When I was 15/16, I first saw The Craft, and it was like coming home. It was at that point I thought I am going to be a witch. 

The thing was I was always a witch that film just gave me a name for what I was. Wiccan. Now twenty years later, I still follow a Wiccan path. And I am also a horror fan. The representation of witches in movies and TV series have been very hit and miss.  

This article looks at some of my favourite witches and some of the more damaging ones. I do have to say that this is my opinion only and other witches, Wiccans etc. may have different views on how witches are represented and which one they see as favourable and which ones they see as harmful.  

Best Representation of Witches

5. Halliwell Sisters – Charmed 

Charmed follows the lives of three sisters, Prue (Shannon Doherty), Piper (Holly Marie Coombs) and Phoebe (Alyssa Milano) Halliwell as they learn to kill and sometimes love the demons that have entered their lives.  

The good thing about Charmed is that it uses a lot of Wicca elements as accurately as they can within a context of the drama.

There are references to spell casting, potions, Hereditary Book of Shadows and we even see a handfasting (pagan wedding) and wiccaning ceremony (a naming ceremony). Halliwell Sisters always try and use their magick for good, but they are shown as human and do make mistakes.

One of the downsides of Charmed is not a complaint about their representation as witches but their representation as women. The romance was too much of a plot device in these series.

When the Halliwell Sisters are single, they bitch and moan about it. When they are not trying to save the world, they are trying to get laid.  

4. Sabrina The Teenage Witch 

Here I am talking about the Melissa Joan Hart Sabrina and not the remake which I have yet to explore. Sabrina is a witch struggling to come to terms with her new powers. As it is something that comes to her as she reaches her 16th birthday, so could be a metaphor for puberty.  

What I enjoy about the Magick used in Sabrina is that it does not always “work”. For example, Sabrina turns bitchy cheerleader Libby into a geek to see what it is like to be picked on.  

But Libby’s personality is the same. She now has a different group of people to be bitchy with. It is also right that Aunt Hilda and Aunt Zelda was shown as strong independent women and not exacerbated by their childless status. In fact, while they talk about relationship it is not the be all and end all for them. For them, they have other things in their life to make them happy. 

Again the downside to Sabrina is about the representation of “others”. Like Charmed, Sabrina is white and straight centric. Apart from the fact that she is a witch, they is not much to set Sabrina apart from the rest of the school mates. 

There is not a lot of Wiccan symbolism and history involved in the series. Sabrina’s pointing her finger for the magick to happen is only a step up from Bewitched’s Samantha’s nose wiggle. At least a finger is like a wand. This was a fun and harmless series. Ultimately the reason why Sabrina sticks in my mind as a great show is Salem the talking cat, the familiar we all secretly desire.  

3. The Craft 

After mentioning that The Craft made me the witch that I am today, they should be no surprise that it is here, what might surprise you in the placement. The Craft knows its Wiccan roots. We see a ritual that involves calling quarters that can be used as part of a sabbaths celebration. And it shows the threefold rule. How everything we put out in the world comes back to us threefold. For example, Sarah puts a love spell on Chris as punishment for him spreading lies that they had slept together. The spell backfires as he obsesses with her to the point that he nearly rapes her. All of the characters want to improve their situation but are not thinking of the more comprehensive picture, which is easy when you are a teen.  

For once we do have some non-white characters and looks at the racism that they face. It is important that in many ways what they want are deep.

Looking back on the film now I find the climax of the film uncomfortable. It is meant to be that eternal battle of Good and Evil between Sarah and Nancy, but I think this is a cruel way to present Nancy, especially as it ends her up in a mental hospital.  I am not sure where that leave Bonnie and Rochelle. They are stripped of their powers but the end of the film but they are punished as strongly as Nancy.

2. Practical Magic 

Sally (Sandra Bullock) and Gillian (Nicole Kidman) Owens play two witch sisters, and their eccentric aunts battling prejudices and a curse that prevents them from finding everlasting love.  

Practical Magic is primarily about sisterhood, and while not all covens are female only, they have that same sense of closeness that you have with our own family.  

As well as spellcraft and herbal magick, this film shows not only the issues that witches face when they come out of the broom closet but learning to accept who you are. Again, the film is a love story, and the magick is used as a quick fix to solve a problem which ends up making matters worse.  

As an adult, I can not help but think that there is an underlying sense of Queer Guilt to this film.

Interestingly there are rumours that this film was cursed by a witch who was not happy about the way that Wiccans were being represented.

Sandra Bullock becomes interested in Wicca after the film. Not sure how true either of these is.  

Honourable Mention: Belladonna of Sadness  

It is hard to place this film, a 1973 experimental Japanese Anime film about a peasant Jeanne who was raped and then calls upon Satan to help her revenge those who have wronged her. Belladonna of Sadness is achieved through witchcraft, herbs and magic to get revenge and adapted from Jules Michelet’s La Sorcière (a history of witchcraft published in France in 1862, the same year as Les Misérables). Jeanne will also use her newfound power to help the commoners fight the plague, but she is ultimately burnt at stake.  

While the film is beautifully shot, it is difficult to get over the fact that there is a lot of bare breasts, torn clothes and naked lithe figures within this film. There is an almost sadistic pleasure that is enforced upon this character including her being ripped in half during a rape scene which can be uncomfortable viewing  

Another issue with Jeanne is that she gets her power from Satan. Many witches know there is no Satan within Paganism or Wiccan traditions, that Satan is a Christian concept. 

Yes, Belladonna of Sadness should ultimately come with a trigger warning, but there is something about its beauty, it’s water coloured imagery that tugs at the heartstrings. But this is not the perfect representation of witches.

One of the exciting takes of this film has is that Jeanne believing her anger would make her a hag. Jeanne is disappointed to discover that she has become beautiful as Satan explains to her you can be angry and beautiful  

Maybe that’s another way that we can look at a witch, and she doesn’t have to be a hag she can be beautiful and a witch.   

What happens to Willow is something that a lot of witches going through, changing from meek schoolgirl to a commanding force. 

But Willow was always represented as “other”. Willow is Jewish, and a lesbian, covering many bases often misrepresented by the media.

In many ways, she is more relatable, not just as a witch but as a human being. The most exciting part is that they show Willow’s dark side when she lets emotions get the better of her and her magick.

Witchcraft is shown as both the establishment and loss of power and control. Even when Willow loss of control of her skills and becomes corrupted, she is referred to as dark Willow and never evil Willow. The problems came from portraying Willow magick lust as an addiction that comes and goes over one season.

The following season sees Giles and Willow trying to gain a healthy relationship with magick, which is difficult to achieve with an addiction.

Most addicts tend to relapse which we do not get with Willow. Willow’s magickal journey is an integral part of Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s storyline and not just there for ratings.

Willow’s magick is flawed by only being shown in mystical terms. But it is great that it shows a journey, that can go to dark places. Willow is an essential feminist symbol of empowered women.  

Worst representation of Witches 

 5. The Wicked Witch of the West – The Wizard of Oz. 

The wicked witch of the West played by Margaret Hamilton is a green-skinned, wart covered evil woman. She would be dressed completely head to toe in black, literally from shoes to her pointy hat and then cackling laugh apart from the obvious that Witches do not tend to have green skin.  

She also uses her power to make herself appear better than the others. Interestingly the book by L. Frank Baum does not say what colour her skin is, meaning the green-skin is the creation of the film.

Wicked Witch of the West is a folklore representation of witches put on the screen and therefore does not have a connection of pagan “tropes”. 

The use of a crystal ball to scry into the future is the one pagan image. The film uses this to spy on the intended victim, in this case, Dorothy.

Of course, the book and run away musical of Wicked gives more flesh to the reasoning behind The Wicked Witch’s wickedness. The Wicked Witch of the West is usually the first exposure to a witch and then cements the idea that Wicked Witch image as described as above.  

Dorothy is even told that “Bad witches are ugly.” Especially when you contrast it with the fair-skinned complexion or what is seen as “normal standards of beauty”. Not a great message if you are not much of a looker, you are not in the flush of youth anymore or not white.

4. Blair Witch Project 2: Book of Shadows 

Blair Witch Project was not the most excellent representation of witches, with the titular witch being an evil child munching monster. But the Blair Witch could be nothing more than a local legend.

Blair Witch Project: Book of Shadows, not only uses a known Wiccan term with the subtitle of Book of Shadows, but one of the characters identified as a Wiccan and she is not a significant representation.

This film seems to confuse Satanism with Paganism as the characters are told to murder the campers and turn their corpses into a pentagram.

The message that this film tells the audience that practitioners of Wicca are just possessed Satanic murders. Of course, there is no need for me to point out that most Wiccans are not interesting murdering people. Blair Witch Project 2: Book of Shadows is not the first film to equate witches as Satanist, but it seems more out of step following films that came out before this showing witches in a much more personal stance rather than out and out evil.

Witchcraft as a commodity in Blair Witch Project: Book of Shadow is there to mislead and continue the negative stereotyping of the Wiccan religion and its followers.

As for the Book of Shadows in the subtitle, it is not mentioned at all in the film; it seems that it is nothing more than a sign saying, we know a Wiccan word.  

While doing the research, I did come across an interview with Joe Berlinger, co-writer and director of Blair Witches Project: Book of Shadows at WitchVox, which is a witch based website and see below for a link to the full interview.  

Berlinger had spent time with Wiccans, and the individual that is interviewing Berlinger had advised on the film, so it is not coming from ignorance. What Berlinger was going for was that evil is a human emotion and not a religious concept. For me, it is a case of lost in translation.

All of the other films and TV series on this list are considered ok or significant but Blair Witch Project: Book of Shadows is often considered one of the worst film and the confusion within the film makes the intent to the Wiccan character muddled. Maybe if the film was better produced then the good intent may have been better

http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usma&c=media&id=3052 

3. Bell, Book and Candle 

Bell, Book and Candle focus on bad magick. She places a love spell on the man of a girl she hates to “steal” him, even though she has no interest in him herself.  There is an issue about consent here and forcing someone to love you is not a romantic notion, no matter how the film tries to portray it.  

The witch is depicted as hateful and vengeful. They are incapable of love as witches if they revoke their witchiness than they can find love.  

The idea that love can only be found once you have shed your “otherness” is a very harmful one. Now it can be argued that it is the representation of women at the time as much as witches. 

2.Elaine – Love Witch  

This film looks at love, sex magick and murder through the shimmer of 60s retro chic. The film sees to know about witchcraft, and it is shown in a pure form. 

The problem being that Elaine uses her “gifts” to find the perfect man, using her magick for her own selfish needs which are not something that is encouraged in the Wiccan traditions.

The styling of the film makes modern witchcraft look dreamy and silly. In this film, it is not just Elaine that is a poor representation of witches, but the highly sexed high priest is not the most excellent look at male witches.

The indication scene in the coven looks more like abuse than a view of empowerment. Now I am not saying that they don’t exist, I have met one while on my pagan journey, but the film seems to suggest that all men in the position of power will use it to have sex with young girls.

Again this is as much about the way women are viewed as women as much as how they are seen as witches.  

Elaine is an outsider by the nature of her being a witch, but she still wants the norms of a housewife and eternal love, even if it means losing who she is.  

Dishonourable mention: Pay The Ghost 

This film does not have a “witch” in it as such. But it has a strong misunderstand of pagan imagery and myths that make this a dishonourable mention.  A scene shows one of the characters carve the Triple Goddess symbol into her arm.

When Nicholas Cage comes across a coven preparing from Samhain, they explain that the symbol is a negative one and a sign of bad things to come. Which it is not. 

The “Ghost” is a crone who had witnessed her three children burnt at stake before being killed herself. Therefore at Halloween/Samhain, with the veil between the two worlds being at it thinnest the crone takes children to replace those that she lost. Again this is another film that seems to state that being ugly and old, i.e. a crone is a negative thing, that you are an evil force. 

The only good thing about this film is that it is not Nicholas Cage butchering The Wicker Man.

1.The Sanderson Sisters – Hocus Pocus 

As representation goes, there are several issues with Hocus Pocus. One of the hardest parts to overlook is the fact that the Sanderson Sisters having a connection to The Devil. As mentioned, the devil has no connection to Paganism.

But more importantly, these supposedly powerful witches still have to be subservient to the male patriarchy.

It is almost like they could not pair together power and independence. Another thing that it’s jarring against many other witches film is that they are not a “happy family.”  

Whether or not it is intentional but the Sanderson Sisters seemed to be a representation of the Triple Goddess. Tripe Goddess imagery would make Winfred the crone aspect and therefore perpetuate the misunderstanding that the crone is something to fear.  

Of course, the main issue with The Sanderson Sisters is the fact that they are child killers which is not a representation that real witches want to be associated with. It could be argued that the threefold rule gets them in the end, ironically by the very children that they thought that they were superior to.