A Landscape of Witches

Growing up, I remember that witches were a regular part of the landscape of story telling.  Whether it be the Wizard of Oz, Snow White, Cinderella, tales from the Brothers Grimm, the old bitch in black was the common enemy that everyone could agree needed to die.  Well, all with maybe the exception of Samantha from Bewitched, or Kim Novak in Bell, Book and Candle...   And certainly, Glenda, the good witch from the north or south was okay.

For some reason as I grew older the witch seemed to fade from the landscape though.  No longer common fodder for story telling.  I remember the Witches of Eastwick, but it was sort of a not great movie; maybe the book was better.  I guess I shouldn't forget Harry Potter, but alas Harry never really struck me as a witch, more a sorcerer, though yeah, they had wands and flying brooms and maybe even pointy hats, so I guess you can't say they totally faded.  There was also a series of novels Anne Rice wrote about witches in N'Orleans.  I do remember reading a couple of them, and being very entertained.  Still, ...

Then, some twenty five or thirty years ago, I believe I was sitting in the Neptune theatre when a preview for The Blair Witch Project came on, and it looked absolutely fantastic.  Oooh!  Finally a black evil scary bitchy witch that was going to make the hair on the nape of your neck stand up and salute!  Alas, though some brilliant marketer had edited, whittled, the movie down to 60 seconds of thrilling promise in a preview, the other 89 or so minutes of the movie turned out to be inane and downright junk.  That marketer turned that piece of junk into a big hit, but I went home totally bored and deflated.

I can't say that in the 25 or 30 years since, that other than maybe Harry, that I've even noticed the shadow of a witch, not even on the remote horizon.  Maybe I forgot about them.  Stopped noticing.

All of which brings me to my 72nd birthday, and receiving a text from my nephew offering to send me money as a birthday present if I'd spend it to go see the movie Weapons.   I told him I didn't need the money but I'd go to see the movie and accept the recommendation as a gift regardless.  Well, lo and behold, it turned out to be a witchy movie.   I won't say anything else...