A pointy black hat. A cauldron full of newt eyeballs and unicorn tears. A flying broom. Everyone has an image in their head of what witches are like, and movies have played a major role in creating that image for generations. After all, witches have been the subject of movies since the silent era, and their use of magic has been a stand-in for telling stories of female empowerment and persecution.

Over the years, cinematic interpretations of witches have evolved to include many different types of characters in many different genres, from horror to comedy. Just look at the huge popularity of “Wicked,” an uplifting musical epic featuring a “wicked witch. For more magic, here are seven films about witches to watch after “Wicked.

Roald Dahl has a reputation for writing consistently traumatizing children's fiction, but he outdoes himself in “The Witches,” adapted by Nicholas Roeg in 1990. In this film, a young boy (Jacen Fischer) is supposed to be on a relaxing vacation with his grandmother when he stumbles upon an annual witches' convention at the same hotel.

To make matters worse, these witches are not the quirky, cutesy witches that often appear in children's entertainment. With a malevolent performance by Anjelica Huston as the Great Witch, “The Witches” is dark but thoroughly entertaining.

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In the 1990s, “The Craft” redefined the image of witches, transforming them from old hags in black hats with warts on their noses into moody, goth teens. four high school girls (Robin Taney, Fairuza Balk, played by Neve Campbell and Rachel True) begin experimenting with witchcraft. Their spells begin with trivial and self-centered ones: for love, for beauty, for revenge, etc.

But it is not long before the four find themselves at the mercy of forces powerful beyond their comprehension and that they are truly out of control. The Craft has developed a cult following over the years and is now one of the most popular teen horror films of the 1990s.

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Witches are not all bad. In fact, witches are often depicted using their magical powers for good, as in Hayao Miyazaki's imaginative animated film “The Witch's Delivery Service. In this film, Kiki (voiced by Kirsten Dunst in the English dubbed version) embarks on a coming-of-age journey as a young witch. But for starters, she works as a flying delivery girl, running around the seaside town of Colico on her trusty broomstick.

But for someone who loves helping others, it didn't take long for her to start doubting herself and her abilities. What is a teenage witch to do? Miyazaki's trademark charm is on full display in “The Witch's Delivery Service,” the lightest and fluffiest of his films.

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“The Witch” (or “Vuvich”) is as much about the dangers of solitude and religious fervor as it is about a supernatural woman in the woods who keeps in touch with the devil. In colonial America, a farmer moves his family from the relative safety and comfort of a small community to a secluded clearing near the edge of the woods. [The family blames a witch who lives in the woods. To make matters worse, the oldest daughter (Anya Taylor-Joy), who was watching the baby at the time, soon becomes suspicious. The Witch, starring Taylor-Joy, introduced the world to director Robert Eggers' deeply disturbing storytelling style.”

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Many witch dramas stick to dark, brooding tones in an attempt to create a suitably supernatural atmosphere. In contrast, Italian director Dario Argento fills “Suspiria” with vibrant colors, making its disturbing events all the more shocking. [In “Suspiria,” released in 1977, Jessica Harper plays Susie, a young American who travels to Germany to study ballet at a prestigious dance studio. But when she arrived in Germany, things got a little ...... It didn't take long to realize that something was wrong. The school was being run by a coven of witches who wanted to perform a little human sacrifice ritual. Now one of Argento's best-known films, “Suspiria” is a unique supernatural horror experience.

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Macedonian-born Australian director Goran Strevski's quiet and stunning directorial debut, You Want to Be Alone, is a charming coming-of-age story in European folklore. A young mother makes a deal with a witch to save her young daughter's life. The witch takes the daughter as her own, but on the condition that the mother keep her daughter hidden from society to protect her until her 16th birthday.

When the witch comes for her prey, she turns the girl into a shapeshifter like herself and teaches her to prey on humans. However, when she is on her own, she takes on the forms of various villagers, and with each new body she learns a different lesson: what it means to be human.

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Look, it happens to everyone. A witch who is eager to get revenge on the descendant of a man who tried to burn her at the stake hundreds of years ago may end up falling in love with him when she tries to torture him with some love potion she came up with. At least, that's what happens in “I Married a Witch.”

Veronica Lake stars as Jennifer, a witch whose plans go drastically awry when she gets tangled up with Wallacey Woolley, played by Fredric March. More akin to a comedic “Bewitched” than a dark horror film, “I Married a Witch” is a slight but engaging supernatural production, buoyed by the chaotic chemistry between Lake and March.

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