The Witches (1966 film)


The Witches, released in the United States as The Devil's Own, is a 1966 British horror film directed by Cyril Frankel and starring Joan Fontaine, Alec McCowen, Kay Walsh, Ann Bell, Ingrid Boulting and Gwen Ffrangcon Davies. Made by Hammer Films, it was adapted by Nigel Kneale from the novel The Devil's Own by Norah Lofts, published under the pseudonym Peter Curtis.

Plot

Gwen Mayfield, an English schoolteacher recovering from a nervous breakdown in Africa, takes a job from the Reverend Alan Bax. Bax runs a school in the remote village of Heddaby. It soon becomes apparent that Bax is neither a minister nor is the school associated with any church: Bax's sister, Stephanie, describes his wearing of the clerical collar as "a harmless pretense" and the only church nearby is an old ruin. Bax claims he wears clerical garb "for security", but refuses to elaborate.
Gwen finds that two of her students, Ronnie Dowsett and Linda Rigg, are beginning a romance that seems opposed by adults in the village. Ronnie secretly tells Gwen that Linda is physically abused by the grandmother who raises her. Gwen visits their home to investigate and is told that Linda has injured her hand in a household accident. When the grandmother is out of the room, Linda insists her grandmother injured her hand in a laundry wringer.
Ronnie is a gifted student. Bax wants to send him to a special "cramming" school that will better prepare him for university, but the boy's father is opposed to sending Ronnie away. Gwen volunteers to give the boy additional tutoring to compensate.
Ronnie presents Linda with a male doll as a mate to her female one, suggesting that the dolls represent them as a couple. The new doll goes missing. The next day, Ronnie falls into a coma and is hospitalized.
Gwen finds the missing doll in the fork of a tree. Pins have been stuck through it and the head is missing. She shows it to Linda, who suggests it is witchcraft. When Gwen tries to remove the pins, Linda insists that trying to undo magic reinforces one's belief in it, giving power to the witch. Gwen concedes to this wisdom. Impressed by Gwen's knowledge of witchcraft in Africa, Stephanie invites Gwen to assist her with an article about witchcraft in contemporary England.
Mrs. Dowsett, described by her husband as having "silly" beliefs, once came down with shingles after an argument with Mrs. Rigg about Ronnie. When Gwen asks her about the possible cause of Ronnie's coma, Mrs. Dowsett becomes upset and confronts Rigg. The next day, Ronnie is out of the coma. Mrs. Dowsett takes him away to family in Wales. Suspecting some kind of arrangement with Rigg, Mr. Dowsett confronts Rigg and is later found drowned on the beach.
Circumstantial evidence suggests to Gwen that real witches are behind the Dowsetts' troubles. She announces her plans to testify to this at the inquest into Dowsett's death. Following an injury from Stephanie's dogs, Gwen is taken to the Baxes' home where she is treated by the local doctor. Frightened in the night by an African totem, she suffers another nervous breakdown.
Recovering weeks later in a special care hospital, Gwen has no memory of leaving Africa or ever hearing of Heddaby. Her memory is jogged days later when a little girl with a doll visits another patient. Convinced that something dire may happen to Linda, she escapes the hospital and hitchhikes to Heddaby. Gwen is welcomed warmly by the villagers, but one of them confides that "they" have taken Linda. Waylaid by the Baxes, who had paid for her care at the hospital, Gwen is not able to check on Linda for several days. Mrs. Rigg nervously tells her that Linda is staying with relatives elsewhere.
Seeing from the Baxes' window a group of people scurrying toward the ruined church, Gwen slips away to investigate. Alan appears and tries to ward her back to the house, but Gwen enters the ruin and finds a witches' circle. Stephanie arrives and reveals herself as the priestess of the local coven, her long-term plan to initiate Gwen into their ranks. The coven members emerge from the shadows and a ceremony begins.
Stephanie explains that she has learned a ritual that extends life through the ritual sacrifice of a pure maiden. Ronnie had to be sent away so that Linda could be used in the ritual. Planned for the next night, the place of sacrifice is to be kept spiritually clean or the power of the ritual will turn upon the witch. Unable to find where they are hiding Linda, Gwen waits for the ceremony. Linda is there but in a trance, unable to assist in her own rescue. As Stephanie raises the ritual knife to kill the girl, Gwen cuts herself and smears her blood on Stephanie's robe, defiling it. Seized with convulsions, Stephanie tries to remove her soiled garb, but falls dead.
The villagers, magically enslaved by Stephanie, were not willing members of the coven. Freed of her control, Heddaby returns to normal over the next several weeks.

Cast

Production

The village of Hambleden, Buckinghamshire, was the filming location for the fictional village of Heddaby. Interiors were filmed at Hammer's usual studio at Bray in the same year that the famous horror film company vacated their home altogether for Elstree and Pinewood. The cast featured child-actor Martin Stephens, then 17. The supporting cast also included Hammer regular Duncan Lamont, as well as John Collin, Michele Dotrice, Leonard Rossiter and Bryan Marshall. The score was by Richard Rodney Bennett.

Critical reception

Variety called the film "routine entertainment". The Hammer Story: The Authorised Biography of Hammer Films called the film "unsettling, though compromised by a hysterical climax", writing, "when The Witches strikes the right balance it ultimately succeeds as an engrossing thriller, even if it ultimately disappoints as Hammer horror."
As of 2018, The Witches currently holds a three-star rating on IMDb and 67% maximum approval on Rotten Tomatoes.