[Book Review]: That Very Witch: Fear, Feminism, and the American Witch Film by Payton McCarty-Simas

For as long as horror has been a genre, whether that be through spoken story-telling traditions, literature or through film itself, the icon of the witch has always been one that has terrified generations, and has always been intrinsically female. Beginning from one of the very first cinematic witch depictions in Häxan (1922), to Rosemary’s Baby (1968), and right up to Robert Egger’s seminal film The Witch (2015), the witch is a horror stalwart whose villainy has never gone out of style. In Payton McCarty-Simas’ book That Very Witch: Fear, Feminism, and the American Witch Film, readers are brought along a journey to investigate this figure of popular culture and her place in American screen media. 

Beginning with the history of the witch, including the now infamous burnings that occurred between 1300-1700, author Payton McCarty-Simas also takes a moment to recognise how race and culture, as well as the appropriation of Afro-Carribean and Indigenous People’s practices have played a part in the development of the typical white female witch, and how the depiction of witches in American media has very much sidelined non-white witch stories. 

Barbara Steele as Asa in Mario Bava's Black Sunday (1960)

That Very Witch: Fear, Feminism, and the American Witch Film then continues to examine the witch as both a figure of fear, and as a fierce figure of feminism by exploring its position through eras such as the Satanic Panic during the late 1970s and 1980s, the Riot Grrrl movement of the 1990s, as well as the #MeToo movement and the election of 2024. 

Neve Campbell, Fairuza Bulk, Robin Tunney, and Rachel True in Andrew Fleming’s The Craft (1996)

The book is well-researched and subject matters carefully handled, with plenty of references sure to fill up the to-be-watched lists of hardcore cinephiles and occasional horror viewers, as well as those interested in feminism and media academia. That Very Witch: Fear, Feminism, and the American Witch Film proves that the witch in American media transcends generations, political movements and pop culture trends, to be one of, if not the most important cultural horror icon.

5 Screams out of 5