WITCHES! The Wicked, Wacky, and Wonderful!

Just Like Magic: 10 Pop-Culture Witches to Wow Your Halloween!

Round about the caldron go;

   In the poison'd entrails throw.—

   Toad, that under cold stone,

   Days and nights has thirty-one;

   Swelter'd venom sleeping got,

   Boil thou first i' the charmed pot!

    Double, double toil and trouble;

   Fire burn, and caldron bubble.

Chant the trio of witches in Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth.

HUNDREDS of years later the last two lines of their spell are still said again and again. Witches conjuring is an image that has endured even as the image of what a witch is evolves, shifts and changes shape.

Some of these fierce, eccentric and remarkable characters from pop-culture redefine what it means to be a witchy woman. While others play into the pointy-hat-wearing croaky-voiced hag stereotype from days of old. Whether they’re wacky, wonderful or weird, brace yourself-- something wicked this way comes!!! 

Luna Lovegood: Harry Potter

“You’re just as sane as I am…” this insightful young woman with misty blue eyes and bedraggled blond hair reassures Harry Potter just moments after meeting him. Ravenclaw house in Hogwarts is home to this eccentric and dreamy teen witch. Portrayed by Evanna Lynch in the films she’s by far one of the most genuine and sincere characters in the Potterverse and really, let’s be real, of all time! Luna believes in the wondrous and ridiculous in equal measure and approaches everything with an open heart and a skip in her step. Her kooky and colourful fashion sense-- the spectrespecs, butterbeer cork necklace and dirigible plum earrings-- and her warm and encouraging friendship make her one of the most memorable and delightful of all the inhabitants of the Wizarding World. Luna tells us that we don’t need to conform, and that there is no one normal. And while it’s never been confirmed explicitly by Jo Rowling Luna’s mannerisms and personality both on the pages and played out live on the screen imply that she’s on the Autism Spectrum. One fan closely examines five of the traits Luna displays that are in line with Asperger's and overwhelmingly a positive portrayal.

Sophie Piper- Cromwell : Halloween Town

In the 1998 Disney Channel original movie (Hey, 90’s kids, remember those days?!) a trio of siblings: Marnie, Dylan and Sophie live with their Halloween-hating single mother. Trick or treating is banned, and costumes are barely tolerable, only the visit of their kindly cloak-wearing, magic-bag-carrying Mary-Poppins of grandma makes their Halloweens worth celebrating. Thirteen year old Marnie, eavesdropping that night while mom and grandma are having a heated argument finds out that Grandma Aggie (Debbie Reynolds) is a witch. A witch who’s Cromwell blood flows through her grandchildren’s veins-- meaning they are witches too! While Marnie is technically the lead, the witch-in-training who really steals the show is her plucky little sister Sophie (Emily Roeske). This eight year old not only manages to sneak onto the bus that warps from the mortal to the Halloween Town world, but she has a remarkable aptitude for spells. While Marnie (Kimberly J. Brown) struggles to remember the simplest of spells, Sophie can recite long incantations as easy as breathing. She picks up the complicated potion brewing and when it comes to breaking a dark curse that paralyzes citizens of Halloween Town, Sophie’s scavenger hunt skills and memory for recipes and spells ultimately saves the day. Even if Marnie does the last minute heavy lifting. Had it not been for her Sophie’s powerful magic, Marnie and Dylan never would’ve made it through the locked gates that led to their grandma’s home in the very beginning!

Kiki : Kiki’s Delivery Service

Hayao Miyazaki’s anime takes places in a world where witches coexist amongst non-magical townsfolk. The tradition goes that once a witch reaches the age of 13 she’s ready to leave her village for a year and seek out a new village where she’ll settle down for a brief time to complete her training. On the night of a full moon, Kiki gleefully  takes off, launching wildly into the air on her broom to much clapping and fanfare from her witch and warlock villagers and -- crashes straight into a tree-- ok. Kiki has a lot of learning to do. But one thing she’s not short on is enthusiasm and heart! Accompanied by her familiar, a teeny-tiny black cat named Jiji, who is constantly tossing out one-liners and reality checks, and her beloved red radio and broom, she ends up flying into a seaside village. Witches in this world are helper types-- they are crucial to their communities and they use their talents to keep things efficient and harmonious. Lodging with a super sweet woman at her bakery, Kiki launches a delivery service because although her flying is a little crazy, it’s something she loves and continually gets better at! Some mishaps and hijinks ensue and there are some real tear-jerker moments. But one thing that never happens is that she goes hungry, Kiki and Jiji enjoy limitless pancakes! Yum!

The Sanderson Sisters : Hocus Pocus

When an air-head virgin lights the Black Flame Candle in the Sanderson Sister’s Museum on a whim one Halloween night he releases these horrific and hilarious threesome. Winifred, Mary and Sarah Sanderson are revived and ready to sink their teeth back into the children of Salem...errr… figuratively speaking. Because what they really want to do is drug those kids with their home brewed tonic and then suck the very life force out of them. While these sisters are definitely forces to be reckoned with-- they can sniff out children, have an affinity for luring them away and hypnotizing them with lullabies and a have a repertoire of sinister spells -- they’re also theatrical! Their antics see-saw between campy and creepy and much of their mannerisms and dialogue are now memorable sound bites that are still repeated today. This cult favourite just wouldn’t be the same without these wicked women stirring up trouble in Salem.

Aunt Wendy : Witches of East End

9 Problems, but lives aren’t one of them for this witch! Based off of the novels by Melissa De La Cruz this (now cancelled) soapy supernatural fantasy on Lifetime had a stellar cast of characters with wonderfully witchy powers. The narrative circled around the Beauchamp’s-- sisters Freya and Ingrid and their mother Joanna. When murder and mayhem begins to tear up the fabric of their once charming coastal town, East End, Joanna’s sister makes a surprise visit. Aunt Wendy (Madchen Amick) breezes in with her witchy know-how. With her sleek and glossy black hair and her winged eyes and angular face there’s something alluring and actually...feline about her. While her nieces have the abilities to see auras, healing and occasional premonitions, Wendy turns into a black cat. Technically it’s a curse, but it’s in no way a limitation. Her energetic and sometimes mischievous personality sets her up as the cool aunt. But she’s far from unreliable. Wendy is the one who teaches Ingrid and Freya about how to harness they magic and learn new spells, and she uses her cat transformations to get around and gather intel about what dark deeds are going on in East End.

The Witch of the Waste : Howls’ Moving Castle

Hayao Miyazaki adapted Diana Wynne Jones’ fantasy adventure novel Howls’ Moving Castle into an anime film of the same name. Audiences in both Japan and the USA were spellbound by this fantastical (and sometimes freaky) tale of a young and plain woman named Sophie who works as a hatter before she’s cursed. The wrathful Witch of the Waste, a grotesque and smug witch transforms Sophie into an elderly woman when she mistakenly believes Sophie is involved with the wizard, Howl. Howl is notorious and has a reputation for stealing - then eating - the hearts of beautiful women. The Witch of the Waste tries to foil Sophie’s quest to break the curse as much as she can. Her default move is conjuring massive, inky, blob men who can muscle through just about anything and contort into any shape. These little minions have no thoughts of their own and entirely under her control.

Piper Halliwell : Charmed

The middle Halliwell sister, Piper (Holly Marie Combs) in the power of three is known for her ability to freeze time. She’s also the most mothering and empathetic of the Halliwell women and is the one who keeps the peace between rigid and stubborn Prue and wild child, impulsive and fun-seeking Phoebe. When Prue passes away and half-sister Paige moves into the Halliwell’s Victorian mini mansion in California, Piper continues to keep the peace and mediate. Piper is anything but  green-faced, hook-nosed, cackling hag. Instead this fashionable chef turned nightclub owner juggles her small business and personal life with protecting California from demonic and wicked forces that threaten to overtake it.

Hermione Granger

Let’s face it, Harry may be the “boy who lived” but if it weren’t for Hermione he never would’ve made it through the events of The Sorcerers Stone. The brightest witch of her age goes from being merely bookish to one of the bravest and fiercest characters in not only the Wizarding World of Harry Potter but in any film or book series-- PERIOD. Her loyalty and initiative is unmatched. This muggle-born Gryffindor is a beauty both inside and out. Her spells are spectacular, her cleverness is essential to the Potterverse story in every single book --she figured out a Basilisk was petrifying students in the Chamber of Secrets, used her Time Turner to save Sirius in the Prisoner of Azkaban, and convinced Harry to start up a defence against the dark arts club in The Order of the Phoenix. And she’s an activist for House Elves and other magical creatures- just look at how she created SPEW and tried to save Buckbeak in POA when she meticulously researched and wrote up a testimony for Hagrid to read at Beaky’s trial .

Melisandre of Asshai

The Red Woman (Carice van Houten) in Game of Thrones serves The Lord of Light-- R’hllor as one of his most devoted priestesses. But as several of the characters in Westeros notice she’s more than a little witchy. Birthing shadow figures, bleeding out and sacrificing heirs to the flames (“For the night is dark and full of terrors!”) and resurrecting the dead earns a woman a reputation. This “red witch” is far more complex than just the binary split of good or evil, light or dark. Whether you love her, hate her, or are somewhere in between Melisandre and her intoxicating, fascinating presence continually steals the show in HBO’s adaptation.  

Misty Day: American Horror Story Coven

Season 3 of Ryan Murphy’s and Brad Falchuk’s anthology focuses on a coven of witches in Louisiana. Lily Rabe’s character Misty has the power of resurgence-- she can bring the dead back to life. She’s not a necromancer though-- she’s a loving and free-spirited hippie chick. After being seen resurrecting a bird that died right in front of her, Misty was burned at the stake. Her remarkable healing abilities allowed her to make it out just inches from death. Her resurgence recovers her. She ends up living in a shack in a bayou-- an animal loving, Stevie Nicks obsessed, swamp witch. Her abilities come into play more than half dozen times as the Cult falls into chaotic disarray and the body count rises higher and higher!