Return from Witch Mountain

Alien youngsters Tia and Tony (Kim Richards and Ike Eisenmann) return to Earth for a vacation, only to fall victim to the machinations of a power-hungry scientist (Christopher Lee) and his spinster financier (Bette Davis).

Return from Witch Mountain is the sequel to Escape to Witch Mountain that unfortunately lacks the original’s sense of charm and adventure.

This time around instead of pairing child actors Kim Richards and Ike Eisenmann in another “us against the world” scenario, they spend much of the film apart, with Richards falling in with a gang that makes Westside Story’s Jets and Sharks look positively menacing. Seriously, not only is she taller than some of the boys, she looks at least 3 years older, which, at that age, is a significant difference.

Top-billed Bette Davis and Christopher Lee don’t help much either. While Lee does what he can with the limp script, Davis totally phones it in, and neither of them manages the fun panache that Ray Milland brought to the original.

One thing this sequel does retain from the original is its over reliance on dated special effects. Again, they drag the story down, killing any kind of tension and will likely turn off savvier youngsters.

In the end, there’s little reason to watch Return from Witch Mountain, even if you’re fan of the original, as this entry lacks all of the charm and fun that made the first entry passable.