Sit a Spell While We Conjure Up Witchy Movies for All Occasions
Witches have been popular subjects of folklore since humans began storytelling, so it makes since that they would also feature in motion pictures almost from its beginnings in the late 19th century, in tales ranging from the family-friendly, funny and romantic, to the outright terrifying.
Below, we’ve conjured up several notable movies about witches, across various categories depending upon your mood, from the past 100-plus years. Let us know your favorites, and if you have additions!
Courtesy Everett Collection
FUN/FUNNY WITCHES
I Married a Witch (1942) — This romantic comedy/fantasy is led by Veronica Lake (pictured above) as Jennifer, a witch who is burned at the stake in colonial Salem by Puritan leader Jonathan Wooley (Fredric March). Before she dies, she curses the male descendants of the Wooley clan to always marry the wrong woman, which they do … until the 1940s, when Jennifer returns in a new body to plague politician Wallace Wooley (also played by March), but ends up falling for him.
Bell, Book and Candle (1958) — Another delightful romantic comedy/fantasy, this one stars Kim Novak and James Stewart, following their memorable onscreen pairing about six months earlier in Hitchcock‘s classic thriller Vertigo. Bell, Book and Candle finds modern-day witch Gillian Holroyd (Novak, pictured below) becoming attracted to her neighbor, Shep Henderson (Stewart). But she despises his fiancée (Janice Rule), so she enchants him to fall in love with her, instead. Jack Lemmon and Ernie Kovacs costar.
Courtesy Everett Collection
Witches’ Brew (1980) — In this comedy with some horror elements, three women (played by Teri Garr, Lana Turner and Kathryn Leigh Scott) use witchcraft to further the careers of their professor husbands. But when a higher position becomes available at the university, they turn on each other. Richard Benjamin also stars.
The Worst Witch (1986) — This British adaptation of Jill Murphy’s 1974 children’s book is a musical fantasy centered around Mildred Hubble (Fairuza Balk), the titular “worst witch” at Miss Cackle’s Academy for Witches, who becomes an unlikely hero for the school when Miss Cackle’s evil twin sister, Agatha (both played by Charlotte Rae) schemes to take over. Diana Rigg and Tim Curry also star.
Teen Witch (1989) — A cult favorite after often being shown during Freeform’s annual Halloween event, this fantasy/comedy follows nerdy high schooler Louise (Robyn Lively), who discovers she has magical powers. Her efforts to use this witchcraft to become popular and win over the hottest guy and school, however, backfire.
Hocus Pocus (1993) — Another film that has benefitted from frequent airings on Freeform, this Disney comedy is about a villainously comedy trio of witches (Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy) who are inadvertently resurrected in Salem, Massachusetts, on Halloween night. A sequel was released in 2022, and Hocus Pocus 3 is currently in the works.
Practical Magic (1998) — Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman lead this fantasy romance as sisters Sally and Gillian Owens, witches who have conflicting opinions about their abilities and whether to use them, and who are both under a curse that may prevent them from finding lasting love.
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The Witches of Eastwick (1987) — George Miller helmed this fun adaptation of John Updike’s novel about three single women (played by Cher, Michelle Pfeiffer and Susan Sarandon) living in a small Rhode Island town who begin to have their wishes granted, but at a cost, after a mysterious and flamboyant man (Jack Nicholson) shows up.
Wicked Stepmother (1989) — Bette Davis’ last feature film performance (although she did withdraw from the project after filming began) came in this dark comedy in which she plays a chain-smoking witch who, with her daughter (Barbara Carrera), also a witch, wreaks havoc on a suburban family. For a good part of the film, Davis’ absence is explained by having her spirit inhabiting the body of a cat.
The Witches (1990) — Jim Henson produced this terrific adaptation of Roald Dahl’s book, about a boy who stumbles upon a witch convention headed by the Grand High Witch (Anjelica Huston) and works to thwart them, despite having been turned into a mouse. This fun feature is a perfect example of a PG-rated movie — there are enough of the scares and thrills that kids want, courtesy of Henson and company’s makeup and puppetry effects, but nothing too extreme.
The Craft (1996) — This teen horror film follows a newcomer (Robin Tunney) to a prep school who falls in with three outcast girls (Fairuza Balk, Neve Campbell and Rachel True) who practice witchcraft. Soon, they are all conjuring spells and curses against those who anger them, but end up with negative repercussions of their own.
Remind REALLY SCARY WITCHES
Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages (1922) — This may be a silent film from Sweden, but don’t let that lull you into thinking it is not scary. A wonderfully weird, fictionalized documentary purporting to show the evolution of witchcraft and the superstitions surrounding it from the Middle Ages to the early 20th century, Häxan features some visually stunning and truly horrific special effects sequences and costumes/makeup (including the ones director Benjamin Christensen himself used for his portrayal of Satan).
Black Sunday (1960, aka The Mask of Satan) — Italian horror maestro Mario Bava made his second stint as a feature film director with this influential classic that he also wrote, served as cinematographer and developed some of the still-pretty-gruesome special effects for. British scream queen Barbara Steele is terrific in a double role; she plays vampiric witch Asa Vajda, who is sentenced to death by her brother in the 17th century, only to be accidentally revived 200 years later, when she plans vengeance on her brother’s descendants and to take over the body of a young woman named Katia Vajda (also played by Steele), who is the physical reincarnation of Asa.
Horror Hotel (aka The City of the Dead) (1960, pictured below) — Another great 1960 horror film featuring a reincarnated witch, this British production is led by Christopher Lee as a history professor who is secretly the member of a coven in the incredibly creepy little Massachusetts town of Whitewood. Whitewood has been cursed since 1692, when witch Elizabeth Selwyn (Patricia Jessel) was burned at the stake, but not before selling her soul to Satan for eternal life. Selwyn now lives as the eccentric “Mrs. Newless” (also played by Jessel), owner of a local inn, and she must maintain her life by providing the devil two yearly virgin sacrifices arranged with the help of her coven.
Courtesy Everett Collection
The Witches (aka The Devil’s Own) (1966) — This underrated horror production from Britain’s famed Hammer Films stars Joan Fontaine as a schoolteacher who, after a horrifying experience with the occult while working in Africa, moves to a small English village to hopefully recover a sense of normalcy. Unfortunately, she discovers that black magic resides there, as well, in the form of a witches’ coven led by an esteemed journalist (Kay Walsh).
Rosemary’s Baby (1968) — All of Them Witches, reads the title of a book that Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow) ends up looking at during the course of this classic thriller, and she should have heeded that title. What seems to be, and is dismissed by many as, Rosemary’s paranoia is actual fact as she ends up in a nightmare where practically all of the seemingly urbane and boring people around her, including the kindly, harmless-looking older couple in the apartment next door (played by Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner Ruth Gordon and Sidney Blackmer), are actually members of a coven plotting to make her conceive and bear Satan’s child. Even her husband (John Cassavetes), desperate for a big acting break, is roped into the conspiracy.
Suspiria (1977) — Cowriter/director Dario Argento’s Italian horror classic stars Jessica Harper as an American dancer who arrives at a prestigious German ballet academy, only to realize, following a series of especially brutal murders, that the school is merely a front for something more sinister — a witches’ coven headed by its founder, Helena Markos (Lela Svasta), one of the most nightmarishly evil witches in film history.
The Blair Witch Project (1999) The Blair Witch Project (1999) — No witch is actually seen in this forerunner of the modern-day found footage subgenre of horror movie, but there is enough creepiness in the sights and sounds that the young filmmakers uncover as they search in the woods for the legendary figure, leading up to a quick but shocking final image, that you can believe she is out there haunting the forest.
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