25 best movie witches, ranked worst to best [PHOTOS]

Susan Pennington and Chris Beachum
·2 min read

Mere mortals have been fascinated by witchcraft for hundreds of years, and the film industry has taken note, with witch-themed movies going back more than 100 years.

In 1922, the silent partly documentary-style Swedish film “Haxan” sought to understand the roots and misunderstandings of witchcraft, and the mania that surrounded the witch hunts. Controversial at the time, it is now considered one of the most influential of the early horror films. Less than 20 years later, Margaret Hamilton would make the Wicked Witch the standard for evil witches, and help make “The Wizard of Oz” a timeless classic.

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SEE25 best TV witches, ranked worst to best

In the decades since, witches have appeared in just about every genre of film. Early romantic comedies “I Married a Witch” and “Bell, Book and Candle” were so popular they inspired the classic 1960s TV series “Bewitched.” But while a witch’s antics on the small screen were amusing audiences, witches were also becoming popular in horror films, with vindictive sorceresses in “Black Sunday” and “The City of the Dead” terrifying audiences.

Throughout the years, Disney has created some of the most memorable enchantresses, from the beautiful and vain Evil Queen in “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” to the well-meaning Nazi-fighter Miss Eglantine Price in “Bedknobs and Broomsticks,” while real-life demon investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren have inspired the successful “The Conjuring” franchise, beginning with a family allegedly haunted by a witch.

From the silly witches in “Hocus Pocus” to the lovelorn sisters in “Practical Magic” to the dark magic in “Eve’s Bayou” to the satanists in “Rosemary’s Baby,” plus “The Witches of Eastwick” and all of the “Harry Potter” franchise, tour our ranked photo gallery above with the 25 of the funniest, scariest, most vengeful, most enchanting, best witches ever portrayed on film.

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