Film

Practical Magic

Name: Practical Magic
Genre: Romance, Fantasy, Comedy
Released: 1998
Cast: Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, Stockard Channing, Dianne Wiest, Goran Višnjić

A cozy, slightly ramshackle witch movie about two sisters who've spent their lives trying not to be who they are. It's part rom-com, part revenge fantasy, part Halloween candle commercial, and it never quite decides which — but the sisterly warmth, the crumbling Victorian house, and the midnight-margarita energy have made it a comfort-watch classic anyway. Good for autumn evenings and people who love mood more than plot logic.

TMDb rating

6.8

If you liked this

Hocus Pocus1993

The other essential October witch movie, campier and funnier, with three witches who commit fully to the bit. Pure comfort viewing that shares Practical Magic's love of ritual, sisterhood, and a house full of candles.

But It's aimed squarely at kids and nostalgia; the humor is broad and the stakes are cartoonish.

The Witches of Eastwick1987

Three women discover they have power just as a devilish man shows up to exploit it — sharp, funny, and a little wicked, with the same female-solidarity-against-a-bad-man engine underneath the magic.

But Jack Nicholson's performance is a lot, and the tone swerves harder into satire and horror than Practical Magic ever does.

The Craft1996

Teenage witches, real consequences, and a much darker take on what happens when you actually use the power instead of suppressing it. Great companion piece for the ominous side of this world.

But It's meaner and bleaker — less cozy hearth, more high-school horror, with a nastier streak toward its characters.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Bell, Book and Candle1958

Practical Magic's whole aesthetic — city witches, familiars, love as a curse to be lifted — descends almost directly from this film; it's the ancestor nobody mentions.

A Manhattan witch falls for a mortal and risks losing her powers for love — the moody, black-cat-and-candlelight prototype for every cozy modern witch romance, including this one.

But It's a stagey 1950s comedy with dated gender politics and a much gentler, talkier pace than modern audiences may expect.

Charmed1998

Three sisters, inherited magic, and generations of family history to untangle — basically Practical Magic stretched into a long-running weekly hangout with monster-of-the-week plotting.

But It's very much late-90s WB television: uneven effects, soapy melodrama, and a tone that swings from silly to self-serious.

Chocolat2000

A woman with mysterious powers drifts into a closed-off town and quietly upends it with kindness and a little magic realism — same gentle, sensory spell as Practical Magic, minus the broomsticks.

But It's slower and more European in pacing, with barely any of the plot-driven urgency the witch-movie crowd might expect.

Stardust2007

A fantasy-romance with real wit, a witch villain played to delicious excess, and the same sense that magic is romantic rather than terrifying. Big, silly, good-hearted fun.

But It's more swashbuckling adventure than intimate family drama — a different shape of story wearing similar sparkly clothes.

Fried Green Tomatoes1991

No magic here, but the same bedrock of fierce sisterhood, small-town secrets, and women protecting each other against terrible men. If you loved the Owens sisters' bond, this scratches that itch.

But It's a straight drama with real grief in it — no spellbook, no comic relief aunts, no fantasy cushioning.

Simply Irresistible1999no page yet

A struggling chef's cooking becomes accidentally magical and starts affecting everyone who eats it — same whimsical, low-stakes romantic magic-realism, just moved into a restaurant kitchen.

But It's a much smaller, forgotten film with thinner characters and a plot that barely holds together.

Twitches2005no page yet

Twin witch sisters separated at birth reunite to save a magical world — the tween version of Practical Magic's family-power premise, sincere and unpretentious.

But It's a Disney Channel movie through and through: simple stakes, simple effects, aimed at a much younger audience.

The Witch2016

Both hinge on a family line marked by witchcraft and the fear a community has of women who won't be tamed — one plays it for hearth-fire warmth, the other for existential horror.

A family curse, a suspicious community, and a young woman's power read as something monstrous rather than magical — the same bones as Practical Magic, stripped of comfort and drenched in dread.

But It is genuinely unsettling folk horror with almost no warmth or humor — the opposite mood entirely, not a cozy watch.

Kiki's Delivery Service1989

Same core idea as Practical Magic — inherited magic as a metaphor for growing into womanhood and independence — but told for children, animated, and without a drop of cynicism.

A young witch leaves home to make her own way in the world, wrestling with self-doubt and identity as her powers waver — tender, hand-drawn, and quietly moving in a way live-action rarely manages.

But It's a gentle Japanese animated film with almost no romance or conflict-driven plot — a mood piece, not a story engine.