Rating: 3.5/5
Veronica is a poor orphan raised by her grandmother and her nanny. The nanny fills Veronica’s head with stories about witches, which excites Veronica’s curiosity
Flavia is a new student, and Veronica befriends her. Veronica uses happenstance and overhearing bits of gossip to convince Flavia that she is a witch
Their friendship sours as Veronica demands more from Flavia, holding her to secrets with threats. Still, the two seem to make amends. That is until they finally go through with a spell to make poison for the fairies, who are the natural enemies of witches
The movie takes a child’s perspective throughout, where almost all of the adults’ faces are obscured or hidden until they serve to scare the children
This movie is a bit of a slow burn, but damn, what an ending!
Stray Thoughts
- Opening credits of the girl aging and turning into a witch — amazing
- The human foley work for the frog noises is perfect. One jumps, and the old man doing the voice work says, “Ugh.”
- Veronica picking up spiders and frogs is braver than the troops
- I feel like if a parent saw this movie, they’d never let their kids outside again
- I knew a girl like Veronica briefly. In 2nd grade, she would boss me and this other boy around, holding us to promises of buying her expensive things in exchange for sex — you know, usual 7-year-old stuff. Thankfully, she moved away before I did anything rash