10 Bad Portrayals of Witches and Pagans in Movies and TV

Pagans on How They Are Represented on Screen

By Gus diZerega

Recent portrayals of Witches and Pagans in movies and TV shows rarely provide the viewer with a portrait of Pagan practice recognizable to those of us who actually practice these traditions. Even an older film that many Pagans (mostly) love, "The Wicker Man" in its original uncut form, (not the lousy recent version) turns disturbingly dark at the end as the Sergeant discovers he has fallen for an elaborate ruse because of a need for a human sacrifice.

I asked Pagans reading my blog to list the movies and TV shows that most drove them up a wall, limiting my request to those depicting witchcraft and NeoPagans. If I were to include the African Diasporic traditions, to give one example, we'd have a list far longer. The movies and shows included here are not necessarily the worst depictions—there have been so many over the years. But of recent depictions they are the most misleading and likely to have been seen by the general public.

What struck me in trying to integrate all the comments I received was that we Pagans are a pretty tolerant lot, and often can laugh at the exaggerations and caricatures of our path so long as they are not too nasty. That said, some movies were repeatedly mentioned. The following five movies were overwhelmingly criticized by readers.

Gus diZerega writes A Pagan's Blog on Beliefnet.

'The Witches' (1990)

In reference to "The Witches," one reader said: "I love most of Roald Dahl's children's books, but I can't stand 'The Witches.' They are portrayed as child-hating monsters with bizarre, grotesque features such as no hair, claw-like nails, etc. Their young victims meet with such unpleasant fates as transformation into stone or animals or being trapped inside a painting. The main character discovers the witches when they have a convention under the guise of the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children. (Let's introduce children to the idea of a sinister conspiracy theory at an early age!) The story ends with a plan to use the witches' own mouse-transformation potion against them--so that they will be trampled and killed by other people!"

'Bell Book and Candle' (1958)

"Bell Book and Candle" emphasizes the "Bad use of Magick. The Witch uses a love spell on a man out of revenge against a girl she hated (the man loved the girl and the Witch 'stole' him away from her out of revenge)."

Witches are depicted "as hateful and incapable of love - The Witch falls in love with the man she enchanted, and now has to decide between loving him as a 'real' woman, or remaining a Witch."

Over and over again Pagans objected that it "perpetrates the belief that Witches are hate-filled and cannot love or else they lose their 'Witchiness'."

Other readers reminded us that the movie was a sign of its times and really had nothing to do with Paganism.

'Scooby Doo and the Witch's Ghost' (1999)

"Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Secret" was said to have a lot of inaccurate information. "At least the other films on this list didn't try to blend real witchcraft with the evil fantasy version," wrote a reader. "Witchcraft is not an ethnicity, as when a character said 'I'm 1/16 Wiccan on my mother's side.' In addition, Velma doesn't call Ben out on pretending Wicca, as such, is about 300 years older than it actually is. I thought she was the smart one!" Further, in "most Scooby-Doo episodes, the 'monster' turns out to actually be a greedy human. This movie breaks with that 30-year tradition by making the monster not only real, but the ghost of a Witch, AND she wants to destroy the whole world!"

'The Wizard of Oz' (1939)

"While it is true that there is a 'good Witch' in ["The Wizard of OZ"], the main antagonist is the 'bad Witch', the 'Wizard' is a fraud, and the good Witch looks like a fairy and sends the protagonist on a totally unnecessary journey (She sees the shoes at the beginning but doesn't tell Dorothy they are the way home till the end). This is unlike the 'Harry Potter' series where the protagonists are also Witches and Wizards." "The best reason to call this the worst movie for Witches is that it has been influential in presenting the image of Witches as green-skinned, pointy-nosed, cackling hags. Few people come away from 'The Wizard of Oz' thinking of Witches as sparkling ladies who travel in soap bubbles." But in its defense, another participant argued "I see Glinda's challenge to Dorothy as the telling point: 'Are you a good witch, or a bad witch?' Surely, Pagans are not immune to this particular duality. Indeed, from my POV, the best witches will ask themselves some variation of that very question."