Roald Dahl’s books became the inspiration for Robert Zemeckis’s movie, The Witches, which was released in 2020. Despite coming out during the later parts of the lockdown, The Witches managed to gather quite the attention due to its star-studded cast, which included Anne Hathaway, Stanley Tucci, and Octavia Spencer.
The storyline of this Robert Zemeckis film revolves around Charlie, a young boy who goes to live with his grandmother, Agatha after his parents die in an accident. Charlie enjoys his time there, but a dark shadow always keeps looming over him.
Things get worse for Charlie after he falls into the eyes of a witch, and Agatha has to move to another place to prevent Charlie from being cursed. The witches arrive at the same place to test the effects of their secret potion, causing Charlie, Agatha, and others’ lives to be filled with chaos.
Together with all of his other friends, Charlie must stop the evil witches from going ahead with their nefarious plans, which involved turning all children in the area into rats and then getting them exterminated by the hotel staff.
Anne Hathaway plays the evil leader Grand High Witch, while Octavia Spender stars in the role of Agatha and Charlie’s role is played by Jahzir Bruno. Stanley Tucci plays Mr. R. J. Stringer III, the manager of the hotel that all of the witches stay at along with Charlie and Agatha.
Filming Locations
The Witches 2020 may be much closer to the actual plot than the 1990 version, but it had major character changes. Instead of a Norwegian-British boy, the producers behind the 2020 movie chose an African American protagonist and shifted the story’s setting to a small town in Alabama.
The original Roald Dahl book was set in the 80s era of England and Norway. Robert Zemeckis may have changed the film’s setting to Alabama, but major filming for The Witches 2020 took place in the UK. Filming started sometime in mid-2019 when the crew arrived in Alabama and Georgia to shoot some scenes.
Demopolis was the city where The Witch’s crew filmed of their Alabama shots. Considered the largest city in Marengo County, Demopolis has a population of just over 7,000. The area still carries an old 80s atmosphere, which is why Demopolis was the perfect spot for the movie.
The neighboring state of Georgia made it into the 2020 film too, although not for a long time. Both Georgia and Alabama have certain areas that remain untouched and have old buildings that represent the charm of the past era.
Beaufort, a city in South Carolina, was reportedly another one of the filming locations for this Roald Dahl-inspired film. Filled with historic streets, hidden architectural gems, and beautiful nature corners, Beaufort is a popular tourist place for those visiting South Carolina or nearby areas.
While the first half may be shot in the USA, major filming for The Witches 2020 took place in the UK, more specifically, Hertfordshire, England. Extravagant sets and other props were created at the Warner Bros. Studios at Leavesden for the film.
Located near Warner Drive, Leavesden, Hertfordshire, Warner Bros. Studios has served as a filming location for all kinds of hit movies and TV shows, including Wonka, Barbie, Harry Potter, House of Dragon, and many others.
With almost 350,000 sq. feet of stages and 100-acre lots, the Leavesden studio has everything a movie production could ask for. The hotel and all of the interior scenes from The Witch were shot only in Leavesden studios, making it easy for the producers to edit and retake scenes.
This studio has been hosting movies for years, so for a production like the much-awaited Robert Zemeckis film, it’s only appropriate that they’d go for the best, even if it meant shifting the whole crew to another country for half of the film’s scenes.
The Virginia Water Lake, located in Surrey, was another spot that was included in The Witch. A grand construction was set up in the area to film some of the outdoor scenes. The Virginia Water Lake was part of the Harry Potter films too, due to its mystical and picturesque atmosphere.
This sums up all known locations of The Witch 2020, now available to watch on Prime Video or Apple TV.
