4 of the scariest Roald Dahl characters
The BFG opened in cinemas last week, and tells the tale of an unlikely friendship of giant proportions. Ten-year-old Sophie embarks on a whirlwind of an adventure with the Big Friendly Giant (a.k.a. the BFG) in Giant Country, where they work together to bring down man-eating giants.
The movie is based on one of British author Roald Dahl’s classics of the same name, which was first published in 1982. The BFG is a character that has been beloved by generations, a gentle, loveable creature despite his giant stature.
The man-eating monsters on the other hand, are not quite as gentle, but they aren’t the only frights and fiends we’ve come across in Roald Dahl’s books. Take a walk down memory lane, and see if you can remember these terrifying characters created by literary legend, Roald Dahl.
1. The Grand High Witch
“My orders are that every single child in this country shall be rrubbed out, sqvashed, sqvirted, sqvittered and frrrittered before I come here again in vun year’s time! Do I make myself clear?“ - The Grand High Witch
The Grand High Witch from Roald Dahl’s 1983 classic The Witches is the most powerful witch in the world, and “all witches are petrified of her”. Her lifelong mission is to rid the world of all human children through cruel means, such as turning them into mice or trapping them in paintings.
Also terrifying is the legion of witches she commands who (apart from having gaudy fashion choices) also bear hauntingly vacant expressions - the stuff of nightmares for us when we were kids.
The Grand High Witch was brought to life by Anjelica Huston (famous for also playing Morticia Addams in 1991′s The Addams Family) in the movie adaptation. It was in the film that we saw first hand exactly how gruesome and horrifying the witches were, once they removed their “human” disguises.
2. The Enormous Crocodile
The Enormous Crocodile grinned, showing hundreds of sharp white teeth. "For my lunch today,” he said, “I would like a nice juicy little child.” - The Enormous Crocodile
The Enormous Crocodile (yes, that’s his name) is a beastly creature that dreams of feeding on juicy, plump children for lunch. He devises schemes and tricks to trap children, but his plans are repeatedly foiled by other creatures of the forest.
For a young child, this story could quickly spiral into a gory, terrifying tale of monstrous beasts hunting little children. We’re not sure if mega-crocs like these still exist, but it would be frightening if there was a crocodile somewhere in the wild with a mouth large enough to chomp down several children at once.
3. The Child Catcher
The Baroness will have your teeth for a necklace, and your eyeball for earrings. - The Child Catcher
Fun fact: did you know that the screenplay for 1968′s Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was co-written by Roald Dahl? The movie was adapted for the big screen from Ian Fleming’s book, but the movie’s villain, the Child Catcher, was created by Dahl specifically for the film.
As one of Dahl’s most iconic characters, the Child Catcher is a maniacal, sinister man who ruthlessly snatches children off the streets and imprisons them. In 2005, the Child Catcher was voted ‘the scariest villain’ in a BBC poll, despite not being a part of the original book at all!
4. Miss Trunchbull
“Looking at her, you got the feeling that this was someone who could bend iron bars and tear telephone directories in half.” - Matilda
The headmistress at Crunchem Hall Primary School is the villain in the tale of Matilda. Armed with olympian strength and a cruel demeanour, the tyrannical Miss Agatha Trunchbull strikes terror in the hearts of students and teachers alike.
She is a formidable woman, described by Roald Dahl as “a gigantic holy terror.” With a heartless penchant for swinging little girls by their pigtails and locking her students in a nail-studded cupboard, she embodies everything we ever feared about school.
