Happy Walpurgisnacht! It’s Witch’s Night, the night where witches go out broom riding to celebrate the arrival of spring. Well, okay, there’s actually a lot more to it, but that’s the gist of it.
There are lots of Hollywood movies featuring witches, but for the efforts of today’s list, I concentrated on the scary witches. Not all witches are bad, but all bad witches are scary.
Unfortunately, not every scary witch is in a good movie either, and making a list of scariest witch films was my biggest goal.
A list of the scariest witches is going to require a lot more research and will be more controversial! So, for now, watch these ten films and we’ll debate later.
Scariest Witch Films List
Hereditary (2018) VVitch (2015) Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016) Suspira (1977) The Blair Witch Project (1999) Gretel & Hansel (2020) Drag Me to Hell (2009) Black Sunday (1960) The Wretched (2019)
There’s no order to this list. All horror is subjective, but I guarantee each of these films has a couple of scenes that will scare the skin off your bones.
Hello! Today is Shop Small Business Saturday. This new annual tradition of supporting the mom and pop local businesses in your own town follows Black Friday every year. Today, I’m celebrating the last day of November with one of my favorite small businesses.
Backstitch Bruja
It’s been a joy to watch Yvette’s business grow from a small online shop into a real brick and mortar store in San Dimas, CA. This busy entrepreneur still makes time to travel around to Halloween and horror conventions and spooky events around the SoCal area. Follow her on Instagram for details on appearances.
This is just a small taste of what’s offered up this Creepmas season. It seems that everything pictured is still in stock, but merch moves quickly at Backstitch Bruja.
But don’t fret if something sells out. If you can be patient, get yourself a Backstitch Bruja giftcard. They usually restock.
Title: Young Frankenstein Director: Mel Brooks Screenwriter(s): Gene Wilder, Mel Brooks Starring: Gene Wilder, Teri Garr, Peter Boyle, Marty Feldman, Madeline Kahn, Cloris Leachman Distributed by: 20th Century Fox Year: 1974 Run Time: 1 hr 47 minutes
Tomorrow is Frankenstein Friday. Last Friday before Halloween in October is always dedicated to Mary Shelley’s novel about a mad scientist and his undead monsterous creation. So, in tribute and in keeping with our theme of Halloween Classic, today’s Thursday Time Travel is Mel Brook’s Young Frankenstein.
Newly engaged Dr. Frederick Frankenstein, grandson of the mad scientist Dr. Victor Frankensten, learns he’s inherited his family’s estate in Transylvania. Embarrassed by his family’s legacy, Dr. “Fronkenstein” travels to Europe, where he meets his late grandfather’s staff, hunchbaked assistant named “eye-gore”, the lovely Inga, and scary housekeeper Frau Blucher.
When Frederick finds Victor’s secret laboratory and private journals, the doctor attempts to perform his own experiments on a reanimated dead corpse.
Mel Brook’s hilarious parody of the old Universal monster films of the 30s and 40s was shot in black and white and consistently shows up on all the top comedy lists of all-time. In 2003, it was deemed culturally, historically, and aestethically significant by the United States National Preservation Board and selected for preservation in the Library of Congress National Film Registry.
You can find Young Frankenstein on Amazon Prime this October.
It’s an election year… remember to go vote and check out one of my favorite fantasy comedies this month, I Married a Witch starring Veronica Lake and Fredric March.
Just before being burned at the stake, 17th century witch Jennifer casts a curse on the family of her accuser, Jonathan Wooley, dooming all the men in the lineage to be unlucky in love and marry the wrong woman.
250 years later, Jennifer and her warlock father Daniel are accidentally freed from their eternal prison, but in incorporeal form. When Daniel starts a fire in order to casts a spell to give Jennifer a human body, they come upon the latest Wooley descendant, Wallace Wooley, who just so happens to be running for governor and engaged to the spoiled daughter of his biggest campaign supporter and financier, J.B. Masterson.
Hijinks ensue after Jennifer accidentally drinks a love potion she intended for Wallace. Jennifer and Daniel, now also in human form, crash the wedding. Estelle to call the whole thing off when she catches her groom to be in an embrace, leading JB to denounce Wooley to the papers. After eloping, Jennifer casts a spell rigging the election, so the while city votes for Wallace, including his opponent! This finally convinces Wolley that he’s indeed married to a witch.
Veronica Lake and Fredric March have great chemistry here and the entire cast is perfect. This movie is a lot of fun and great for Halloween viewing.
(Promo shot for I Married a Witch)
Veronica Lake was somewhat of a troubled star. She was a heavy drinker and had a bad reputation for being difficult on set. Many of her directors and co-stars didn’t like her, including March, who said some pretty nasty things about her. Her career supposedly stalled out in late forties. Many critics and fans have since then revisited her life’s story and realized her alcoholism was result of untreated schizophrenia and some horrible tragedies that befell upon her. We may never know how much Hollywood directly contributed to her downfall.
Happy International Artist Day! Today we celebrate the dark fantasy art of Diana Levin of Ghoulish Bunny Studios!
Diana Levin’s art could be described as both whimsical and menacing. Her imaginative and unique style embrace death and horror, all while capturing the natural beauty of an enchanted forest or a fantastical world.
Diana and her author husband Shawn Givens travel around to different conventions and trade shows all over the USA. They’re two of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. Stop by and say hello!
Enter the 5th Annual Halloween Haiku Challenge for a chance to win a witchy prize pack containing a canvas bag and an enamel pin featuring the art of Diana Levin!
It’s been a long, hot summer, but we’re three days away from the ‘Ber months and the official start of the Halloween season. The theme in August has been Witch’s Halloween Spellbook. Hopefully, we’ve all had a chance to cast our spells for everyone to have a blessed, joyous, and safe Halloween season.
mortar and pestle a spell for October nights summer’s end in sight
Good witches, bad witches, love witches, or scary witches, witches come in all variations. Whether you’re a new witch looking for guidance, an old witch looking inspiration, or not a witch at all, just someone looking for some spooky fun, here’s a list of my fave witchy movies and TV shows.
What goes into a good spell? Mugwort? Thyme? Bat Wool? Dragon’s Blood? Most witches know the first and best ingredient is your intentions. What are you trying to achieve? Focus on that. Your intention is what makes the spell powerful. The rest of the ingredients can come from your kitchen, your garden, the Apothecary down the street, it doesn’t matter where you get them, as long as your intentions are good. Remember, you get back what you put out. And don’t forget to write it all down for next time.
The theme this month is a Witches Halloween Spellbook.
Witch Cat by Joao Vagner
Witch Cat by Joao Vagner inspires me to create some Halloween haiku with this month’s theme in mind.
Halloween Horror Haiku 
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