Movie Witches, Ranked

Ten witches, judged on spellwork, hats and restraint around children.

Entries
10
Category
Film
Updated
  1. A Siamese cat sitting beside a lit candle and a small bell on a Manhattan apartment windowsill, snowy rooftops outside.

    10. Gillian Holroyd

    Bell, Book and Candle · 1958

    Kim Novak as a Manhattan witch who enchants her upstairs neighbor, James Stewart, with help from a Siamese cat named Pyewacket. Bewitched creator Sol Saks admitted he drew on it. Vertigo came out the same year. Stewart spent all of 1958 being deceived by Kim Novak.

  2. A towering Japanese bathhouse lit by lanterns at night, a lone train crossing shallow water in front of it.

    09. Yubaba

    Spirited Away · 2001

    She runs a bathhouse for gods, takes your name as a contract term and keeps a giant baby in the back. Mari Natsuki voiced her and her twin Zeniba; Suzanne Pleshette did both in English. The film won the Oscar and held Japan's box-office record for 19 years. There is no HR.

  3. A pointed black hat and a broom suspended high in the air above a towering city skyline, a field of tulips far below.

    08. Elphaba

    Wicked · 2024

    Cynthia Erivo sang her numbers live on set, at her and Ariana Grande's insistence, and got a Best Actress nomination. The production planted 9 million real tulips for Munchkinland. Ten Oscar nominations, two wins. The priciest argument yet that the Wizard was the problem.

  4. A brass bed flying over a moonlit sea toward an island, an empty suit of medieval armor standing on the shore below.

    07. Eglantine Price

    Bedknobs and Broomsticks · 1971

    Angela Lansbury as a witch learning by mail order, chasing a spell called Substitutiary Locomotion to help the British war effort. Julie Andrews was offered it first and passed. It won the Oscar for visual effects. Mary Poppins, if Mary Poppins took on the Wehrmacht.

  5. Four candles burning in a circle on a beach at night, a dagger lying in the sand and huge waves rising behind.

    06. Nancy Downs

    The Craft · 1996

    Fairuza Balk as the scariest of four Catholic-school witches, chanting incantations written by a practicing Wiccan consultant. It cost $15 million, opened at No. 1 and made $55.6 million. Balk became a part-owner of an LA occult shop around the shoot. Method acting, with retail.

  6. A broom with a bow tied to it carrying a wicker basket over a seaside clock-tower town, a black cat sitting on the bristles.

    05. Kiki

    Kiki's Delivery Service · 1989

    A 13-year-old witch whose one real spell is flying, so she starts a delivery business. It was Ghibli's first hit on first release. The Disney dub has Kirsten Dunst as Kiki and Phil Hartman as Jiji the cat, released after Hartman's death. The only witch here with a day job.

  7. A dark undersea grotto with a cauldron of bubbling water, two eels coiled around a rock and a glowing seashell necklace.

    04. Ursula

    The Little Mermaid · 1989

    A sea witch drawn from the drag star Divine, voiced by Pat Carroll after Bea Arthur passed and Elaine Stritch was let go. Carroll played her as a hammy ex-Shakespearean who now sold cars. Animators cut her to six tentacles to save money. Her contracts were still airtight.

  8. An empty seaside hotel ballroom with rows of chairs, a dropped wig on the floor and a small white mouse beside a potion bottle.

    03. The Grand High Witch

    The Witches · 1990

    Anjelica Huston sat through six hours of Jim Henson's prosthetics on and six off, and won two critics' awards for it. It was the last film Henson worked on. Roald Dahl hated the new ending enough to threaten a publicity campaign. Kids had no notes. They were too scared.

  9. Three broomsticks and an upright vacuum cleaner parked outside a crooked Salem cottage, a clasped leather spell book on the doorstep under a full moon.

    02. Winifred Sanderson

    Hocus Pocus · 1993

    Bette Midler with buck teeth and a spell book, belting a Marc Shaiman arrangement of I Put a Spell on You at a room of adults. It lost Disney money in July and Ebert gave it one star. October reruns turned it into a holiday and a 2022 sequel. Revenge is a dish served annually.

  10. A tipped-over bucket beside a spreading puddle on a castle floor, a pointed black hat and a broom lying in it, smoke curling up.

    01. Wicked Witch of the West

    The Wizard of Oz · 1939

    Margaret Hamilton got the part after Gale Sondergaard balked at playing her ugly, then got burned when the Munchkinland exit fire went off early and lit her copper-based green makeup. She was paid $1,000 a week. AFI ranks her the fourth-greatest movie villain. Low, frankly.

Honorable mentions

  • Twig effigies hanging from bare trees in a dark forest, a dropped camcorder in the leaves below.

    The Blair Witch

    The Blair Witch Project · 1999

    Never appears on screen and still made $248.6 million off a production budget under $60,000. Artisan paid $1.1 million at Sundance; a fake missing-persons website did the rest. No makeup, no wardrobe, no lines. The most efficient witch in film history.

Dishonorable mentions

  • A vintage television set on an empty soundstage, a broom propped against it and a blank film clapperboard on the floor.

    Isabel Bigelow

    Bewitched · 2005

    Nicole Kidman as a real witch cast as Samantha in a Bewitched remake opposite Will Ferrell, a premise folding in on itself. It cost $85 million, sits around 23% on Rotten Tomatoes, and won Kidman and Ferrell the Razzie for Worst Screen Couple. The nose twitch could not fix it.

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