Theme: Witchcraft

The definition of witchcraft is a tricky thing. You can say that witchcraft is what Witches practice although that seems a tautological definition. And there are exceptions – what the Wicked Witch of the West and most witches in fairytales and fantasy practice is just regular Magic. So you could say something like witchcraft a form of primal conjuration practiced by women, except for the fact that there are also male witches (usually called warlocks).

Witchcraft is usually seen as a dark force, although that is not always the case and recent years have seen women-positive portrayals. It involves conjurations, spells, rituals, curses, charms and the like. As opposed to other forms of magic, there is usually more of a focus on earth magic, herbalism and sympathetic magic, while it can also be associated with folk ritual and ancient tradition.

On screen, witchcraft is often thought to be the same as Satanism but practitioners will deny such. You could draw a Venn Diagram between Witchcraft, Devil Worship, The Occult and Black Magic and Folk Horror – and all three would have a large intersecting area in the middle but each their own separate areas. What falls into each area will wildly vary between different screen portrayals with little consistency.