By WILLIAM J. WRIGHT
Author Payton McCarty-Simas
Film scholars and horror fans can get a jump on the witching season this summer with the release of author and RUE MORGUE contributor Payton McCarty-Simas‘ latest book. Coming in July from Luna Press Publishing, THAT VERY WITCH is an in-depth exploration of the cyclical rise and fall of the witch in American cinema.
The culmination of seven years of intense research, McCarty-Simas’ book analyzes how the witch exists as both the “ultimate cultural bogeywoman” and a potent symbol of feminist power. Tracing the ever-evolving image of witches in film in relation to shifts in the political perception and cultural interpretation of feminism, THAT VERY WITCH dives deep into an often overlooked but essential horror archetype.
From the publisher: “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 is an NYC-based author, programmer, film critic and video artist with a focus on horror and genre film. In addition to RUE MORGUE, her writing has been featured in Bright Lights Film Journal, Film Daze and The Brooklyn Rail, among others. Her short films and screenplays have been featured in several film festivals and have been shown at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. She is also the author of One Step Short of Crazy: National Treasure and the Landscape of American Conspiracy Culture (2024).
