The Witches of Eastwick (1987)
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Three best friends who are unaware they are witches find their lives upended by the arrival of a mysterious man.
The story
Alexandra, Jane, and Sukie are three friends living in Eastwick, Rhode Island, who unknowingly form a coven through their weekly meetings. Their lives are disrupted when a mysterious man named Daryl Van Horne moves into the local Lenox Mansion. As he begins to court the three women, they find themselves entangled in a series of events that force them to confront their own identities and the mysterious nature of their connection.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Alexandra, Jane, and Sukie are three friends in Eastwick, Rhode Island, who are unaware that they are witches. Their lives change when Daryl Van Horne moves into the Lenox Mansion. After Daryl seduces Alexandra, encourages Jane to play her cello with such intensity that it catches fire, and begins a pursuit of Sukie, the women realize they share magical abilities. They are eventually branded as outcasts by a local woman, Felicia, who is later killed by her husband after a ritual gone wrong. After a period of separation, the women are forced to reunite with Daryl to stop him from causing them physical harm. They discover they are all pregnant and use a voodoo doll to cast a spell on Daryl. The ritual causes Daryl to transform into a monster and eventually a shriveled homunculus before vanishing. Eighteen months later, the three women live together in the mansion with their new sons, and Daryl briefly reappears on a television screen before being silenced.
- First release year
- 1987
- Runtime (minutes)
- 118
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- George Miller
- Writers
- Michael Cristofer · screenplay
- Cast and characters
- Jack Nicholson · Daryl; Cher · Alexandra Medford; Susan Sarandon · Jane Spofford; Michelle Pfeiffer · Sukie Ridgemont; Veronica Cartwright · not specified
- Genres
- dark fantasy; comedy
- Themes
- witchcraft; female friendship; supernatural
- Tone and mood
- dark; comedy
- Premise and plot tags
- witchcraft; coven; supernatural; comedy
- Source material / true-story basis
- 1984 novel by John Updike
- Reception
- The film was a box office success and received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics, who praised the performances, especially from Nicholson, but criticized the story.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 67% · scale: percentage · review count: 93; CinemaScore · score: B+ · scale: A+ to F
- Production trivia
- The script was based on a novel by John Updike.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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