Last Updated on September 6, 2024
Witches remain a magnetic genre in the movie industry – and with good reason. Viewers are treated to amazing spells, supernatural power trips and a look at the dark side that may or may not be based on reality (wink wink). If witchy tales makes your heart beat faster, then pick one of our hand-selected movies below!
1. Dark Shadows (2012)
During the 1700s, Barnabas Collins is cursed by a witch after he rejects her love. Her dark magic destroys his wealth and family. Finally, she turns him into a vampire and the town buries him alive. In the 1970s, a construction crew accidentally frees Barnabas and he comically enters a world that is as strange to him as he is to the living.
Barnabas returns to his current family and moves in, much to their dismay. But they soon become embroiled in Barnabas’s destiny with the witch – who still pursues him and threatens to destroy his family once again.
2. Sleepy Hollow (1999)
In 1799, police constable Ichabod Crane arrives in the small hamlet of Sleepy Hollow to investigate a series of murders. All the victims are missing their heads and while the residents blame a supernatural specter, that of a headless horseman, Crane remains skeptical.
But Crane is forced to abandon his scientific approach when more bodies appear – and so does the horseman, leading him to suspect that someone in the village had summoned the deadly apparition for dark purposes.
3. The Little Mermaid (1989)
A teenage mermaid, Ariel, is obsessed with the human world. After she rescues Eric, a prince, from drowning Ariel slips away before he can see her. But the little mermaid is lovesick and wants to join him in his world. She goes to the sea witch Ursula, who turns Ariel into a human. But Ariel must get a true kiss from Eric within three days or she will belong to Ursula forever.
4. Maleficent (2014)
In this spellbinding take on the fairytale “Sleeping Beauty,” viewers are treated to the events that led up to the baby princess Aurora being cursed by the evil fairy Maleficent (Jolie).
Years before, Maleficent and Stefan (Aurora’s future father) were in love but he betrayed her to marry the king’s daughter and take the throne. As an act of revenge, Maleficent casts a spell that will make the newborn princess fall into a deep sleep on her 16th birthday.
But as the fairy watches the little girl grows up she regrets her actions and attempts to save her. However, her own interference only helps the curse along.
5. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
In this classic, Margaret Hamilton’s iconic depiction of the Wicked Witch of the West almost steals the show. The musical fantasy follows the adventures of a girl named Dorothy after a tornado takes her house to Munchkinland in the Land of Oz.
Taking the Yellow Brick Road and gathering her friends, Dorothy has to ward off the witch’s attempts to stop them from returning home to Kansas.
6. Hocus Pocus (1993)
In 1693, the three Sanderson sisters are executed in Salem after they drain the life of a little girl to transfer her youth to them. But in 1993, their house still stands and a teenager named Max visits the building to impress his crush.
After he inadvertently revives the witches, the race is on. The Sanderson sisters have to steal the lifeforce of one child before the sun rises or perish – and Max has to find a way to stop their powerful magical influence on the town.
7. The Craft (1996)
Arriving at her new high school, the life of Sarah Bailey is never the same. The popular boy, Chris Hooker, is spreading false rumors that they slept together and she finds solace with three girls that are misfits. Bonnie, Nancy, and Rochelle have their own problems and reveal to Sarah that they are witches.
Still smarting from Chris’s humiliation, Sarah joins them in a ritual where each girl casts a spell to fix a problem in their life. The result is incredible – at first. But after Sarah’s high of wielding such power wears off, she realizes that the spells have terrible consequences. Her attempts to mitigate Nancy’s growing power causes the coven to turn on Sarah.
8. Practical Magic (1998)
Sisters Gillian and Sally Owens have a family gift – they are real-life witches and have been taught the craft of practical magic by their aunts. But they also have a family curse. Whenever a man falls in love with an Owens woman, he meets with an untimely death.
But when they are forced to kill a serial killer who had kidnapped them and hurt Gillian, they bury the body. State investigator Gary Hallett arrives to investigate the case but as his feelings grow for Sally, the curse threatens to take his life.
9. The Blair Witch Project (1999)
This is the movie that kicked off the “found footage” genre and it also earned its place as one of the films that pushed the horror movie up a notch. The story follows a group of young people who decide to document their search for the legendary Blair Witch in the woods in north Burkittsville, Maryland.
Following tales of murders and people who vanished in the woods, they visit the supposed areas where the crimes had occurred but at one point, they become lost and strange things start to happen. In true slow-burn fashion, the tension and horror they experience reach unspeakable levels until they, too, disappear.
10. The Lords Of Salem (2013)
In Salem, Massachusetts, Heidi is a DJ at a local radio station and a recovering drug addict. One day, she finds a box containing an album from a group calling themselves “The Lords.” While at home, she listens to the record and experiences demonic visions.
Convinced that nothing is wrong, Heidi plays the record at the station and the music has a strange effect on the women of Salem. But when the band comes to town and host a concert, a terrible curse is about to unfold in Heidi’s life – one that had prophesied her as the mother of the antichrist.
11. The Love Witch (2016)
After the death of her husband, a young witch called Elaine decides to move to Arcata. The Californian town is okay with witches living in their midst and she finally enjoys a level of freely being herself.
But Elaine’s desire to have lovers has disastrous consequences, leaving a string of bodies in her wake that threaten her only chance of finally finding true love.
12. I Married a Witch (1942)
Before Jennifer and her father are burned at the stake as witches, she curses her denouncer, Jonathan Wooley. The curse will cause all his male descendants to marry the wrong woman. Indeed, for generations, the Wooley men married nothing but cruel wives.
Centuries later, a lightning strike resurrect the two witches. After learning that one descendent, Wallace, is living nearby, they decide to make his life a living hell. But when Jennifer falls in love with Wallace, her father turns on her in a terrifying way.
13. The Witch (2020)
In 1630, a farmer and his young family look forward to starting a new life on a farm. But one day, their teenage daughter, Thomasin, is babysitting her baby brother when he vanishes. When other things start to go wrong, her twin siblings suspect that Thomasin is practicing witchcraft and the family’s love and unity are severely tested.
14. Suspiria (2018)
In 1977, Susie Bannion believes that she’s hit the big dream after she is accepted into the prestigious Markos Dance Company. But not everything is what it seems. During one rehearsal, a classmate openly accuses the matrons of being behind the disappearance of one of the dancers and that they are witches.
When this girl vanishes as well, Susie reads her journals to search for clues. This plunges her into a horrifying ancient secret that entangles Susie in a dark world of rituals, covens and murder.
15. Bewitched (2005)
When actor Jack Wyatt insists that an unknown female play the role of Samantha opposite him in a remake of Bewitched, he sets off to find the perfect one. He sees Isabel and knows she’s great for the role but unbeknownst to him, she is a real witch.
This comedy follows the hilarious consequence when they start to fall in love and Isabel decides to tell him the truth.
