Maybe you’ve noticed something in Hollywood when it comes to action and horror movies; they jump on the popularity of a trend faster than you walked out of Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked. We’ve already been treated to a debacle of 80s cartoon remakes, with Transformers, G.I. Joe, The Smurfs, and a new Ninja Turtles reboot headed our way, courtesy of Michael Bay. But Hollywood, faithful as you’d expect to deliver what the people want, goes beyond that.

When a zombie movie is released to major success, a multitude of zombie films randomly appear to be thrust into screens everywhere. After Danny Boyle’s 2002 feature 28 Days Later, we were treated with Resident Evil, House of the Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Dawn of the Living Dead, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, Shaun of the Dead, Land of the Dead, Diary of the Dead, Zombieland…you get the point. The fact is, we saw a whole lot more big budget zombie flicks after the success of one, and it’s not just a case of the undead.

Want vampires? Here’s a list of some of the vampire films to have come out after Twilight’s debut in 2008 alone: Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant, Daybreakers, Let Me In, New Moon, Priest, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn, Underworld Rise of the Lycans. And while vampire movies have always been made before Twilight hit screens, the fact of the matter is that Stephenie Myer’s spark definitely proved to be quite illuminating for major studios to make a quick buck, adapting every vampire novel they could get their hands on or remaking whatever foreign vamp movie they could find. So, with Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part II exiting theaters come the end of this year, what can we expect to fill the gap?

Well, there certainly won’t be a lack of 80s and horror remakes, but what you can probably put money on is the resurgence of witches.

We’ve already seen the boil-laden females in as the antagonists in the excellent Paranorman released a few weeks ago and was also a major player in Pixar’s latest outing in Brave. Now we have films like Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters to look forward to, which combines The Brothers Grimm and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter together to create one…theoretically awful movie. But it certainly doesn’t stop there. A project titled The Last Witch Hunter currently with Vin Diesel attached is to hit screens by the early part of 2014.

2014. That leaves plenty of time for some more witch films to gather some momentum in the mean time. Rob Zombie’s newest film The Lords of Salem finds some characters in the midst of some witchy business. We’re getting Sam Raimi’s Oz: The Great and Powerful which will surely feature some cauldron-users. And let’s not count out Guillermo del Toro’s pending script on Roald Dahl’s novel The Witches. These are a few of the films you can expect; just imagine what they’ll inspire.

So, are witches the next hot property in Hollywood? All signs seem to point in that direction. It wouldn’t surprise me if a found-footage remake of The Blair Witch Project was in the works somewhere, what with the resurgence of the popular characters and society’s re-found obsession with films like Paranormal Activity and Cloverfield.

So what do you think? Are you ready to jump on the witchy wagon, or do you want some more originality when you buy a ticket? Or witches even scary anymore, or have we all moved on from being afraid of cackles in the darkness?

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