There is something fascinating about witches and witchcraft, and many films have been made about the occult. As a subject, dark magic is open to all genres and audiences – including children (hocus pocus, Harry Potter) – but the adult themes make it perfectly suited for horror.
Dark magic serves the same purpose of instilling fear and terror, which is exactly what the titles below do. These horror movies use the history and practices associated with witchcraft to bring the terror and nightmares to their viewers, and are must-see movies for supernatural horror fans.
the craft is a stylish teen horror film directed by Andrew Fleming, about a group of witches at a Catholic high school in Los Angeles. Originally a party of three, Nancy (Fairuza Balk), Bonnie (Neve Campbell) and Rochelle (Rachel True) seek a fourth member to complete their rituals and find one in transfer student Sarah Bailey (Robin Tunney). With the coven complete, the witches’ powers are stronger than ever, but Sarah fears they’ve become corrupt.
Fans of heather and mean girls will love the craft, which is exciting and funny in equal parts. Released more than twenty years ago, the film has since become a cult classic and has been praised for its feminist message and fantastic cast. Fairuza Balk, responsible for the iconic line “We are the weirdos, mister,” is particularly brilliant as Nancy, and fans of the original will be thrilled to see her (brief) return in Zoe Lister-Jones’ The craft: legacy (2020).
Presented as a real-life documentary within a documentary, The Blair Witch Project is the horror film by Eduardo Sánchez and Daniel Myrick about three student filmmakers – Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard and Michael C. Williams – who venture into the Maryland forest to cover the Blair Witch incidents. What starts as a fun project quickly turns into a living nightmare when the group loses their map and gets lost in the woods.
Produced on a budget of $60,000, the film grossed $248.6 million at the worldwide box office, making it one of the highest-grossing indie horror films of all time. The Blair Witch Project also held the record for highest-grossing debut for a writer-director based on an original screenplay until 2017, when it was beaten by Jordan Peele’s Out. But most importantly, The Blair Witch Project revived the found-footage genre and show that atmosphere is everything in a horror movie.
Robert Egger’s feature film debut, The witch, follows a Puritan family who leaves their village in 1630 New England because of a religious dispute and comes to settle in the woods. Strange things soon happen, and when youngest son Samuel goes missing, all eyes are on eldest daughter Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy), whose mother (Kate Dickie) is rumored to be a witch.
The witch is one of A24’s most successful horror films and marked the studio as one to watch. Both a critical and financial success — the film grossed $40 million on a $4 million budget — it also catapulted Anya Taylor-Joy to fame, winning her several awards, including the Gotham Award for Breakthrough Actor. The witch is another example of a great atmospheric horror film, as it relies on suspense to scare the audience and does so successfully.
A remake of Dario Argento’s cult classic from 1977, Suspiria is director Luca Guadagnino’s supernatural horror film about a world-famous dance company, and the young American dancer, Susie Bannion (Dakota Johnson), new to it. Set in 1970s Berlin, the film stars Susie as the principal dancer and grapples with witchcraft accusations against the company’s female directors.
Although Guadagnino’s Suspiria Rated worse than the original, it has many standout elements, including the soundtrack, scored by Radiohead’s Thom Yorke. An unexpected composer choice, but brilliant nonetheless, Yorke’s score is hauntingly ethereal and his song “Suspirium” was even nominated for Best Song Written for Visual Media at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards. Sayombhu Mukdeeprom’s cinematography is just as stunning as the original.
the wretched one is a low-budget indie horror directed by the Pierce Brothers and starring John-Paul Howard as Ben, a defiant teenager who moves to live with his father (Jamison Jones) after his parents’ divorce. There he discovers that his neighbor (Zarah Mahler) is possessed by a thousand-year-old witch. Ben befriended his teenage colleague Mallory (Piper Curda), forces the latter to help him take down the witch and chaos ensues.
the wretched one had its world premiere in 2019 and was slated for a cinema release in 2020 when the pandemic hit. When the cinemas were closed, the film’s distribution company, IFC Films, opened the wretched one to drive-ins, eventually saving the movie and becoming the first since Avatar (2009) topped the box office for six consecutive weeks. The movie itself may not be groundbreaking, but it’s definitely worth a watch for fans of popcorn horror.
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