{This series will be about my reviews of the films I love, for fun and so that I can practice my writing skills - I get very bored in my house when I'm not doing homework}.
The Witches of Eastwick is a 1987 American dark fantasy-comedy film directed by George Miller and starring Jack Nicholson as the devilish Daryl Van Horne, alongside Cher, Michelle Pfeiffer and Susan Sarandon as the titular witches. The musical score for The Witches of Eastwick was composed and conducted by John Williams. A soundtrack album was released by Warner Bros. Records in 1987. The film is based on John Updike's 1984 novel of the same name, telling the story of three women who are unaware of the power of the words they speak; as they tell each other their deepest desires, a man (Nicholson) arrives just in time and fulfils them, but has a dark side of his own.
I bought this movie a while back in CEX - like most movies I own - and I watched it the following evening with my parents. My parents didn't like it that much (reasons I'll tell later), but I love this film.
Plot:
Alexandra Medford (Cher), Jane Spofford (Susan Sarandon), and Sukie Ridgemont (Michelle Pfeiffer) are three dissatisfied women living in the picturesque town of Eastwick, Rhode Island. Sculptor Alex is a single mother of one daughter, newly divorced music teacher Jane is unable to have children, and Sukie has six daughters and works as a columnist for the Eastwick Word, the local newspaper. The three friends have all lost their husbands (Alex's died, Jane's divorced her, and Sukie's abandoned her). Unaware of being witches, the women unwittingly form a coven, getting together weekly to discuss ideal men.
A mysterious man (Jack Nicholson) arrives in town and scandalously buys the town's landmark property, the Lenox Mansion. The enigmatic stranger's arrival fascinates the townsfolk, all except for Felicia Alden (Veronica Cartwright), the devoutly religious wife of newspaper editor Clyde Alden (Richard Jenkins), Sukie's boss. Felicia senses that this man (whose name is easily forgotten) is ill-intentioned. One night, at one of Jane's music recitals, the strange man appears and makes a spectacle of himself which leads to more gossip. After the recital, Jane receives a bouquet of flowers with the initial D written on it. This sparks Sukie's memory, finally revealing the man's name as Daryl Van Horne. However, as chaos over the name spreads through the crowd, Sukie's bead necklace inexplicably breaks and falls to the floor, causing Felicia (who had mocked Daryl's name) to trip down a large staircase and break her leg.
The following day, Daryl sets out to seduce Alex. As he converses with her, he says insensitive, disgusting, and rude things whenever he speaks. Appalled, she tells him off, refuses his amorous advances and begins to walk out. Before she opens the door, he speaks to her, manipulating her emotions until she eventually agrees. The next morning, Daryl visits the shy and insecure Jane. As the two sit down and politely converse, Jane explains that the Lenox Mansion was built on a site where alleged witches were executed. Later that night, Daryl encourages Jane to play her cello with wild abandon, never before achieved, playing increasingly fast while accompanied by Daryl on the piano, until finally the strings emit smoke, the cello catches fire, and Jane passionately flings herself upon Daryl. The following week, Daryl invites all three women to his mansion, now seeking Sukie. Later, as envy and rivalry emerge among the women, they inadvertently levitate a tennis ball. Finally aware of their magical abilities, the women agree to share Daryl.
As the women spend more time at Daryl's mansion, Felicia spreads rumors' about their indecency, turning the trio into social outcasts. As the witches begin to question their loyalty to Daryl, he causes them to unknowingly cast a spell against Felicia. Later that night, while ranting to her husband about Daryl being the Devil, Felicia begins to vomit cherry pits. Horrified by her uncontrollable behavior, Clyde kills her with a fire poker.
After Felicia's death, the trio, fearing their powers, agree to avoid each other and Daryl until the situation has stabilized. Upset at being abandoned, Daryl uses his own powers to awaken their worst fears. Alex awakens to a bed full of snakes; Jane's body begins rapidly aging; and Sukie experiences sudden, agonizing pain. Realizing they can only remove Daryl by using witchcraft against him, they reunite with him, pretending to have made amends. At the same time, they all discover they're pregnant.
The next morning, the trio send Daryl on an errand to distract him while Alex uses candle wax and Daryl's hair to create a voodoo doll in his image that the three women begin to harm, hoping Daryl will flee as a result. As the spell takes effect, Daryl - still in town - is buffeted by a sudden wind and begins to feel excruciating pain (each event corresponding to something the girls do to the doll). He runs inside a church to hide from the wind and finds it full of people praying. Realizing the source of his troubles, he begins ranting about the women, cursing them as a group before vomiting cherry pits as Felicia did. An enraged Daryl then races home to punish the witches for their betrayal. Initially unsure if their plot to banish Daryl has affected him, they attempt to hide their spell and to behave normally, only to be shocked when he enters the mansion disheveled, incoherent, and bent on revenge. In the ensuing chaos, the doll gets smashed into pieces. This causes Daryl to transform to a large, monstrous form that attempts to shake the mansion apart and starts a fire. The witches then toss the voodoo doll into the fire, causing Daryl to change again into a shriveled homunculus and vanish.
Eighteen months later, the women are living together in Daryl's mansion, each with a new baby son (each boy shares his mother's hair colour). The boys are playing together when Daryl appears on a wall filled with video screens, inviting them to "give Daddy a kiss". Before they can do so, the ladies appear and switch off the televisions, much to his chagrin.
Casting:
Jack Nicholson expressed interest in playing the role of Daryl through his then-girlfriend Anjelica Huston, after hearing that the original actor for the role, Bill Murray, had dropped out. Huston was in the running for the role of Alexandra Medford, and screen-tested opposite Michelle Pfeiffer, who had already been cast as Sukie, and Amy Madigan, who was being considered for the role of Jane. After giving a self-confessed "terrible" audition in which she struggled with the "tough" dialogue, Huston realized she had lost the role, and it would eventually be offered to Cher; but Cher insisted on playing the part of Alexandra, which had already been given to Susan Sarandon. Producers gave in to Cher’s demands and cast her in the role instead, without ever giving Sarandon proper notice of the revision. She did not find out that her role had been given to Cher, and that she herself had been re-cast as Jane, until the day she turned up on location to start filming.
Filming:
The Witches of Eastwick was originally set to be filmed in Little Compton, Rhode Island but controversy erupted in Little Compton over whether or not its Congregational church should be involved with the film's production. Warner Bros. instead turned to locations in Massachusetts. Principal photography began on July 14, 1986, and took place over the course of six weeks in Cohasset and nearby Massachusetts towns, such as Marblehead and Scituate. Castle Hill in Ipswich, Massachusetts, was used for the exterior of the Lenox Mansion, while the lobby of the Wang Centre in Boston stood in for the main hall. Other interiors were filmed at the Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills, though the swimming pool and Daryl's library were sets built on the Warner Bros. backlot.
Prior to filming, a small carving shop led by woodcarver Paul McCarthy was commissioned to hand-carve all the wooden signs for the businesses shown in the movie, including the newspaper where Michelle Pfeiffer's character worked – The Eastwick Word.
My Review:
This is one of my favorite films up to date. As far as plots go it's quite predictable yet it is good - it keeps you questioning, on first watch, on who exactly Daryl Van Horne is, the pay off is quite exciting. The pacing of the movie is fine, it along with the score - which isn't anything spectacular, especially in comparison to other 80s movies - are competent and help carry the narrative. The casting is great; Jack Nicholson does a great portrayal of the delightfully seductive devil Daryl Van Horne - the highlight of the film - as well: Cher, Sarandon and Pfeifer do great performances of the relatable, likeable, unique witch trio.
The main reason why my parents don't really like this film is because Daryl (Nicholson) is supposed to be 'the Devil' (that and there is quite a bit of swearing). They abandoned me halfway through the film leaving me to watch the rest alone. But it's fine, I enjoyed it nonetheless. A few weeks after I re-watched it with my big sister and she liked it, as I knew she would.
Overall I highly recommend this film if you haven't seen it already. I give it a 7.5/10, there are better films from the decade but it's in my 'Top 20'.
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