We put a spell on you: from Maleficent to Grotbags – the screen's greatest witches

With Wicked hitting screens this week, it is clip to look astatine the top witches to formed a spell connected audiences.

Ranked successful order, from the precise champion to the inactive beauteous bully (I mean determination are hundreds connected screens but we can’t compression successful each the dross).

Utterly terrifying, the precise epitome of witches and witchiness. The cackle. The menace. The obsessive hatred of bully small girls.

Margaret Hamilton is the witch. Appearing connected surface successful 1939’s The Wizard of Oz with specified unit of property and image, the Wicked Witch instantly became not conscionable iconic but mythic, creeping beyond the movie into the dreams of millions of children.

Everything astir this show is simply a masterclass, the voice, the make-up, the mode she moves, her exits and appearances done occurrence and smoke…utterly unnerving.

The caller movie Wicked volition of people beryllium trading upon the powerfulness of the archetypal but it volition ne'er lucifer it.

“Who would person thought a bully small miss similar you could destruct my beauteous wickedness,” laments the Wicked Witch of the West arsenic she melts astatine the end, arsenic she someway some concedes to Dorothy’s triumph and sears successful immoderate guilt implicit her demise, pricking that conception of good.

Indeed the Good Witch successful the film, Glinda, is cloying and annoying successful a mode the wicked 1 with isn’t. As Salman Rushdie points retired successful his famed effort connected the film, “Glinda simpers upon being called beauteous and denigrates her unbeautiful sisters, whereas the Wicked Witch is successful a rage due to the fact that of the decease of her sister, demonstrating, 1 mightiness say, a commendable consciousness of solidarity… the Wicked Witch of the West tin beryllium said to correspond the much affirmative of the 2 images of almighty womanhood connected connection here.”

The Witches, the 1990 adaptation featured a stand-out, electrically unnerving show from Anjelica Huston that Anne Hathaway couldn’t rather lucifer successful the 2020 remake. It helps that the movie is successful the hands of manager Nicholas Roeg, who brought immoderate of his trademark artful eeriness to his Roald Dahl adaptation. Too overmuch astatine first: helium recut the movie aft showing an aboriginal mentation to his son, who was perfectly petrified by it.

But Huston has a shot giving immoderate enactment entreaty to the role, and the revelation of their existent faces of the witches erstwhile they instrumentality their tegument disconnected is rendered terrifically assemblage horrific present by the past movie enactment of Muppets creator Jim Henson.

Not Angelina Jolie’s Maleficent from the 2014 – though it’s beauteous bully – but the archetypal Maleficent successful 1959’s Sleeping Beauty. Voiced by Eleanor Audley (who besides played Cinderella’s evil stepmother successful the 1950 Disney film), Maleficent the eventual ‘Mistress of each Evil’ who curses the babe Princess Aurora to prick her digit connected the spindle of a spinning instrumentality and dice earlier she’s 16. Actually, she conscionable has a bully agelong sleep.

Audley acted successful live-action recordings for the animators to notation successful what was a nine-year accumulation agelong earlier greenish screen. The quality was expected to beryllium a operation of a vain femme fatale and a vampire bat truthful radical got the messages that this was a Bad Woman. However, the scariest scenes for immoderate kid comes astatine the climax of the movie erstwhile she turns into a vengeful dragon. Still haunts immoderate of america today.

We of people request the White Witch from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe successful this list, and we’ll spell for Swinton’s portrayal of the quality arsenic its pinnacle, conscionable beating Barbara Kellerman who played the relation successful the BBC precocious Eighties children’s drama.

Swinton makes epic usage of her icy charm here, showing a Witch who tin displacement from sensual charm to frightening strength and undeniably a unit of axenic Evil. To this day, galore of america volition ne'er devour Turkish Delight arsenic a result.

Played by Carice van Houten, the Red Woman was the eventual successful sexy witches. As liable to seduce you arsenic pain your kid alive, this Priestess of the Lord of the Light was somewhat of a trope successful those aboriginal seasons of Game of Thrones wherever everyone was perpetually naked.

But Melisandre developed into well-rounded quality who went connected to play a important relation successful the show, resurrecting Jon Snow from the dead, matchmaking Snow and Daenerys, close up until the extremity erstwhile she spurs Arya connected to question retired and termination the Night King.

But possibly her stand-out infinitesimal comes erstwhile she takes disconnected her necklace to uncover her existent form. That of a frail, past woman. Echoes of the celebrated bath country successful The Shining here.

Never seen, but powerfully felt, this witch inactive frightens. The Blair Witch Project’s estimation has somewhat nose-dived implicit the years arsenic a slew of found-footage imitators person generated their ain sub-genre (lured successful by the film’s archetypal $35,000 outgo and $250 cardinal gross), but I watched the archetypal the different night, and it inactive truly stands up.

Filmed connected camcorders by the actors themselves, who had nary publication to enactment from arsenic they were terrorised successful the woods by directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez, it is the eventual successful cinéma vérité fearfulness that is genuinely frightening. The claustrophobia of being successful the structure with the actors arsenic unusual noises are heard extracurricular is genuinely visceral.

No we don’t spot the witch but her beingness is powerfully felt arsenic the characters tally successful the acheronian towards their fate. Amazing that erstwhile it was released successful 1999 the palmy selling of it arsenic ‘found footage’ convinced a batch of radical that it was each real.

This 1987 adaptation of John Updike’s caller with Jack Nicholson’s Daryl Van Horne successful town, the downtrodden womenfolk statesman to liven up a bit. Well, 3 of them anyway: Cher, Michelle Pfeiffer and Susan Sarandon. They person latent powers unleashed arsenic they are transformed into Jack’s small coven of witches, a harem for this unholy priapic maestro until they statesman to realise this “horny small devil” mightiness really beryllium the devil.

These witches are not scary, and play somewhat 2nd fiddle to Jack’s none-more-Jack performance. Off-screen was a antithetic communicative though. Sarandon was primitively formed arsenic azygous parent sculptor Alex until, anterior to filming, Cher demanded she person that relation instead. Sarandon lone recovered retired astir the alteration erstwhile she arrived connected set. Fear the Cher.

Angela Lansbury’s beauteous witch successful Bedknobs and Broomsticks brings warmth wherever different witches bring chill. In this Disney classical from 1971, 3 orphans sent distant from the Blitz to the countryside, extremity up successful the attraction of Miss Price, a trainee witch who wants to usage spells against the Nazis and takes them disconnected connected immoderate adventures utilizing a magical bedknob.

Loved mostly for the premix of unrecorded enactment and animation successful their sojourn to the football-loving land of Naboombu, and for its climax successful which a Nazi penetration is thwarted by magic-filled suits of armour, really its existent magic successful in the casting, with 3 of the slightest annoying kids successful the Disney pantheon and their stand-in parents, the ever-lovely David Tomlinson arsenic Mr Browne and Lansbury’s Miss Price. She’s much of a reassuring beingness than Oz’s bully witch, that’s for sure.

Although she’s known arsenic the Evil Queen she is 100% a witch, what with the magic reflector that informs her she’s not the fairest anymore, and with her translation into a hideous aged crone who brings her stepdaughter Snow White a poisoned apple.

Lucille Le Verne supplied the voice, which was the archetypal ever to beryllium heard successful an animated film. With her fearsome demeanour – based connected Joan Crawford – she’s 1 of the greats.

Roman Polanski’s all-time large fearfulness Rosemary’s Baby – adapted from the brilliantly pulpy caller by Ira Levin – has Mia Farrow’s Rosemary ‘luckily’ moving into a sought-after flat artifact successful New York with her somewhat slippery hubby played by John Cassavetes. Seems that each is not really good and dandy present arsenic there’s a Satanic cult astir these parts who person an breathtaking thought for helping Rosemary get pregnant.

The witch successful this movie is their next-door neighbour Minnie, played by Ruth Gordon. It is simply a masterstroke of show and character, Minnie being the eventual meddling nosy-neighbour who turns retired not to beryllium specified a silly aged fool, but lone acting the portion to guarantee Rosemary eats her peculiar cocoa “mouse” arsenic they hole her womb for the coming of the Beast. Gordon is utterly convincing arsenic this, eccentric, over-bearing, ridiculous pensioner who is ever getting what she wants. Still arsenic chilling arsenic ever.

Suspiria, the Dario Argento 1977 classical – remade with Dakota Johnson successful 2021 – is 1 of the fearfulness greats and holds overmuch of its powerfulness successful the mode that, similar Blair Witch, it ramps up the hostility without ever showing you overmuch astatine all. You lone deliberation you saw something.

Suzy (Jessica Harper) is an American ballet pupil signed up to a prestigious academy, lone to find it’s a beforehand for a coven of witches. Maggots autumn from the ceiling, the unsighted pianist is killed by his ain dog, a chap pupil disappears, and Suzy figures retired that the schoolhouse was established by pb witch Mother Markos. She indispensable find that witch and termination it, successful bid to destruct the remainder of them successful a fiery inferno.

Goblin did the music. Thom Yorke’s soundtrack for the remake was besides precise good. Everyone thinks they spot the witch but don’t.

Again, this witch is much of a unit than an existent witch arsenic such, though she surely makes her beingness felt erstwhile she possesses Black Phillip the goat. This dilatory burning modern large – albeit flawed, to this reviewer successful ne'er genuinely delivering connected its dilatory pain with a blistery and horrific climax - by manager Dave Eggers, takes witches distant from aged crones and squawking voices into disturbing play realism.

Three witches successful Shakespeare’s play are transformed into conscionable 1 successful the precise top of Macbeth movie adaptations: Throne of Blood by Akira Kurosawa.

This witch, though, is profoundly unnerving, spectral fig successful the forest, whispering hellish phrases wrong Washizu (/Macbeth, played by Toshiro Mifune)’s caput specified as, “Men’s lives are arsenic meaningless arsenic insects,” portion spinning a ghostly loom.

Played by Chieko Naniwa, she is made up similar a ‘mountain witch’ disguise from accepted Japanese Noh theatre. This is subtle, spell-binding, an utterly convincing arsenic the witch some predicts and shapes the Washizu’s fate.

The greenish atrocious pistillate from Rod Hull and Emu’s shows (Emu’s All Live Pink Windmill amusement being the classic, anyone? Might conscionable beryllium me), and past her ain prima conveyance connected ITV, Grotbags was adjacent parts comic and scary for small kids arsenic a panto villain writ large. Carol Lee Scott played Grotbags, a Pontins seasoned and moving men’s nine performer, who met Hull during the summertime play successful Cleethorpes.

All of this sounds similar it happened 40 years ago. Which it did.