Anne Hathaway Is A Fabulous Fright In 'Roald Dahl's The Witches' Trailer

If you weren't already excited about October arriving and with it, the beginning of the spooky season, please go ahead and watch Anne Hathaway in The Witches trailer. Warner Bros. reimagined telling of the Roald Dahl classic looks like the perfect combination of funny and spooky, and Hathaway looks like the perfect choice to play the Grand High Witch. Is there anything she can't do?

The new trailer sees Hathaway leading a pack of child-hating witches into a hotel for what appears to be some sort of conference, meeting with concierge Stanley Tucci and asking him what he would do if his hotel was suddenly full of mice. Because this is part of her grand plan, you see. Turn children into mice and then have them exterminated, as she says to the other witches, "You see girls? He would exterminate those brats!" Tucci reminds her that he would exterminate rats not brats, but the damage was done. The idea planted. Hathaway and the other witches plan to turn children into mice.

You have to hand it to Roald Dahl, the beloved British author who wrote the original children's story in 1983. He did not shy away from going dark just because he was writing for kids. Of course, it helps that this book is all about good winning out over evil, which does not bode well for Hathaway in this movie.

Roald Dahl's The Witches film will be available for streaming on HBO Max on Oct. 22, skipping the big screen entirely. The new version will also stars Octavia Spencer as a retired witch hunter fighting to save her grandson from the child-hating witches.

The original novel takes place in Sweden and Great Britain, but this version is set in the United States in 1960s (which makes for great music and colorful fashion, if the trailer is to be believed).

Hathaway has some pretty big shoes to fill as the Grand High Witch. The 1990 movie of The Witches starred the great Angelica Huston in the role, and her portrayal is the stuff of legends. But I suspect Hathaway is up to the challenge just from watching two minutes of her performance in the trailer alone.

Catch Roald Dahl's The Witches on HBO Max on Oct. 22, just in time for Halloween.