Let’s kick off the first Halloween at CompassCompact by establishing a small tradition.
This year, the topic will be witches, and these are some movies that I recommend for the spooky season.
- THE WITCH (Robert Eggers, 2015)
The Witch was Eggers’ first long feature, and it immediately gathered a following upon release.
A puritan family is banished from its colony and sets up house on the outskirts of the forest – to chilling results.
The film was initially supposed to have followed a five-arc structure, with each section focusing on a member of the family, but the producers rejected that idea.
Eggers has publicly stated that that has made rewatching his own movie difficult for him, but even if he was disappointed, the film is amazing. You don’t want to miss this one.
2. HÄXAN (Benjamin Christensen, 1922)
A documentary of sorts that establishes a parallel between the signs attributed to witches in the Middle Ages and the symptons of mentally ill patients.
Häxan is a must-watch for any cinephile, with great special effects for such an old flick, and it is included in the Criterion Collection.
3. I MARRIED A WITCH (René Clair, 1942)
A light-hearted rom-com starring Veronica Lake. It is based on a 1941 novel, The Passionate Witch, by Thorne Smith, and it is quite non-sensical, but fun nevertheless.
Jennifer is a witch from colonial Salem who is burnt at the stake and whose ashes are buried under a tree in order to prevent her from escaping. However, when lightning finally splits said tree in 1942, she sees her chance for revenge – only to fall in love with the man she intends on revenging upon.
4. HEREDITARY (Ari Aster, 2018)
Genuinely scary movie that introduced the world to a new talent of horror filmmaking, the marvelous Ari Aster.
After the death of the family grandmother, all kinds of creepy things start happening to the Grahams, who are still trying to come to terms with their bereavement.
5. THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez, 1999)
Probably one of the most influential horror films ever, as it established an entire subgenre on its own – the found-footage movie.
Three filmmaking students disappear while filming a documentary near Burkittsville, Maryland. Years later, their recordings are found and played as the movie you are watching.
The film’s marketing campaign was so successful that it had people actually believing that the students had disappeared in real life, and the IMDb page even listed the actors as “missing, presumed dead”.
6. SUSPIRIA (Luca Guadagnino, 2018)
Luca Guadagnino remade Dario Argento’s movie of the same name in 2018. The movie is set in a German dance school where a student recently disappeared.
There are a couple of very disturbing scenes here, so while other films on this list are a fun watch for the whole fam, this one isn’t. Definitely not for the faint of heart.
7. KIKI’S DELIVERY SERVICE (Miyazaki Hayao, 1989)
Now this is a delightful watch by the Japanese maestro Miyazaki. It is adapted from a 1985 novel by Kadono Eiko, and tells the story of a young witch, Kiki, who starts a delivery service in order to make a living.
Great animation, wonderfully comforting movie.
8. KIRIKOU AND THE SORCERESS (Michel Ocelot, 1998)
The first one of a trilogy of animated movies based on West African folk tales, Kirikou and the Sorceress is a beautifully animated film about a little boy who can speak and walk as soon as he is born.
The film was unfortunately not widely released in the UK and the US because of the child nudity it depicted, even though it is non-sexualized and perfectly normal in West African cultures.
9. THE LOVE WITCH (Anna Biller, 2016)
And finally, the campiest movie on this list – The Love Witch. Set in the 1960s, it tells the story of Elaine Parks, a California witch in search for love.
Worth watching alone for its cinematography, it is a quite funny film overall – and not your standard movie!