The Witches of Eastwick (1987)

Three single women in a picturesque village have their wishes granted - at a cost - when a mysterious and flamboyant man arrives in their lives.

Siskoid

It's not easy to give The Witches of Eastwick a capsule review. Objectively, the film is a tonal oddity. Rooted in reality at first, with a big helping of feminist metaphor, it could have stayed in that space and been a terrific comic fable. That it instead goes completely wild with supernatural elements means it's too absurd for that, but I can't deny how fiercely entertaining it is as a result. Jack Nicholson as the Devil has a lot of fun, that's obvious, though it's basically a prequel to his Joker. He comes into a small town, accidentally summoned by three women (Cher, Susan Serandon, and Michelle Pfeiffer) whom he seduces. He unlocks their power, claiming a feminist stance, but can't help standing in as a domineering patriarchy. The underlying metaphor is more or less allegorical. Historically, witches were merely autonomous women said to have "married the Devil", but in reality, were connecting to something entirely feminine (the Satanism lie vs. Wiccan truth). And that plays out in the film, though it's covered up by complete and utter cinematic madness.

7 years ago

corchap

I couldn't tell whether or not this film was about the Devil's ability to disguise himself as each of our individual desires and persuade us into sexual deviancy or the womens' collective lust manifests into the object of their desire and takes them into a progressive open relationship… but I found myself not caring. That was just fun :)

6 years ago

kombelpeter

Comedy gold.

7 years ago

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