The Witches of Eastwick hit home video today in 1988, after a June 1987 theatrical release.
Now that’s one tough cocktail to mix – part psychodrama, part romantic comedy, part FX showcase, part power fantasy, part accidental allegory about small-town rot – and while a lot of it spills out of the shaker, when you get a mouthful of all those ingredients working just right, it goes down smooth. You might pick up a strong bouquet of studio notes, and it does leave that musky aftertaste, but mostly it’s a good burn. The hangover comes after you’ve had too much to think.
Still, when this film swings the racket, it connects. The effects work is some of the best practical magic you’ll find outside a horror set, and Jack Nicholson’s Darryl Van Horne is already halfway to the Joker – a manic wrecking ball of smirking demonic glee. The Garber-Peters team also produced Batman a couple of years later, and you can hear some of the same echoes in Jack’s dialogue.
Last month, Mom took a closer look at the film’s most haunting casualty – Felicia Alden – and the way the story doesn’t quite know what to do with a woman who sees too much.
It’s a hell of a read.