down. Or so she thought.
She’s also an elemental witch. And her call of power? Air, the most powerful of all the four elements. But as a rare breed of witch, and her parents supposedly killed in a car accident, Mira was given the chance to grow up normal by her godmother Annie. Thus, mostly unaware to that whole other world. Including how her parents were really killed, and who she truly is.
Jack McAllister is the thug man for the leading ‘good’ witch group, the Coven, led by Mira’s uncle, Thomas Monahan. As he saves Mira from a brush in with the ‘bad’ guys, called the Duskoff and headed by his own father William Crane, it’s up to Jack to get Mira battle-ready. The plan is to train Mira in her new call of power, and to make sure that she doesn’t fall into enemy hands. And for Jack to face the haunts of his past, stop his self-immolation of guilt, and save a woman he can’t resist.
What Crane wants is the sacrifice a witch of each element-air, water, fire, earth-in order to close powerful and magical circles, a sort of demonic entry, in order to use the evil that comes through to get the Duskoff whatever they want. Especially employing all the deadly seven sins. And ruling the world.
The Wiccan/witchcraft philosophy is well done, well researched and the only thing that was consistent and solid from beginning to end. The rules which govern magic, the Coven and the Duskoff were interesting. But nothing new.
Unfortunately, this book is overrun with more sex scenes rather than with good character development or attention-grabbing story line, both of which seemed to be just thrown in. Mira and Jack are just two sex-crazed people and little else, and the circumstances surrounding his guilt which concerns how Mira’s parents were killed, is just barely believable as well as Crane’s overall interest in Mira, besides her rare gift. The balance between plot development and characterization and sex/romance was given second place as Bast focused the main ‘action’–sex–away from emotional propulsion with a few mediocre non-sex action scenes. Anyone that’s read the later LKH Anita Blake series will know, painfully, it’s a weak ploy to use, especially to the point where, what should have been the main plot, of Mira struggling with being a witch after being cloistered away from it, as well as Jack and the Duskoff plot line, or from Jack’s struggle to confront his father and forgive himself so he can be with Mira, gets covered up. The setup was there and promising but Blast didn’t care. If the focus had been more on Jack and Mira, not Jack & Mira trying to get it on every ten seconds, it could have made the book that extra special something. While some parts weren’t badly done, the writing has no bite and it meanders, often times repetitive and bland, scenes which seem to draw out something that really shouldn’t. And I didn’t find the sex scenes very interesting either…I actually just skimmed over those part, which is nearly half the book.
Witch Fire is more of a mild erotica romp rather than a true romance, though the mechanisms of a romance tale are there. I didn’t really take to the characters much and the plotting was weak, the writing just okay. So for me, it was a miss on a lot of levels, but you never know, I just might test myself to see if Book 2 falls prey to the same weakness that made Book 1 so…blah.
Review by C. M. Styer for Witch Fire (Elemental Witches, Book 1)
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I picked this up at the library for fun. I’m not big on romance novels, so I gave it a three star (OK) rating, but overall it was enjoyable. If you like romance, with plenty of sex in the mix, and a decent story, then you’ll likely enjoy this. It really works for what it is.
If you’re looking for great story, deep characters, or are offended by sexuality and erotic literature, then you might want to put this down and try something else. Witch Fire was a fun read with several saucy passages. The characters were interesting without having much background, and the writing was compelling enough that I didn’t just flip past the story for the saucy bits.