Editorials
8 of the Scariest Witches Ever Put On Film!
A24’s horror film The Witch sees a wide release this weekend after playing at several film festivals last year (read Kalyn’s review), and it is being touted as one of the best horror films of all time, including a glowing recommendation by Stephen King. This could be the first film in a long time to make witches scary again after Ryan Murphy bastardized them in American Horror Story. We thought we would take a look back at some of the scariest witches ever put on film!
Winnifred Sanderson – Hocus Pocus
While Winnifred Sanderson (expertly played by Bette Midler) may not be scary to anyone over the age of 6 (if that), she is definitely terrifying to small children (I was four when the film was released in 1993 and she scared the crap out of me! Watching her suck the life out of Emily Binx would be traumatizing to any child.
Bellatrix Lestrange – The Harry Potter Series
Bellatrix Lestrange killed Sirius Black. There’s just no going back from that. She is a truly unhinged creature (a perfect role for Helena Bonham Carter, no?) who killed anyone who stood in her way. While her eventual death in the film may have lacked the catharsis that the book version had, it was still a treat to watch her bite it.
The Wicked Witch of the West – The Wizard of Oz
Was anyone not terrified of the Wicked Witch of the West when they were growing up? Sure, properties like Wicked, Once Upon a Time and Oz the Great and Powerful have diluted her scare-factor by giving her a humanizing backstory, but Margaret Hamilton’s performance is cemented as one of the greatest (and scariest) villain performances in film history.
Nancy – The Craft
Full confession: I’m a child of the 90s and I don’t like The Craft. It just never resonated with me very much. That being said, I can appreciated the fact that Nancy is a truly frightening human being, let alone a witch. Her story is a classic tale of a person going mad with power, and boy does she go mad. Don’t piss her off, or you could wake up in a bed full of snakes.
Lacy, Sonny and Megan – The Lords of Salem
Rob Zombie’s last film had a pretty mixed reception, but it’s actually one of my favorite films of his (second only to The Devil’s Rejects). A big part of why the film is so effective is the exceptional performances by horror legends Dee Wallace, Judy Geeson and Patricia Quinn as the trio of leading witches (think of them as the R-rated version of the Sanderson sisters). The movie may go a bit off the rails in its final moments, but that doesn’t stop these ladies from being nightmare-inducing.
Minnie Castevet – Rosemary’s Baby
Ruth Gordon won an Golden Globe and an Academy Award for her portrayal of the nefarious Minnie Castevet in Roman Polansky’s masterpiece Rosemary’s Baby. As the head of a coven that arranges for Rosemary to be raped by the Devil and give birth to the Antichrist, she is totally convincing.
Mother Suspiriorum – Suspiria
Of the three witches in Dario Argento’s “Three Mothers” trilogy, Mater Suspiriorum is arguably the scariest (Mater Tenebrarum doesn’t even qualify, as she was defeated by Asia Argento merely burning her cloak), of Argento’s Three Mothers. Known as the oldest and wisest of the three witches, Mater Suspiriorum was also interested in startups. She opened a dance academy as a front for her evil lair.
The Grand High Witch – The Witches
This PG-rated Roald Dahl adaptation is one of the most disturbing movies ever made, and it’s only because of the scene in which Anjelica Huston’s character peels off her face to reveal her true self as the Grand High Witch. Her goal was to wipe out all of the children in the world. Who does that?! I saw this film for the first time when I was in high school and even then it gave me the willies. If you’re a horror fan and you’ve never seen The Witches, seek this one out immediately. It’s utterly terrifying.
Which witch terrified you as a child (or currently terrifies you as an adult)? Let us know in the comments below or shoot me a Tweet!
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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