Video Review: 'The Witches' (1991)

For an aging golden-age Hollywood star dabbling in cheesy '60s horror, there were usually two ways to play it: straight like Joan Crawford (sort of) in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Strait-Jacket, and Berserk, or over-the-top like Bette Davis in Baby Jane and Dead Ringer. As an emotionally unstable teacher who uncovers witchcraft and voodoo in a seemingly bucolic English village, Fontaine goes the Crawford route with a performance that recalls the tremulous vulnerability that served her so well in Rebecca and Suspicion. But since this new-to-video Hammer creeper isn't quite up to Hitchcock, it's nice having British vet Walsh around to provide a dash of Davis camp to the brew. B