the witches of eastwick movie review

Cast & crew

User reviews

The Witches of Eastwick

Well-told tale of an age-old struggle.

brchthethird
Jan 6, 2015

An ensemble that Hollywood got right.

garyvines-01290
Apr 2, 2023

A Bewitching tale with something for everyone

carlykristen
Oct 9, 2006

Strange Combination of Horror and Comedy

claudio_carvalho
Nov 27, 2015

Gleefully Gross Fun

Jul 11, 1999

"Who are you? Just your average, horny little devil"

Galina_movie_fan
Jan 20, 2005

What fun Nicholson must have had with this!

Dec 8, 2000

The Devil went up to New England.

Jun 14, 2023

A Great Quadrangle of Mischievous Witches.

Apr 5, 2005

Raunchy fun with a trio of famous actresses along with an excessive Jack Nicholson

Dec 1, 2022

I don't see anything funny here

Sep 19, 2014

The songs Witchy Woman (women) meets Sympathy for the Devil, combined for a comic fantasy

May 13, 2003

Despite frantic happiness and high spirits, a pall hangs over this adaptation of Updike like a dark cloud

moonspinner55
Nov 25, 2002

Major Disappointment

Oct 19, 2007

Sin Has Rarely Looked So Good.

Jul 2, 2004

It was all right, but the plot is a bit incomprehensible.

Aug 22, 2009

A great guilty-pleasure.

MOscarbradley
Jun 9, 2020

Good Light Entertainment

v_haritha_in
Aug 12, 2014

Decent fantasy horror, but not much more

Oct 18, 2006
destiny_west
Feb 26, 2023

Not really the camp 80's film it's marketed as...

May 30, 2007

Dumbed down to nothing

paul2001sw-1
Sep 30, 2013

One of the Best

Jul 29, 2001

Funny and highly provocative, it's an essay on the seductive capacity of Evil.

filipemanuelneto
Nov 19, 2021

Probably the worst movie I ever saw

Aug 23, 2018

More from this title

More to explore, recently viewed.

We sent an email to [email protected]

Didn't you get the email?

By joining, you agree to the Terms and Policies and Privacy Policy and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

User 8 or more characters with a number and a lowercase letter. No spaces.

username@email

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

Upcoming Movies and TV shows
Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

About Rotten Tomatoes®
Login/signup

Movies in theaters

Opening This Week
Top Box Office
Coming Soon to Theaters
Certified Fresh Movies

Movies at Home

Fandango at Home
Prime Video
Most Popular Streaming Movies
What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

80% Emilia Pérez Link to Emilia Pérez
96% A Real Pain Link to A Real Pain
100% All We Imagine as Light Link to All We Imagine as Light

New TV Tonight

71% Dune: Prophecy: Season 1
71% Landman: Season 1
80% Interior Chinatown: Season 1
-- Based On A True Story: Season 2
-- The Sex Lives of College Girls: Season 3
100% Outlander: Season 7
-- A Man on the Inside: Season 1
-- Cruel Intentions: Season 1
-- Our Oceans: Season 1
-- Making Manson: Season 1

The Witches of Eastwick Reviews

Even at its trashiest the movie keeps bumping along.

Full Review | Sep 13, 2023

George Miller, who directed the Mad Max trilogy, has made The Witches of Eastwick a provocative movie, decidedly unwholesome without being cynical, when so many movies today are either sentimental, or cynical in a transparently sentimental way.

Full Review | May 20, 2022

All in all, a polished and witty bit of male sexual panic.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | May 10, 2022

Nicholson doesn't need special effects; he is one himself. Yet on balance, the film is mostly an outrageous, foul-mouthed good time.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 22, 2022

Jack Nicholson plays “Just your average horny little devil” in The Witches of Eastwick, an entertaining, albeit uneven, conjuring from Warner Bros. that will likely cast a strong spell at the box office.

Full Review | Apr 22, 2022

With a no-holds-barred performance by Jack Nicholson as the horny Satan, it’s a very funny and irresistible set-up for anyone who has ever been baffled by the opposite sex.

The Witches of Eastwick brings a broad, obvious, punchy style and a lot of special effects to bear upon a story of seduction that is much too frail to support this kind of gimmickry.

The Witches of Eastwick is filmmaking of a very high order; it's also a great time at the movies.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 22, 2022

Mad Max director George Miller films this New Testament moralizing with bounce but no particular style; his distinct cinematic flavor seems to depend on his subject matter.

Whatever the movie's failings -- and they are monumental -- for the moment in which the devil throws the definitive post-Freudian male fit... The Witches of Eastwick is worth all we must endure.

Nicholson is nothing short of brilliant in an electrifying performance that mixes manic eeriness with a delightful comedic flair.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Apr 22, 2022

The Witches of Eastwick is a diverting, impeccably polished and excellently cast movie. But its charms fade fast, about as fast as it takes to leave the theater.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 22, 2022

A sublime, albeit surreal, sex farce is not an obvious assignment for a fellow who made his mark fashioning post-apocalyptic mayhem movies. To his credit, Miller carries off the transition splendidly.

I found it fascinating, amusing and at moments beautiful. It also may be imaginative, literate and adult at a time when 14-year-olds seem to dictate what the rest of us get to see at the movies. But it isn't Updike.

Although The Witches of Eastwick has little to say, it says it with flashes of brilliance. It's one of those movies in which the parts are better than the whole.

By placing the ball in Nicholson's court, Miller allows the movie to run away with his megabuck star. It ultimately disintegrates into just a routine horror flick with some cheesy-looking special effects.

Nicholson hardly gives the performance of his career in The Witches of Eastwick, but it's an effective performance, one that fills up an already full screen. And as usual, Jack Nicholson is the most interesting thing in the movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 22, 2022

It's hard to name a film-maker who has had so much fun with the supernatural as Miller has here. Or an actor like Nicholson, who has abetted him so wantonly.

In a film that occasionally trips over its supernatural technical tricks, Nicholson proves to be the greatest special effect of them all.

Its performers either need recharges or hormonal supplements, because the film is about as erotic as a tool and die catalogue.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 22, 2022

an image, when javascript is unavailable

The Definitive Voice of Entertainment News

Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter

site categories

‘the witches of eastwick’: thr’s 1987 review.

On June 12, 1987, director George Miller released 'The Witches of Eastwick.'

By Duane Byrge

Duane Byrge

Share on Facebook
Share to Flipboard
Send an Email
Show additional share options
Share on LinkedIn
Share on Pinterest
Share on Reddit
Share on Tumblr
Share on Whats App
Print the Article
Post a Comment

'The Witches of Eastwick' Review: 1987 Movie

On June 12, 1987, director George Miller released his first comedy, and his first film that didn’t star Mel Gibson as Mad Max. The Hollywood Reporter’s original review for The Witches of Eastwick — starring Jack Nicholson, Cher, Susan Sarandon and Michelle Pfeiffer — is below.

Jack Nicholson plays “Just your average horny little devil” in The Witches of Eastwick , an entertaining, albeit uneven, conjuring from Warner Bros. that will likely cast a strong spell at the box office.

An impishly Satanic look at contemporary romance, Witches features marvelously honed performances by Cher, Susan Sarandon and Michelle Pfeiffer as three sexually frustrated and unfulfilled women. Audiences are certain to be a curious mix — upscale women side by side with horror/ sci-fi buffs. As a project of such diverse appeal would forebode, both fringes are likely to leave unfulfilled, feminists as well as hardware junkies.

Unfortunately, after a terrific, deliciously devious first hour, this sophisticated, comic sex battle soars out of control, blown by its own creative excesses. The second half is a bizarre melange, a curious blend of Felliniesque compositions with Lucasfilm pyrotechnics. In short, director George Miller draws from disparate aesthetic palettes, muddling the picture’s often astute sensibilities.

Witches is, in essence, a perceptive and biting look at Puritanical repression as it affects modern women. Centering on three single women languishing in the small New England burg of Eastwick , the film is a bristling and insightful look at female frustration. Independent and intelligent, the three “witches” are shackled by small-town mores and historical traditions. More pointedly, there are no intelligent, eligible men around to challenge their liberated spirits.

What if, they fantasize, a “tall, dark, prince traveling under a curse” enters their lives? And a big double-twisted zap! Into their lives comes a smooth-talking millionaire (Jack Nicholson) with a direct and decadent grin and all the right moves. He quickly lures the smitten women into the sack.

With the repressed and deserted band teacher ( Sarandon ), he waxes on the virtues of precision and passion; with the spunky and widowed sculptress (Cher), he decries social hypocrisy; and with the fecund and deserted reporter (Pfeiffer), he exudes cosmic serenity — in short, they all fall for his line. They all land in his wide, Borgia bed. It doesn’t take long, however, for them to realize that behind his debauched grin and disarming ways, there lurks a devious and loveless misogynist. They turn the tables.

Unfortunately, what was heretofore a bright and somewhat piercing look at male domination, as well as a perceptive insight into the female spirit, degenerates into a zap-dash, special effects war: the three “witches” vs. smiling Jack.

Further marring this essentially bright, ambitious production and indicative of its excessive largess is the costumery — Nicholson throughout is bedecked in a regalia of goofery that went out with the Ming Dynasty and ‘ 60s album covers. When you’ve got Jack Nicholson, one silly yellow suit will do.

Despite Nicholson’s attention-calling costumes, the production design is superior. Polly Platt has masterfully concocted an appropriately strange blend of New England asceticism and Saturnalic gluttony, auguring succinctly that beneath the town’s spare, Puritanical surfaces lurk wild-brewing, unfulfilled spirits. Vilmos Zsigmond brilliantly distills the setting and story’s teeming contradictions in his sharp and expansive photography. While Witches is highlighted by the three masterful performances of Cher, Sarandon and Pfeiffer, Veronica Cartwright distinguished herself as a hysterically repressed civic leader. — Duane Byrge , first published on June 8, 1987

THR Newsletters

More from The Hollywood Reporter

Msnbc ‘morning joe’ hosts joe scarborough and mika brzezinski meet with trump in bid for “new approach” to coverage, trump picks brendan carr as next fcc chair, bela karolyi, coach of olympic champion gymnasts who was criticized after nassar scandal, dies at 82, donald trump makes surprise appearance at ufc 309 with elon musk, other cabinet picks, denzel washington says people “better realize you’re being manipulated by both” political sides, usps reveals betty white stamp coming in 2025.

IMAGES

'The Witches of Eastwick' Review: 1987 Movie
The Witches of Eastwick wiki, synopsis, reviews, watch and download
The Witches of Eastwick┃1987┃Movie Review┃Classic Witchcraft Comedy
Witches of Eastwick (1987) Witch Movie Review
The Witches of Eastwick Full Movie Facts & Review in English / Jack Nicholson / Cher
Movie Review: The Witches of Eastwick (1987) [HD]