My Saturday 7 this week is  near and dear to my shriveled, blackened heart!  If you visit Sorchia’s Universe regularly, you knew this was coming. We love witches here.

Long and Short Reviews started this madness and now I can’t seem to stop! Be sure to visit the center of this vortex at Long and Short Reviews to find a list of lists–links to a scintillating selection of Saturday Sevens.

At a tender age, I developed an abiding distaste for the Disneyfied heroines who populated the Little Golden Book versions of Grimm’s Fairy Tales my mother read to me.

Victims—the lot of them.

Cinderella needed to do a little housecleaning, all right—but with a baseball bat instead of a broom. Snow White napped through the best parts of the story and ditto Sleeping Beauty.

Bleck!

The dynamic characters in all the old tales are the witches. All eyes are on those ladies and they love their jobs. A very few movies capture their essence. Here are seven wicked witches in no particular order whose cold hearts make winter so much more frigid.

Number 1. Ravenna in Snow White and the Huntsman and The Huntsman: Winter’s War. Deliciously evil and fun to watch—except when the Helmsley is on screen. She’s got a helluva wardrobe and a mirror to match.

Number 2. Bellatrix Lestrange in Harry Potter. Here she is at her batshit craziest.

Number 3. The White Witch (Tilda Swinton in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe) Chilling, at best–she’s really lost patience with all cutesy-poo critters, English children in particular. I see her point.

Number 4.  Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of OZ. I mean, Dorothy killed her sister and then invaded her home with a gang intent on murdering her. What’s she supposed to do?

Number 5.  Winnie Sanderson. What’s not to love? If they make a sequel, I hope the witches win this time.

Number 6. The Grand High Witch in The Witches  and Morticia Addams (Angelica Huston). A Two-fer. Angelica Huston is multi-talented, but she shines as a witch. Makes ya wonder.

Number 7. Minnie Castevet in Rosemary’s Baby. Easily the scariest of the lot because she lives NEXT DOOR.

Bonus Witches: I have to at least mention these ladies who crept into my life through the television.

Madam Mim and Witch Hazel made being a witch look like so much fun.

Maleficent had it going on. A glamorous witch.

Endora in Bewitched. She should have vaporized both Darrens.

Now, tell me—who is your favorite villain?