Witches of Eastwick is neither a treasure on film or in literary form. Both are about New Englander female empowerment, which is played out literally with hushed spells and evil storms. The book tends to focus on Alexandra more than the others, which may not be true about the film (Michele and Susan may have wanted more ample screen time). It is a story about an aging witch and her coven, living in a small town discovering powers and new love in mid-life. In the movie, this new love happens to be Jack Nicholson, who also happens to be Satan. Yes, Satan, albeit a humerous one, summoned from the depths of Hell by a wayward spell to prey on these poor Ipswitch women so that they may bear him children. End Scene. Let's slap together a raunchy Three's Company and Rosemary's Baby.
This is the movies greatest failing and highest inspiration, because though the novel, written by John Updike (living legend of American lit.) does not include Satan, the ending is decidedly not Hollywood. In the novel, Daryl Van Horne (merely a man, and an almost broke one) sets up his life in town with borrowed money and not dark powers. He does have a decidedly pleasing effect on the coven, increasing their power and their libido. This however, much like the movie, does have an impact on the small town in which they live.
At the end of the movie jilted Daryl becomes a titanic-sized demon that literally raises the roof off of the mansion in an attempt to kill the tiny women inside. At the end of the book, you find Daryl is just on the DL and has skipped town with a male heir to a large family fortune. -Yes, for the record that would be quite different. Although they both have their flaws, there is still something positively alchemical about them. The book, though radiantly anti-climactic is more palpable, and feels a touch more real. The movie has a boffo ending that I just don't buy. I like the story, or at least the conflict and the meaty bits. I wish there were a way to combine the two and come back with something better than both, because when it comes down to it, its all about exacution. Maybe its time for one of those re-makes....