Top 10 Best Witch Movies Of All Time

Famous horror director takes on the subjects of witchcraft and Satanism in his 2012 film, The Lords of Salem.

In the film, we see Sheri Moon Zombie (yes, the director’s wife) play Heidi, a former drug addict and radio DJ living in Salem. Her life is Disturbed she is sent a strange music record from a band called The Lords of Salem which causes listeners to go into trances and experience disturbing hallucinations. Eventually, it is revealed that this act is part of a big plan that leads to the apocalypse.

Horror genre fans may better know this film under its US title, Burn, Witch, Burn!

Horror and witchcraft find their way into the academia in this film starring Peter Wyngarde as a professor, Norman Taylor, who finds out that his witch wife Tansy has been using her abilities to advance Norman’s academic career. Enraged, he forces his wife to undo all the charms and spells she cast over the years.

Unfortunately, his wife isn’t the only witch in town and the pair eventually find themselves at the center of other witches’ personal agendas.

In The Craft (1996), we see a mix between the witchcraft subgenre and the teen movie genre.

We see a coven of witches composed of American high school students, Sarah, Nancy, Rochelle, and Bonnie. After successfully getting the blessing of a powerful spirit Manon, their powers are heightened with their spells finally taking effect. But things take a dark turn when coven leader Nancy ‘invokes the spirit’ and goes a little bit cuckoo with the new powers she got.

The film wasn’t big on the critics upon its release but would eventually become both a sleeper hit and cult classic among young teens everywhere.

If you liked the original Evil Dead films directed by Sam Raimi, then we’re sure you’ll love this one as well.

Witching and Bitching (2013) is a horror comedy film which follows the story of a pair of thieves who find themselves in a town full of witches while running away from the cops. They are then hunted down by the witches led by the femme fatale Eva as they plan on using the men as a ritual sacrifice in an attempt to bring on the apocalypse.

Häxan, also known as Witchcraft Through the Ages is a documentary-type film based on a German witch hunter manual from the 15th century. The film is notorious for being banned in the US due to its graphic reenactments of torture and Satanic rituals which director Benjamin Christensen used for shock value.

However, the film did go into the non-supernatural explanation for what people of the Middle Ages deemed as ‘witchcraft’ which the film interpreted as a severe misunderstanding of mental illness.

Now, time for something a little bit lighter.

The Witches of Eastwick (1987) is a dark comedy film about three dissatisfied small-town women who are each seduced by a mysterious and rich man played by Jack Nicholson.

Unbeknownst to the three women, who also happen to be witches, the man that is wooing them is the Devil himself. As the Devil becomes a more menacing presence in their lives, they must come together to use their powers to drive him out of the town before he wreaks more havoc.

Serious horror genre fans know that The Blair Witch Project (1999) is a seminal film as it ushered an era of found footage-type horror movies after its critical and box office success.

The movie is presented as a real story about a group of film students who get lost in the woodlands of Maryland while shooting a documentary about a local urban legend involving the Blair Witch.

Black Sunday is another controversial movie about witches being banned in Great Britain and facing heavy censorship in the US because of its graphic depiction of violence.

The film is a gothic horror about a witch returning from the grave centuries after being burned at the stake to exact revenge upon the descendants of the people who convicted her.

Despite being controversial upon its release, the film successfully launched the careers of director Mario Bava and actress Barbara Steele, who played the witch.

Suspiria (1977) is perhaps master horror filmmaker Dario Argento’s best-known work.

The film is about a German school of ballet which is apparently just a front for a coven of evil witches. The story centers on a new American student, Suzy, who witnesses gruesome murders at the school as she uncovers the Academy’s dark secret.

Due to its legacy in the genre, the film is up for a modern remake directed by Italian director Luca Guadagnino which come out in 2018.

Of course, we give the number one spot on our list of Top 10 Best Witch Movies to Roman Polanski’s first American film about a coven of witches orchestrating the birth of the antichrist.

An adaptation of author Ira Levin’s novel of the same name, the film follows the story of a young couple who finds themselves living in an apartment building filled with witches. A conspiracy involving the neighbors and the husband is made to make the titular Rosemary the vessel through which the son of the Devil will be birthed into the human world in a sort of mocking to the virgin birth of Jesus Christ.

Mia Farrow shines as Rosemary, giving us a superb and layered performance as a mother torn between loving and hating the baby she’s given birth to.