YMMV / The Witches (2020)

• Accidental Aesop: There is no such thing as a safe place. Grandmamma assumes that a rich white folks' hotel won't have any witches going after her grandson. Technically they weren't but he ran into all the witches in the area by the worst luck.
• Complete Monster: The Grand High Witch is the leader of the witches, a demonic species that terrorizes and kills children. Unsatisfied with only targeting poor, underclass children, the Grand High Witch aims to wipe out every child in the world, killing one of her subordinates who questions her. The Grand High Witch schemes to transform every child into a mouse to eliminate them, demonstrating this on the protagonist and his friend Bruno. She's also revealed to have cursed Grandma's childhood friend Alice into the form of a chicken long ago, something she taunts Grandma with in the present.
• Ham and Cheese: Anne Hathaway throws any subtlety out of the window with her own take on the Grand High Witch that's been compared to Green Esmeraude from Sailor Moon or Madeline Ashton from one of Zemeckis's previous entries Death Becomes Her in terms of hamminess.
• Paranoia Fuel:
  • Never accept candy from a stranger. A witch may be targeting you or is targeting your child.
  • Even if you escape from a witch, she won't forget you. Your hair may go gray and your body and face may change, but a witch knows those who escape her.
• Questionable Casting: To many, Octavia Spencer wasn't exactly what came to mind when cast as the protagonist's grandmother. Many viewers say the 50-year-old Spencer's casting makes her look more like the boy's mother or aunt.
  • Chris Rock as The Narrator/older protagonist reeks of this, given that he’s not the type of actor you’d expect to play a serious part. Him not doing anything to change his usual acting method doesn’t help.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: While this adaptation maintains the book's original ending unlike the original 1990s film, it has several changes between the film and the book that make some of the more negative criticisms reasonably justified.
  • The location of the setting being set in Alabama, United States instead of Norway and England, which the film doesn’t make much effort to justify as a decision.
  • The tacky narration by Chris Rock, which results in Spoiled by the Format that ruins the tension of whether the main boy will make it out.
  • The trade from the practical puppetry to overly extensive CGI that already feels dated.

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