The ten best movie witches
Hollywood's most notable hocus pocus hags
Tue Feb 12 2013
Vampires are dead: 2013 is officially the season of the witch. As ‘Beautiful Creatures’ (aka ‘the new “Twilight”’) opens, Cath Clarke and Tom Huddleston pick the best screen sorceresses.
Asa Vajda (Barbara Steele)
Film
'Black Sunday' (1960)
Appearance
Classy. The imperious anti-heroine of Mario Bava’s spectral masterpiece first appears at her own trial, dressed to kill in a slinky silk number. Unfortunately, the spiked-mask accessory which the revenge-crazed locals insist on adding does spoil the ensemble somewhat.
Evil deeds
Blood-drinking, corpse-reanimation, demonic possession, worshipping Satan, impersonating the aristocracy – the whole gamut, really.
Scare factor
9/10 – if only for the mind-blowing scene where her rotted visage recomposes itself with the assistance of a droplet of spilled blood.
Wyrd words
‘You, too, can feel the joy and happiness of hating!’
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