That Very Witch: Fear, Feminism and the American Witch Film ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐
by Payton McCarty-Simas
Researched over the course of seven years, That Very Witch: Fear, Feminism, and the American Witch Movie explores the cyclical rise and fall of the cinematic witch in American culture and her relationship to feminist movements over time. Through historical analysis and dozens of case studies, Payton McCarty-Simas analyzes how the witch came to be understood as the ultimate cultural bogeywoman on the one hand and a classic feminist symbol of empowerment on the other.
It traces the representation of “demonic women” in the past decade back to older horror cycles and through the “New Age” section of your local bookstore, investigating the (counter)cultural shifts along the way. The book is a deep dive that demonstrates how changes in cinematic portrayals of the witch over time reflect major shifts in how feminism is perceived politically and interpreted culturally in America. From the birth of the Second Wave to the Moral Majority, from the Satanic Panic to “post-feminism”, from #MeToo to the 2024 election, the witch can be found at the heart of the zeitgeist. What can we learn from her presence?
Payton McCarty-Simas’ That Very Witch isn’t content to sit quietly on the shelf of witch-lit, it kicks the door open and asks us to reckon with why we keep summoning her, burning her, and buying her again in glossy paperback.
This is a nonfiction that crackles with urgency. McCarty-Simas doesn’t just sift through the archives of persecution and folklore; they drag the witch right into the room with us, daring us to look at how she keeps shifting shape in horror cinema, politics, pop culture, and protest. McCarty-Simas blends rigor with rhythm, balancing intellect and intimacy, grounding deep research in a voice that feels alive and immediate. They know their history, but more importantly, they know how to make it bleed into the present. The prose balances clarity with a kind of low-key menace. Its scholarship with teeth…and it bites down…hard.
What elevates That Very Witch is its refusal to sand down contradictions. The witch is a scapegoat, survivor, queer symbol, feminist rallying cry and consumer commodity, and McCarty-Simas lets all of those truths clash rather than resolving them into something neat. That tension make the book deliciously restless and utterly contemporary. It asks whether reclaiming the witch is empowerment, exploitation, or some uncanny third option: and it’s brave enough not to give easy answers.
Within today’s with zeitgeist: A24 slow-burn cinema, Insta-witches, political chants, this book feels like the necessary counterspell. Where some may see the with as a metaphor or mood, McCarty-Simas insists on her as history, body and threat. That Very Witch keeps the pace with the conversation and drags it into deeper, darker waters. Amid the many ways we imagine the witch today, McCarty-Simas shows us that she remains volatile, polarizing, complex and defiantly untamed, and thank the lucky stars for that.
You can purchase ‘That Very Witch’ from Luna Press Publishing here or wherever you grab your fine horror books!
About the author:
Payton McCarty-Simas is an author and editor based in NYC whose work has appeared in The Brooklyn Rail, Film Daze, Bright Lights Film Journal, and Horror Studies among others. They received their MA in cinema studies from Columbia University, focusing their research on horror film, psychedelic film, and conspiratorial thinking. That Very Witch is their second book.
CONTENT WARNING
At the core of this research are horror witch movies in their historical context: this book will discuss themes of a sexual nature, violence, threat, suicide, drug use, racism.
Contains mature language and movie spoilers.
NightTide Magazine 
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