Halloween: Witchcraft in Film, Part 3

Updated August 5, 2020 | Infoplease Staff

Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971)

Unfairly compared to Mary Poppins, Disney's 1964 musical extravaganza, Bedknobs has never earned the praise it deserves. Set in World War II England, Angela Lansbury plays an amateur witch who uses her mischievous powers to thwart a Nazi invasion. Her fantastical magic bedstead rides help her win the hearts of three irascible children who are unwittingly put in her care. Sensational special effects combine animation and live action, at the time, Disney's most spectacular effects-driven movie.

The Craft (1996)

Four troubled teenage girls, outcasts in their Los Angeles high school, form a coven and use black magic to seek revenge on their tormentors. But revenge, however sweet, comes with a price, and the girls learn their lesson the hard way when their powers begin to spin out of control.

Witches of Eastwick (1987)

Jack Nicholson makes the perfect eyebrow-raising horny little Devil who just can't seem to get sex off his mind in this film based on John Updike's novel. Three miserably menless women (Cher, Michelle Pfeiffer and Susan Sarandon), who happen to be amateur witches, get together weekly to down martinis and lament their status as single women. Together they conjure up their idea of the perfect man, and low and behold, who buys the town's mansion the very next day? They each have a ball with the new arrival, Darryl Van Horne, but they get suspicious when misfortune strikes his biggest critics. An overwrought ending and poor use of special effects can't dampen Nicholson's zest.

Damn Those Miscreants

Beyond Bewitched

Hazardous Hexes