An Appreciation of Movie Witches.

I'm embarrassed to say my favorite Halloween/Witch movie is ...Hocus Pocus.  You know what?  I'm not embarrassed by that, I love that movie.  It's a cheesy Disney movie from 1993 that I actually saw in the theater with a boy!  It was a date and his mom sat in the back of the theater while me and my date sat closer to the front.  I was ten years old.  Its not that I hold this particular memory dear to me or anything. I moved away a few years later and last I heard the boy I went on the date with was a drug enthusiast.

I think the reason I love it so much is that the witch sisters, played by Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy and Sarah Jessica Parker, where exactly what "witches" were suppose to be.  Evil, ugly and living in New England.

There was a talking black cat, a spellbook with an eye, a silly plot, lots of mistake identity and confusion and DOUG JONES!  I love Doug Jones.  He is probably best known for playing Abe Sapien in the Hellboy movies and that ....weird, pale thing from Pan's Labyrinth with the eyeballs in his palms, remember that?  He is a phenomenal actor  He is an actor who is so skilled at working underneath tons of make-up and costume and is just such a one-of-a-kind talent.  I could go on and on about him, but I won't.  He plays Billy, a zombie.

I wouldn't say the Sanderson sisters from Hocus Pocus are my favorite movie witches though.  Even though I covet their outfits.  It was always my dream to have me and my sister, and a dear cousin, possibly (since I only have one sister) dress as the Sanderson sisters one Halloween.  We could do it!  It maybe a a totally outdated costume, but maybe the movie is old enough now to be considered a "classic."  Maybe some Halloween in the near future....

The honors of my favorite movie with goes to Michelle Pfeiffer in Stardust as Lamia.  She is a part of a trio of witch sisters who are evil and ugly, but they live in the country of England.  Lamia is a witch so obsessed with recapturing her youth she is willing to eat the heart of a star that fell to earth and took a human form.  She uses the last bit of the last star's heart she had left to re-beautify herself to seek out the human star and befriend her.  Michelle Pfeiffer is so beautiful and perfectly witchy in this movie she is something to aspire to!   

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  The most famous of movie witches is probably Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter series.  Hermione is the name of my mother-in-law's dog, so I do occasionally struggle to separate the dog from the character, but Hermione is a great movie witch.  She is the archetypical  "good witch."  Smart, beautiful, loyal and brave.  It's great having characters like Hermione around to give witches a good name.

   Another embarrassing favorite of mine is the late '90's chick flick Practical Magic, based on the book by Alice Hoffman, and nothing like the book at all (the book is great, btw.)  The witchcraft is a little more "wiccan-y" in its magic. Lots of herbs and candles and no wands or sparks flying out of people's fingertips.  Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman play witch sisters (witch sisters seem to be a popular theme!) with the help of their aunts must defeat the dead abusive boyfriend of one of them who has returned as a malevolent spirit.  Nicole Kidman's character, Gillian is my favorite of the two sisters.  Mostly because I have a girl crush on Nicole Kidman (her and I have the same birthday!)  Also, Dianne Weist plays on the of the aunts.  And she is awesome.

Now, I haven't seen every witch movie (and I'm not covering TV witches in this particular post) and yes, I have seen The Craft and no, I didn't like it.  But, you cannot beat the Witch of all Movie Witches:

She's just perfection.

Also, this will not, by a long shot, be my last post about witches.  I love witches and I think they're fascinating, so prepare for many more witch blogs to come!