The Worst Witch and Clown Rebirth (Continued Updates)

(click the video player for a link to Youtube with the rest of the parts in a playlist)

I know I've been doing a lot of stuff on bad movies lately, but I haven't seen this one yet and it's almost Halloween so I might as well do some stuff on Halloween related themes. This is a 1986 movie called "The Worst Witch", and I'm pretty sure it was a TV special or something. So far, it's like a prelude to the Harry Potter series (if it was at an All-Girl's school), before they were a even a dastardly twinkle in the drunken eye of J.K. Rowling. Interpret this movie as you will. It stars Tim Curry as "The Grand Wizard" and a young Fairuza Balk. The only syncs so far are that Fairuza Balk later went on to play a witch in the movie The Craft which was covered extensively by Jake Kotze, the double W sync and Tim CuRRy (TC = 20+3/23/W, for Witch/Wizard of course), who is a one-man sync machine, having been in the movie "IT" where he played a psychotic, child-murdering clown, and he was the androgynous Dr. Frank N. Furter in Rocky Horror Picture Show.

So far, I've heard a pretty bad song, and I've seen the floating disembodied heads of two young girls:

Just look at these breath-taking special effects!

I'd stick around at least until Tim Curry's musical number, which is how I heard about this movie.


I was thinking about this whole Clown/Joker theme, and how it resonates the Fool trump and the Trickster God archetype. Since the Fool trump has been connected to the Sun in other blogs, perhaps it is merely another Solar theme.

I've noticed on nearly every site with info for the movie Zombieland, they use the image of the Zombie (Death-Rebirth) Clown:



Interesting choice.


I will probably update this post with more Worst (Wurst/Frankenfurter?) Witch syncs.

First update: I watched the movie "Street Fighter" earlier (Don't ask me why I punish myself like this) and noticed this painting of the character M. Bison as John Wayne Gacy (another insane clown):



Update 2: Young Fairuza Balk was also in Return to Oz, which I've never seen. I've heard it's a little more "serious" than the original wizard of Oz though. This is interesting to me because I brought up the Clown/Fool as a solar theme, and Oz=Ounces=Gold=Sun. In Worst Witch she is, well, the worst witch at the school, making her a "fool" of sorts.

Right now in Worst Witch, all the first-year girls are being assigned kittens. This reminds me of Ben's work at Pseudo-Occult Media (linked in the sidebar to the right) about "Kittens", but also resonates the Cat as a solar theme (the Sun is associated with Leo). Now the evil witch (played by Charlotte Rae [solar ray/Re]) who hangs out in the woods with a bunch of other vagabond witches (and is planning to take over the school) is singing a song. I paused it in utter horror before she got too far. Must... Continue...

"See you in your nightmares!"
The above image is the definition of this Clown/Witch correlation I seem to be encountering.

(here's a link to Part 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 since they don't seem to be on the playlist)

Update 3: After a really bad green screen "flying" effect scene where the girls are taught how to fly on their broomsticks (I guess? They're not really taught, the teacher [who is in a scarlet flying... dress...] just kind of tells them to fly and they do it], I noticed that Worst Witch herself is named Mildred Hubble, a word which was looked into in this BlackDogStar post (Cat's Eye of the Hubble Bubble) where R.A relates the Hubble Telescope to Tezcatlipoca's Smoking Mirror, which resonates with a witch's bubbling cauldron.

Mildred turns her arch-nemesis Ethel into a pig, effectively linking this movie to Swine Flu (Flu/Flew, Ethel was showing off her flying skills earlier and now she is a pig). The girls are passing around a picture of Tim Curry and kissing it (for what reason, I have no idea) and the teacher Ms. Hardbroom snatches it up, giving us this frame:


Behind her is a giant Blazing star chalkboard, and she is crowned with the Moon and the Stars. This is interesting, because she then tells her students that they are going to be presenting a "broomstick display" for the Grand Wizard (Curry), in which they will be "sinking and rising in an undulating, serpentine formation" then they will "move seamlessly into a large V", and then perform "a dramatic series of nosedives". I shouldn't have to point out the implications of that symbolism for anyone, and I am pretty disturbed by this point.


To be continued tomorrow

Update 4: Here we see Mildred (Balk) next to an "OZ" (O with diagonal line through it) sign:



This seems to be syncing with her role in Return to Oz (which she was in before this movie).

Now Tim Curry as the Grand Wizard is doing his little number. I'll just leave this here...



This song almost seems like it was completely improvised. I can't see anyone sitting down and actually writing this. Anyone spot Tim's tambourine?

Here he is syncing with the Moon and the Heart:



A moment after this, he is superimposed into a Cat's Eye.

In this scene, he holds up a construction paper Sun while syncing with the Moon (making him the middle pillar, I guess?).



The pumpkin at the end literally "sync winks" at us.

So, the girls fuck up their "broomstick display" because Ethel gave Mildred a cursed broom or something. I'm not sure how that couldn't result in a lose-lose situation, as their failure disgusts the Grand Wizard so much that he condemns the entire school and just leaves. Not sure why Ethel thought that was a good idea. Ms. Hardbroom refers to herself as a "Fool" for allowing Mildred into the broomstick display. In Mildred's room as she's planning to run away, we see a poster of David Bowie (as ZiGGy Stardust) hanging on the wall.

Mildred leaves the school to find the evil witches (their leader is the twin sister of the school's headmaster) beginning their spell to take over the school. Mildred begins a "counter spell" (which begins with the words "ishkabibble, ishkaboo"... just found that funny) but she is noticed by the group. They then give chase (very slowly, I might add) and the evil witch tries to turn her into a two-headed cockroach (by singing a single note) which of course doesn't work. It wasn't really a spell, she just made a noise and expected Mildred to turn into a roach. Whatever. Mildred then turns them into snails with the counter spell. Believe me, the confusion is mutual. The "evil witches" were completely unnecessary.

Back at the school, Ethel stupidly reveals to her classmates that Mildred's broomstick was cursed. Mildred's still getting shit from the teachers for leaving the school, but she shows them the box of snails and they believe her. This movie was innovative, in that it included the first scene in movie history where two adults talk to a pile of snails.



Mildred turns them back into witches with a spell, and they proceed to scream their lungs off and sneer at Mildred "menacingly".



Mildred syncs with the Oz symbol once again as she runs to the Great Hall to meet Ms. Cackle (the headmaster):





The Grand Wizard is waiting for Mildred in the great hall, and she receives applause. Tim then gives a pretty insane speech (beginning with "Come, Mildred" and including the sentence "A true witch has witchcraft within her at all times"), and invites Mildred to "fly" with him. She accepts, and they simply float out of the school and take to the skies. This is all very creepy. Tim says "You see? You're not the worst witch anymore", symbolically graduating her from Fool to Magician (or is she a "High" Priestess?) as they fly into the credits. The end.