Coven: Bell Book And Candle

Team Experience is assembling our own coven of preferred witches for Halloween. Here's Anne Marie on Kim Novak and her kitty.

 

How does a studio follow up one of the most iconic thrillers ever made? With a supernatural rom-com, of course! Bell Book And Candle was released in 1958 a few months after Vertigo. Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak once again play a bewitched man and the woman who desperately loves him, but this time Kim Novak wields magic and doesn't die twice.

As Gillian Holroyd, Kim Novak is the sexiest sorceress to ever sling a spell. By day, Gil sells "primitive art" from her chic New York art gallery. By night, she weaves powerful enchantments to ensare her rival's fiance and exact her revenge. One thing that never changes is her sense of style: Gil pulls off this double life in some stunning (Academy Award nominated) ensembles.

Broom - Who needs cumbersome transportation in New York City? A true Greenwich girl can walk most anywhere she wants. (Preferably barefoot.)

Favored Spell - Love potions with a tendency to backfire.

Pointy Hat - Instead of a drab dull hat, why not this gorgeous backless gown?

Familiar - A communicative siamese cat named Pyewacket. Bonus - he matches her eyes.

"Only Bad Witches Are Ugly" - If Glinda is right, then Gil must be the Queen of the Good Witches. Never mind that she ruined an engagement through her witchcraft - she looks fabulous! Besides, she gets her comeuppancce: Gil falls in love and loses her powers as a result. Karma can be a real witch.

Our Coven: Hermione

Team Experience is building its own coven of favorite screen witches. Happy Halloween! Here's JA on that know-it-all from Hogwarts. 

It's only been two years since the Harry Potter saga ended film-wise and for awhile I felt the need to take a break from it, it having eaten up a good decade of pop-culture and all, but I've got to admit I'm feeling some nostalgia for it these days all the same. And nowhere moreso than with Hermione, always my favorite character (I never stand a chance with the bookish ones, they always win) - what's she up to these days anyway, in between when the Battle of Hogwarts was won and that kid-laden flash-forward? Did she momentarily move to LA to take up robbing the rich and famous? More...

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Our Coven: Ursula The Sea Witch

Team Experience is assembling our own coven of preferred witches for Halloween. Here's abstew with ... well, you know who

After nearly two decades of sub par animated films (I'm looking your way, The Black Caldron) that would've made Uncle Walt turn over in his cryogenic freezer, 1989's The Little Mermaid, the studio's first fairy tale in 30 years, finally brought back the art of animation and started the modern Disney renaissance. The film had everything going for it - sassy red-headed mermaid princess, Caribbean accented crab, show-stopping musical numbers, and, most importantly, a voluptuously wicked, tentacled diva villainess.

Early concept art shows that Ursula the Sea Witch's look went through many transformations before the final look of half octopus / half woman (and what a woman - Ursula is said to be modeled after the drag queen Divine). To voice the sea witch, the filmmakers offered the part to Bea Arthur who turned it down due to her work on The Golden Girls and Elaine Stritch had been cast but clashed with lyricist Howard Ashman. Actress Pat Carroll brought Ursula to life delivering some of the film's best lines ("You got it, sweetcakes. No more talking, singing, Zip!) There's always time for a one-liner while being evil. And don't underestimate the importance of body language!

Broom? No use for them under the sea. And probably best not to mention anything wooden as she meets her demise staked by the bow of a ship.

Favored Spell: Fortunately she knows a little magic - it's a talent that she always has possessed. Her spell of choice is taking voices (conveniently stowed in her shell necklace - fashion and function) and turning fishtails into legs in return. Although, if you can't pay the price, you just might find yourself a part of her little garden.

Familiars: Her babies, her poor little poopsies: a pair of scheming eels named Flotsam and Jetsam. They each share a glowing yellow eye that allows Ursula to see what they see.

Pointy Hat?: Her shock of white hair (styled with mousse - how 80's of her!) is pointy enough.

"Only Bad Witches Are Ugly": Considering her beauty regime (waterproof lipstick!) and the fact that she can change you into a weird plant with eyes, I wouldn't call her ugly to her face. At one point she does transform herself into a brunette version of Ariel with Joan Crawford eyebrows, so she's got options. Plus, anyone modeled after a drag queen is gonna look fabulous!

Meet the other members of our coven

Coven: Throne of Blood

Team Experience is assembling our own coven of preferred witches for Halloween. Here's Michael C on Kurosawa's eery old ghost woman

The Japanese title of Kurosawa’s noh-inspired adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth Throne of Blood is literally “Spider Web Castle”. So in keeping with the films pervasive arachnid imagery, Kurosawa ditches the cauldron and transforms the play’s famous trio of future predicting witches (“Double, double toil and trouble”) into a single, demonic hag, who sits out in the forest like an eerily still, deadly spider, spinning her silk and waiting for prey like Toshiro Mifune’s Macbeth equivalent, Washizu, to stumble into her web.

It’s a stretch to call her evil, seeing as she only sets the stage for her prey’s downfall. The victim still has to do all the heavy lifting. On the other hand the unexplained piles of skulls around her lair do rate a raised eyebrow!

Broom: No. The witch in question punctuates her prophecies by floating straight into the air and vanishing in a blinding white light. The broom business might qualify as overkill, don’t you think?

Favored Spell: This lovely lady’s go-to move is providing misleading, selectively edited predictions of the future. Other pastimes include cackling in your face after you’ve been foolish enough to act according to her predictions and shape shifting into ones enemies so as to goad you into make an even greater mess of things.

Chieko Naniwa in "Throne of Blood"Pointy Hat: You don’t hide witch hair of this magnitude under a hat.

Familiar: She works alone but spider imagery is pervasive. 

"Only bad witches are ugly": How to be diplomatic about this. On a scale from Glinda to Elphaba she’s definitely not going to travel by bubble, if you catch my drift. That said, if you can get over her creepy, disconcertingly masculine voice she does lack all the traditional ugly witch traits like warts and a long pointy nose, so she might have a shot with guys who find themselves strangely attracted to the ghost from The Grudge. 

Our Coven: The Wicked Queen

Team Experience is assembling our own coven of preferred witches for Halloween. Here's Deborah with the true star of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

Why choose between the sexy vamp witch and the classic hag? With the Wicked Queen, you get two, two, two witches in one! Honestly, I don't know why anyone roots for Snow White in this movie. The Queen has the wardrobe, the jewelry, the sexy butch henchmen, and a castle. Snow White has wooden shoes, dwarfs, and a lot of housework.

I always wanted to be the Wicked Queen when I grew up. And who does her makeup? Those lips! Those eyes!

Broom: If only. Disney villains die in falls from cliffs (it's a rule). If she had a broom, she could have survived.

Favored Spell: Poisoned apple.

Pointy hat: Ha! Jeweled crown, darlings. Jeweled everything. She's fabulous.

Familiar: Magic Mirror.

"Only Bad Witches Are Ugly": Wrong, Glinda. This one's both hag AND femme fatale

related posts: Snow White