20 Awesome 90s Movies The World Forgot

20. The Witches

The cinematic adaptations of Roald Dahl's beloved books are a wildly mixed bag, but some are very good and are rightly celebrated. Both versions of Matilda, Fantastic Mr Fox, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory... but bizarrely, a strong contender for the best Roald Dahl adaptation of them all doesn't get nearly as much attention. That is 1990's The Witches, directed by the great Nicholas Roeg. 

Even aside from the fact that it captures that Dahl-esque mixture of cruelty and whimsy better than any other adaptation of his work, The Witches is a fabulous work on its own terms. A campy, deliciously dark and visually stunning thrill ride that introduces some of the scariest villains in any family film before triumphantly destroying them in the most bad-ass of ways, this is an endlessly entertaining horror story for kids that strikes exactly the right balance. It's scary, but not excessively so. Like virtually all of Dahl's stories, it'll low-key traumatize you but leave you glowing inside by the end. 

Factor in a tremendous performance from the legendary Anjelica Huston as the Grand High Witch and some exceptional puppetry courtesy of Jim Henson and his crew and you've got elite family fare and then some. And sure, Dahl himself hated it because it changed the ending... but remember, Stephen King hated The Shining. 

So go on, give this little gem a spin. Just make sure not to watch the thoroughly mediocre 2020 adaptation by mistake.