{"id":9969,"date":"2015-08-27T10:06:06","date_gmt":"2015-08-27T14:06:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/?p=9969"},"modified":"2015-08-27T10:06:06","modified_gmt":"2015-08-27T14:06:06","slug":"summer-of-90-the-witches-slant-magazine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/evetushnet\/2015\/08\/summer-of-90-the-witches-slant-magazine.html","title":{"rendered":"“Summer of ’90: ‘The Witches'”: Slant Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

on the last great children\u2019s nightmare factory of the 1980s:<\/p>\n

Children\u2019s movies are traditionally designed to comfort. There\u2019s an unspoken contract between parent and filmmaker: \u201cFor the next 90 minutes, your child will be entertained, but not threatened. No need to worry about your little darlings waking up at three in the morning, bawling in terror. This movie is guaranteed not to trouble anyone\u2019s mind. Most people are inherently good. The bad guys don\u2019t win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Children\u2019s movies, for the most part, have abided by this contract, but for a brief period during the 1980s those rules went out the window. Children\u2019s cinema was in transition\u00ac. The old standbys, musicals and animation, were out, and sci-fi and fantasy were in. Disney and Jim Henson, in particular, were looking to forge new identities, away from their trademark brands. The result was Something Wicked This Way Comes<\/em>, Watcher in the Woods<\/em>, The Black Cauldron<\/em>, Return to Oz<\/em>, and The Dark Crystal<\/em>. These films were guaranteed to give<\/em> children nightmares, populated as they were by creepy carnivals, screeching lizard-like Skeksis, and rooms full of shrieking severed heads. Nicolas Roeg\u2019s The Witches<\/em>, released just as Disney\u2019s renaissance restored the old rules, was the last and darkest of this bunch\u2014the best and perhaps the only horror movie made for children.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

more<\/a>\u2013I disagree that The Witches<\/em> is darker than SWTWC<\/em> or Return to Oz<\/em> but this is a great article\u2013completely agree re: Roeg as director, and the struggle over the ending is fascinating.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

on the last great children\u2019s nightmare factory of the 1980s: Children\u2019s movies are traditionally designed to comfort. There\u2019s an unspoken contract between parent and filmmaker: \u201cFor the next 90 minutes, your child will be entertained, but not threatened. No need to worry about your little darlings waking up at three in the morning, bawling in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1071,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[17,21,119,524,114],"class_list":["post-9969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","tag-children-will-listen","tag-childrens-books","tag-horror","tag-roald-dahl","tag-the-day-the-world-turned-day-glo"],"yoast_head":"\n"Summer of '90: 'The Witches'": Slant Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"on the last great children's nightmare factory of the 1980s: Children's movies are traditionally designed to comfort. 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