The concept of a cruel witch is one that has been perpetuated throughout history and across various cultures. In folklore and fairy tales, witches are often depicted as sinister and malevolent characters who use their powers for malicious purposes. They are often seen as the embodiment of evil, with their actions causing harm and suffering to those around them. However, over time, the perception of witches has evolved. Many modern interpretations suggest that witches were actually powerful women who were misunderstood and feared by society. They were often healers, midwives, or herbalists who were knowledgeable about the natural world.

A Case of Practical Magic (1998)

It’s almost Fall, Witches! And that means we’re gearing up for Spooky Season here at the BCD. This week, we decided to cover a film that has become a 90s Autumn staple over the last two decades.

Based on the novel by Alice Hoffman, Practical Magic is an endearing story about love and sisterhood, with a dash of homicide and a pinch of demonic possession. With striking 90s fashion and two irresistible leading ladies, it’s everything you could possibly want from a film about small-town witchcraft.

So, gather some ingredients and light some candles, it’s time to cast some spells with The Owens Sisters in Practical Magic.

Summary

After the tragic loss of their parents, Sally and Gillian Owens move in with their aunts. The aunts teach the girls about the family’s connections to witchcraft, especially among the women. One night, the young girls witness the disastrous effects of love and desperation, and Sally casts a spell that she's sure will prevent her from falling in love.

Years later, Sally gets a call in the middle of the night from Gillian, who is trapped in an abusive relationship with a violent man named Jimmy Angelov. When Sally comes to the rescue, things go horribly awry and Gillian’s boyfriend dies unexpectedly. The women head home with the corpse and attempt to raise Jimmy from the dead, accidentally introducing an evil spirit into their lives that threatens to destroy their family. When a detective arrives and starts asking questions about Jimmy Angelov, the once-peaceful lives of the Owens family (and Sally’s love life) become even more complicated.

The Book

• The film is based on the book of the same name by Alice Hoffman. The book is now a four-part series with the book Practical Magic falling into third in the series (even though it was written first) due to the timeline. After being asked for years to write a sequel, she returned to the Owens sisters and wrote the prequels and sequel in 2017-2021. Practical Magic was her first novel adapted to film. Later she would also have Aquamarine and The River King also adapted.
• The book and movie do have differences. Although the film was clearly really inspired by the book, it seems that the feel of the characters and story is different. While fans commonly prefer books to their movie adaptations, Practical Magic seems to be an exception to this rule. Although the book is popular, the movie has a certain cult classic magic to it.
• Here’s a list of some of the major differences
  • 1. The movie was set in a small town while the book takes place in the Suburbs.
  • 2. The book discusses more about what the Aunts, the two women that take in Gillian and Sally, do for the women in the town.
  • 3. Sally and Gillian are much more skeptical of magic in the book. They question if it truly works.
  • 4. Sally lives in a different house than the Aunts after her husband dies.
    • Sally’s girls are also older in the book and not as sweet.
    • She also revealed that the producer (Denise Di Novi) has the rights to The Rules of Magic and Magic Lessons which are the two prequel books.

    Making of

    • Robin Swicord was the first to adapt the story for the screen, before Akiva Goldsman and Adam Brooks did rewrites. Swicord wrote the screenplay for several other films, including Matilda and Little Women (1994). Akiva Goldsman and Adam Brooks are also accomplished writers, with Goldsman specializing in book-to-film adaptations.
      • The script’s first home was at Turner Pictures, but when it went to Warner Brothers, the film was greenlit right away.
      • Sandra Bullock was also the one to suggest that Nicole Kidman play Gillian, the other female lead and sister to Sally Owens. Everyone loved the idea, but Kidman was booked to film another movie. They were able to wait until production wrapped on her other project, so she was able to be in the movie after all. Bullock and Kidman had only met once briefly, but their chemistry was undeniable on screen.
      • As Dunne directed, Di Novi was sure to protect him in the role by supporting him, inspiring him, and believing in him. Dunne never even saw her freak out! She was calm throughout the entire production, even when things went awry.
      • Di Novi and Dunne had a way of balancing each other out for the final product. Denise would push Griffin to lean into the sentimental points of the story, and he would push her to lean into the darker aspects.
      • Mary McLaglen, another producer, suggested Washington which isn’t exactly known for its sunny weather. But, it ended up being the perfect place. McLaglen convinced them to look at San Juan island. Shortly after they decided on this location for the house, Indian artifacts were found there. It turned out that it may be a burial ground. This was the third filming location in Griffin’s career where he may have stumbled upon sacred ground. He seemed to have a knack for it.
        • They were permitted to build the house and have a garden but only if the crew didn’t break ground in this location. In order to accommodate this request, the house was built on a platform and the garden was like a huge sandbox that was on top of the earth.
          • Partially due to this fact, much of the interior shots were done on sound stages at Warner Hollywood Studios.
          • The very first effect that was considered early on was how to approach the ghost version of Jimmy, played by Goran Visnjic. In the original script, Jimmy was a Texan and didn’t have much dimension. After casting for about 2 weeks, Dunne was bored with the part. So when he met Goran it all fell into place. Goran had taught himself English and was from Croatia so the character was changed to specifically fit Goran.
            • John Sheele (pronounced Sheelee) was the visual effects supervisor for the film, working alongside his partner Chris Sanger. They were brought in for pre-production because Griffin Dunne wanted to get ahead of the game. They were one of the first ones hired.
            • Dunne wanted to seamlessly include supernatural elements. In order to accomplish this, he had his friend and production designer, Robin Standefer, attend the special effects meetings to match the effects to the look of the movie.
              • Standefer and Dunne really liked the look of Daguerreotype photos. Daguerreotypes were images on silver copper plates. In order for a person to be photographed that way, the person had to be incredibly still for a long period of time. It was the first widely used form of photography. People would often use it to take pictures of their dead children to remember them. Standefer and Dunne liked how the photos made people’s eyes look, and it was a great starting point for the discussion on how Jimmy would appear as a spirit. You can see the influence in his final look when Jimmy’s skin is a reflective silver color with piercing, reflective and haunting eyes.
              • We cannot discuss this movie without one of the most fun scenes in the movie, the Margarita scene!! According to the commentary it was really pretty much everyone's favorite scene. Many said it was the most fun to shoot, although Sandra Bullock said that she almost knocked into the cameramen several times. This kept almost happening because the cameramen had Steadicams and were moving around almost as fast as the actors.
              • In the audio commentary, Dunne recalls that Di Novi was responsible for the idea for this scene. According to him, she had “show business truisms” and one of them is that if you have that many women in a film, you need to have them sing and dance together. The example that she gave was from another film she produced, a little film called Beetlejuice, where they sing and dance “Day O!”
                • Di Novi only recalled that she knew Sandra was a great dancer and that they needed to show it off.
                • Diane Wiest and Stockard Channing play The Aunts. Wiest, who has been in things like Robots, Life in Pieces, and Edward Scissorhands plays Aunt Jet. Stockard Channing, who famously played Rizzo in Grease, plays Aunt Frances. It was decided that the pair would not have a whole lot of make-up on them. Griffin wanted their own beauty to come through.
                • When Griffin was younger he loved the song “Lime in the Coconut” when it came out and so it meant a lot that he was able to use it specifically in this scene.
                • Normally in a scene like this, you would play the music and have the actors get used to it, then cut the music and have them dance and sing. That audio would then be combined with the music for a clean audio track.
                  • Griffin did not want this. He thought that they should be dancing and singing along as we hear the music. He thought it fit more with the spirit of the song.
                  • The chemistry between Aidan and Sandra was perfect. At one point he said, “she bewitched me, she really bewitched me.” Sandra and Di Novi agreed during the commentary that Aidan is not only a handsome man with beautiful blue eyes but that he brings integrity and honesty to his roles.
                  • Sandra said in the scene where she has to lie to the officer (but can’t because he is her true love), she is “doing a Griffin.” Apparently, the director has that kind of a cadence and chopped talking when discussing what his vision is for the scenes. It seemed as though his mouth couldn’t catch up with his thoughts or vice versa.
                  • Sylvestri didn’t want to be too literal with the music, so he instead gave a broader sense of the entire film.
                  • However, during the scene when Jimmy comes back as a ghost for the first time, the music is more playful, like a spider playing with a fly. The music sounds like a standoff with mystery and supernatural elements, but not grand and monstrous.
                  • Sylvestri used let motifs throughout the film. For example “The Legend Theme” from the beginning of the movie comes back around when Gillian is telling Sally’s daughters about the spell Sally cast to prevent her from falling in love. It’s similar to the beginning of the film because it is about an Aunt passing on a family story.

                  Reception

                  • Practical Magic opened at #1 making $13.1 million at the box office. However, that was not enough to make this film a success. The movie would only go on to gross $68.3 million worldwide, which is less than its $75 million budget.
                  • Unfortunately, critics were harsh, and the movie currently has a 23% on rotten tomatoes, with most reviews citing its tonal shifts and not really knowing what it wants to be.
                  • However, it’s not all bad! Fan reviews are much more positive and give the film a 73%. Fans agree that the acting and chemistry between the four leading witches are brilliant and memorable. Additionally, it holds a place for many as a movie to rewatch every fall season.
                  • Almost all of the women in this film, including Sally’s daughters, were nominated for awards for acting. The only one to win, however, was Stockard Channing for Favorite Supporting Actress in a Comedy/Romance. (Blockbuster Entertainment Award)
                  • After the cult-classic success of the film, a few attempts were made to turn it into a series. First, in 2004 there was a pilot called "Sudbury." Starring Kim Delaney, Jeri Ryan, and Kat Dennings, but unfortunately, it was not picked up. The second attempt was in 2010 when ABC Family (now Freeform) announced it would be producing a television reboot of the film. This series, too, never made it to air.

                  Fun Facts

                  • The Curse!
                    • Dunne admitted that although he loved the setting of the story, he was not well-versed in witchcraft. So he hired a witch consultant for the film. She would later demand extra money and a percentage of the film's profits, which Dunne said would not be possible. Dunne recalled that she told a producer, "I'm going to put a curse on you. I'm putting a curse on this movie, and I'm putting a curse on Griffin."
                    • Because of this, Dunne ended up having his own exorcism to cover his bases, even though he says he “gives them no power!”

                    Conclusion

                    Practical Magic is a true cult classic. It flopped at the box office, got torn down by critics, and has enjoyed a slow rise to mainstream popularity. This film is charming, fun, and in some ways, unpredictable. Fans come in expecting a light-hearted rom-com with some magical elements, only to find a story that includes abuse, accidental killing, and dark magic. But no matter how bad the circumstances become, the characters can overwhelm the darkness with the help of the women around them.

                    Despite its original reception, this film has delighted film fans for almost 25 years. And to us, that means it’s practically magical.

                    Thank the ’90s for Practical Magic

                    Griffin Dunne’s ostensible comedy—starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman—mixed horror, empowerment, and romance in ways extremely unusual for the era.

                    Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman in Practical Magic ( Warner Bros. ) October 16, 2018 Share Save

                    Read this plot description and ponder whether it sounds like a good pitch for a light rom-com: Two sisters—one more sensible than the other but both of them practicing witches—kill an abusive boyfriend together, bury his body, and then have to reckon with the consequences of the crime after he comes back to life. You’re not laughing? What if I told you the sisters were reckoning with an ancient family curse that mortally doomed any man who fell in love with them? It might not sound like a breezy night at the movies, but 20 years ago, the good folks at Warner Bros. thought it could be.

                    The result was Practical Magic, Griffin Dunne’s adaptation of Alice Hoffman’s 1995 novel, which follows Sally (Sandra Bullock) and Gillian Owens (Nicole Kidman) as they wrestle with their ancestors’ past, the laws of witchcraft, and the homicide they commit. The film (which is currently streaming on HBO Go) was a box-office flop, grossing $46 million domestically on a sizable $75 million budget. Its critical reception was so poor that Dunne, years later, wondered if the movie had been cursed by a witch who served as a consultant on the film and later sued the studio over a pay dispute.

                    Practical Magic was a clear harbinger of a gentrifying moment for onscreen witchcraft, coming out the same year as the WB’s Charmed and the second season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in which the protagonist’s friend Willow Rosenberg became a practitioner of Wicca. Dunne’s movie plays even more strangely in retrospect, squeezing arcane horror, airy laughs, and romance scored to hits like Faith Hill’s “This Kiss” into a 103-minute package. That’s why the film sticks in my mind, 20 years later, as the kind of expensive mainstream-studio experiment that’s too weird to dismiss—a work that wove dark themes about gender and power into an ostensible crowd-pleasing comedy.

                    Tonal dissonance defined Dunne’s early films as a director. An actor who featured in the horror classic An American Werewolf in London and starred in Martin Scorsese’s anarchic ’80s comedy After Hours, Dunne made his directorial debut in 1997 with Addicted to Love, starring Meg Ryan and Matthew Broderick. That was another genre-bending piece of ’90s studio quirkiness: Ryan and Broderick play a pair of jilted lovers whose exes start dating each other. The scorned couple resolve to stalk their former paramours together and break them apart, but eventually (of course) fall for each other. The lead duo’s obsessive behavior toward their exes dances right up to the edge of being disturbing; perhaps unsurprisingly, Addicted to Love bombed with critics and audiences.

                    Dunne brought that same odd atonality to Practical Magic (which was written by Akiva Goldsman, Robin Swicord, and Adam Brooks). In its first 15 minutes, the Owens family’s forbidding history is unfolded: Maria, a young witch in colonial times, was exiled to a coastal Massachusetts island for having an affair, and she cursed her own bloodline when her lover failed to rescue her. As a result, any man who falls for an Owens woman is destined to die, and that’s the fate that befalls Sally’s nice husband (Mark Feuerstein), who’s mowed down by a truck. Now a widow with two young daughters, Sally moves back into the home of her aunts Frances (Stockard Channing) and Bridget (Dianne Wiest) on that same remote island.

                    This all happens in the prologue. Not only is a family ripped asunder by a wrathful spell, but Sally’s poor children are also mocked in the streets right after their father’s death by the local townspeople, all because of the Owenses’ reputation as a clan of witches. Through it all, Alan Silvestri’s chirpy score tries to keep things feeling pleasant, a trilling flute melody playing over these many mournful affairs. The composer’s skills are tested mightily, with Dunne swerving between horror and humor every five minutes.

                    Practical Magic is about family, but a theme thrumming throughout is the fearsome strength of independent women. The locals hate Sally’s aunts, though all the pair seems to do is meddle in other people’s love lives (for a price). Their rejection of the traditional family unit—neither is married—is clearly what makes them so alienating to the community. Indeed, any man who enters the story is marked for death from minute one; that goes double for Gillian’s boyfriend, Jimmy Angelov (Goran Visnjic), whom the sisters poison after he gives Gillian a black eye. * Afraid of a pending murder charge, they revive him using dark magic, but he comes back as a demonic zombie, so they have to kill him again.

                    The rest of the film sees Sally and Gillian evading the cute cop Gary (Aidan Quinn), who’s investigating Jimmy’s death. The sisters’ dynamic is fairly typical for a family movie: Sally is a bit of a stick in the mud, while Gillian is wild and spontaneous. But Dunne eschews whatever disputes might typically erupt from those personality differences and instead throws the women into a murder case. Practical Magic is a romantic comedy of sorts—but only because the sisters have to come to terms with the notion that their relationships with men are eternally bewitched.

                    That bleak focus makes for sequences that are genuinely frightening, such as when Gillian is possessed by Jimmy’s vengeful spirit. Other scenes are more winsome and flirty, especially when Sally starts to fall for Gary. There’s a darkly comic edge even as Sally and Gillian bury bodies and animate corpses, with their aunts flitting around in the background making enchanted margaritas. In Practical Magic, the Owenses’ bond is empowering but limiting: Sally has to exit her period of mourning and allow herself to fall for Gary so that she can cast aside her fears of the family curse (which isn’t lifted by the end of the movie).

                    For Gillian, ridding herself of Jimmy is like dumping the ultimate bad boyfriend: He becomes the man who won’t go away, who eventually (and literally) burrows into Gillian’s soul and has to be excised. Practical Magic is no Bewitched, where magic spells function as sitcommy plot work-arounds. Dunne wants the strengths and flaws of the Owens family to feel otherworldly. The final destruction of Jimmy’s ghostly form requires help from other women in the town, who unite to save Gillian; it’s a satisfying moment of sisterhood in a movie that grants very little agency to its male characters. “Strong, complicated women, they aren’t characters that are foreign to me,” Dunne said in an interview, reflecting on his film’s cult status years later. Unfortunately, such women are often foreign to Hollywood—but, occasionally, as Practical Magic proves, they can slip through the net and be remembered for decades.

                    * This story originally misstated the cause of Jimmy Angelov’s death.

                    Witchy Wednesday: The Owens Sisters

                    The women of the Owens family are under a curse. A terrible, inescapable curse of the worst possible kind. It goes as follows: Any man who falls in love with one of them will, through some unexpected accident or unforeseen circumstance, end up dead.

                    The curse began some 300 years ago in colonial Massachusetts when ancestor Maria Owens was condemned to death for witchcraft. She was put to the hangman’s noose but escaped through magic. Maria was then banished to a small island off the coast. She was pregnant, and although her lover had promised to come for her, he never showed up. Maria vowed to never again deal with the messy heartbreak of love. That vow, it its weird twisted way, turned into a curse against all men who dared love an Owens woman.

                    Now, sisters Sally and Gillian had better watch out! Of course, as luck would have it, both of them are going to fall in love. More than once.

                    Practical Magic, adapted from Alice Hoffman’s 1995 novel of the same name, is one of my favorite witch movies! It stars Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman as the two sisters, who are orphaned after their parents die of curses and broken hearts. The girls are sent to live with their Aunts in the sleepy Massachusetts town where prejudice against witches still runs rampant.

                    Stockard Channing and Diane Weist are their wild and wacky aunts who eat chocolate cake for breakfast, cast love spells for the neighbors and dance naked in the moonlight.

                    As Sally and Gillian come of age in their Aunts’ glorious seaside mansion, they start to realize the true nature of their powers. Neither girl cares to practice magic.

                    Subdued, bookish Sally (Sandra Bullock) is the more gifted of the two, though she rarely casts a spell. Wild child Gillian (Nicole Kidman) cares more for boys than witchery, and even runs away from her Aunts’ home to increase her opportunities with men.

                    The sisters are separated for a time, but, connected by blood and a psychic bond, they are never far apart. Gillian gets involved with an abusive man named Jimmy Angelov.

                    One night, Sally gets a premonition that Gillian is in real trouble and immediately flies across the country to rescue her. She finds Gillian held hostage, but the forceful Jimmy kidnaps both sisters. An accidental overdose of belladonna, administered by Sally, sends Jimmy Angelov to sleep with the angels. Or in his case, the demons… The sisters then find themselves in a tight spot; they are inadvertent murderers.

                    Rather than let Jimmy stay dead, they decide to try their hand at necromancy. The Aunts warn against it, believing he may come back as something “dark and unnatural”. Gillian assures them that he always WAS something “dark and unnatural”. What have they got to lose? But will the spell work?

                    To make matters worse, when Jimmy is reported as a missing person, detective Gary Hallet (played by Aidan Quinn) comes investigating.

                    The detective may have a hard time arresting Sally when he realizes he is falling in love with her.

                    Practical Magic, released in 1998, is a fun, sometimes spooky, romantic comedy. The movie recently made news headlines when co stars Bullock and Kidman showed up as presenters at this year’s Academy Awards. As the women reunited, Practical Magic fans conjured up the notion of them doing a sequel to the movie.

                    Whether or not this will happen remains to be seen, but one thing is certain; there will never be a shortage of fans hoping for it.

                    Throughout the movie, we find a number of spells and occult references. Here are some fun witchy facts:

                    It Runs in the Family

                    Sally and Gillian are descendants of Maria Owens who cast spells, broke hearts, and escaped the noose through magic. In reality, very few modern day witches can claim this kind of bloodline. Most witches are self made, through their own discipline and study of the Craft. There are, however, several families in the Salem area who claim blood relations to those who were arrested for witchcraft in the 1692 witch hunts.

                    Bella Donna, the Beautiful Lady

                    Atropo Belladonna is a poisonous plant. It has been used as a sedative and antispasmotic. Large doses can be deadly. In medieval Italy, young women put drops extracted from the plant into their eyes. This dilated their pupils, creating an effect that was considered to be beautiful – hence the name Belladonna, which in Italian means “beautiful woman”.

                    Yeah. Because nothing says sexy like the pie eyed opiate induced dummy stare 🙂

                    J.R.R. Tolkien fans might remember the character Belladonna Took Baggins. She was the wife of Bungo Baggins, lady of Bag End, and mother of the original ring bearing hobbit Bilbo Baggins.

                    Blood Drinking Optional

                    The character Jimmy Angelov, played by Goran Visnjic, was supposed to be from Transylvania. We are not sure if he was an actual vampire, but his Romanian roots certainly lent an air of darkness and danger to him. In real life, Goran Visnjic is from Croatia. Close enough.

                    In the 1998 movie, a ten year old Evan Rachel Wood played Sally’s daughter Kylie. Kylie took after her Aunt Gillian in both looks and temperament. We might wonder how she’d grow up…

                    Since then, Wood took on a bunch of noteworthy roles, including a vampire in True Blood.

                    Herbal Medicine

                    When a frightened Gillian returns home with a bruised face after Jimmy has assaulted her, Aunt Frances, in typical witch fashion, suggests applying mugwort. In Medieval Europe, mugwort was believed to be a magical herb that would protect against evil spirits, diseases and misfortunes.

                    Don’t Know Your Past You Won’t Know Your Future

                    While fans may be clamoring for a sequel after seeing Sandra and Nicole on the red carpet, author Alice Hoffman has actually written a prequel. This book, called The Rules of Magic, tells the story of the Aunts, Frances and Jet, when they lived as teenage witches in 1960’s New York City. Read more here.

                    And finally, no review of Practical Magic would be complete without a visit to Midnight Margaritas! Watch as the Aunts stir up a powerful brew. Grab some limes and enjoy the show 🙂

                    They were often healers, midwives, or herbalists who were knowledgeable about the natural world. These women challenged the traditional gender roles and power dynamics of their time, making them targets for persecution. The cruel witch stereotype can be seen as a way to demonize and oppress women who did not conform to societal norms.

                    

                    By labeling them as cruel and evil, their knowledge and power were delegitimized and suppressed. This can be seen as a form of patriarchal control, as the powerful women were feared and their abilities were seen as a threat to the established order. In recent years, there has been a growing movement to reclaim and reframe the concept of the witch. Many women identify as witches and embrace their power and spirituality. They utilize rituals, spells, and other practices to connect with the natural world and to empower themselves. These modern witches often focus on healing, self-discovery, and personal growth. The idea of dissipating a cruel witch suggests letting go of the harmful stereotypes and outdated beliefs about witches. It encourages a shift in perception and a recognition of the power and strength that can be found in embracing the feminine divine. By dissolving the notion of a cruel witch, society can instead celebrate and honor the women who challenge traditional norms and embrace their inherent power. In conclusion, the concept of a cruel witch has been perpetuated throughout history as a means of controlling and oppressing powerful women. However, there is a growing movement to reclaim and redefine the image of the witch. By dissipating the belief in a cruel witch, society can embrace the power and wisdom that these women bring and recognize the value in challenging traditional gender roles..

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