10 Scariest Witches In Horror Movies
1. The Witch Of The Woods - The Witch
Robert Eggers' modern masterpiece The Witch is not as focused on the titular magical villain as you might expect. A religious family in the 1600s lives on the edge of the woods in New England. Their lives are slowly torn apart as they are targeted by a nearby witch, leading to them questioning each other and slowly slipping into madness.
The Witch of the Woods herself only appears in a handful of scenes, but those moments are used to great effect. First, the young baby of the family is stolen by her. We see her grind his bones and mash him into a red paste, which she then proceeds to rub onto her naked body. It is completely unsettling and will make your skin crawl.
Her torment of the family is not vindictive, for she needs them for her own selfish spells. She treats them like cattle, which makes it all the more disturbing.
The Witch manages to be a horrifying experience while only showing its antagonist a couple of times. By instead focusing on the ongoing trauma and paranoia of the family, we see just how scary an unseen enemy like the Witch of the Woods can be.