Season of the Witch

Vampires. Werewolves. Zombies. Ghosts. Every ghoul has its day, and at the moment it seems that witches are among us. The last few years has seen the witch making its way back up the horror ladder, and I for one am loving it. In 2015, the arthouse horror flick, The Witch (A New England Folktale) brought the familiar (excuse the pun) yet recently neglected historical tale of the witch to our screens, and to critical acclaim. The film, as the title suggests centres upon a family of New England settlers who, after being banished from their Puritan community due to their differing interpretation of the good word, have to go it alone out in the wilderness. When they set up home on the edge of a forest, things take a drastic turn for the worst. It was a return to the horror roots of old and, much like the latest arthouse horror release Hereditary – which also eludes to witchcraft and the occult – made use of fantastic cinematography and striking music to create a subtle and slow-building horror that typifies the paranoia, fear and restrictive social norms so familiar (there it is again) to us when we think of witch tropes.

Independent film-makers are also getting in on the action, with indie-films such as Hex being streamed on Amazon, and new films such as Maiden, a feminist supernatural horror recently getting the go-ahead to bring their film to life.

Literature has also been awash with witches and witchcraft. The beauty of using witches is that it can cut across genres – from fantasy, paranormal romance and horror, to historical fiction, such as Beth Underdown’s The Witch Finder’s Sister, a historical novel written from the point of view of the fictional sister of Matthew Hopkins, the infamous seventeenth-century Witchfinder General. As a writer who follows the submission calls of agents and publishers, I’ve noticed that there’s been more of a demand for all things witchy, and that was before I decided that the next novel I’d work on would draw upon witchcraft themes.

And now – much to the delight of many All Souls fans – we can look forward to the upcoming TV drama, A Discovery of Witches, which will air on Sky One in September 2018. For those who don’t know, this is based on the best-selling trilogy by Deborah Harkness – a book series that has gained cult status since it was first released. Personally speaking, there is so much to geek-out about regarding this TV programme – from its fantasy elements, the paranormal romance, the cast, and even the fact that it was made by a production company based in Wales, with much of the filming taking place here, which just makes me want to jump up and down for some reason. The series stars Teresa Palmer and Matthew Goode as well as a host of other well-known names and will bring witches, vampires and demons to our screens and also give us some good old-fashioned forbidden romance. Who could ask for more? It’s also refreshing to see this type of fantasy being brought to an adult audience, rather than the teen audience that we’ve come to expect. That’s not to say that the teen thing is bad – not at all! But it’s nice for adults to see characters who are more representative of their age-group, even if the familiar tropes are there.

Teresa Palmer and Matthew Goode star in Sky One's new supernatural drama, A Discovery of Witches.

When I studied witchcraft at university a long time ago (no, I didn’t go to Hogwarts, and yes, I did actually take a module on The Dynamics of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe, because… well… just because) I didn’t think I’d still be thinking and writing about witches all these years later, but there we go. While I may have forgotten many of the other things that I learnt at uni, there was obviously something about that particular subject that stuck. Maybe because witches always have, and always will be, a part of the culture that we live in, however they are represented.

There are some who would say that the motifs that we see in pop culture – especially in horror – are a direct link to the collective psyche and to the fears and undercurrents of what is happening in that society, and so I love to think of that in terms of the monsters and demons that occupy all media forms, whether this is TV, film, literature or games. From an archetypal perspective – because I love a bit of Jungian analysis – the witch is directly linked to the feminine – that’s not to say just women, because from this perspective we all have both masculine and feminine aspects. However, when we think of witches it is usually to women that we go, and there are many characteristics and powers that are associated with them. How those powers are wielded depends on where they are coming from. If they are coming from the dark side, then we see the witch in all of her malevolent glory. These are the ones that have sold their soul to the Devil and will take yours gladly. They use their magic to their own ends, will curse you and your momma and will scare the bejeezus out of you when you’re just trying to make a documentary out in the woods.

If, on the other hand, those powers are coming from the innate connection to Mother Earth and the elements, then the witch represents a deep connection to nature and has an intrinsic metaphysical understanding, using that awareness in the best interests of themselves and others. And so there you have it. A good witch helps you uncover your own magic and helps you on your way. A bad witch tries to run off with your ruby slippers, and I don’t know about you, but ain’t nobody getting their hands on my best stilettos.

It’s interesting to see how witches are portrayed therefore in the books and films that we now see on our shelves and screens. There is the dark side of the witch and there is the side that marks a return to a more feminist interpretation of what a witch represents – the innate power of the feminine to connect to something more real than the culture they find themselves in. It’s hardly surprising given the current climate, with movements such as #MeToo and Time’s Up, that we’ll see our witches reclaiming their power and taking on patriarchy and societal norms that no longer fit. We can take a look around at what’s going in our crazy world and why these creatures – with their journey into reclaiming their powers, and rejection of what has been expected of them – and contextualise where they fit into our contemporary understanding.

These days we can’t burn our witches because we are scared of them – though one only needs to look at the twitter feed of a female non-conformist to see that it happens in other ways. But we can maybe see that there was never anything to be scared of in the first place. Power can be used in many ways, and it’s not necessarily the perceived bad guy who can corrupt it. However, whatever side they practice on, it seems that witches will be casting their spells over us for the foreseeable future, and I for one, am happy about that.