Payton McCarty-Simas '24 Publishes 'That Very Witch' with Luna Press Publishing

Film and Media Studies MA alum Payton McCarty-Simas '24 has published their second book, That Very Witch: Fear, Feminism, and the American Witch Film with Luna Press Publishing.

Researched over the course of seven years and spanning seven decades of cinematic representation, That Very Witch: Fear, Feminism, and the American Witch Film explores the cyclical rise and fall of the cinematic witch in American culture and the icon’s relationship to feminist movements over time. For as long as horror has been a genre, the icon of the witch has always been at its center—a symbol that has terrified generations of audiences and has always remained intrinsically female. Author, film critic, and programmer McCarty-Simas traces this enduring figure of popular culture and her evolution in American cinema to reveal to us how she reflects shifting political and cultural attitudes toward feminism over time. 

Beginning with the history of the witch, including the infamous burnings that occurred between 1300-1700, the book investigates this figure of both fear and fierce feminism by exploring its position through eras such as the Satanic Panic during the late 1970s and 1980s, the Riot Grrrl movement of the 1990s, the #MeToo movement and the election of 2024—arguing that at every stage, the witch can be found at the heart of the zeitgeist. 

“I was really surprised to find that in moments of conservative retrenchment the witch actually becomes less frightening," McCarty-Simas said in an interview with Night Tide Magazine. "It’s counterintuitive, isn’t it? During the Satanic Panic, you’d expect witches to be front and center in horror, but that’s not the case at all. She enters the realm of comedy with things like The Witches of Eastwick. That was really clarifying for me, learning how the rhetoric of antifeminist backlash undercuts feminism through condescension and dismissal rather than pure anger or fear, because to be frightening is to be powerful.” 

The author also takes a moment to recognize how race and culture, as well as the appropriation of Afro-Carribean and Indigenous People’s practices, have played a part in the development of the typical white female witch, and how the depiction of witches in American media has very much sidelined non-white witch stories. 

Reflecting on the book’s publication, McCarty-Simas credits the community ties they made at Columbia including Head of Film and Media Studies, Professor Rob King, Senior Lecturer in Discipline Ron Gregg, Associate Professor Nico Baumbach and Professor Annette Insdorf, saying “My time at Columbia was actually integral to the process of writing That Very Witch! The original concept, an investigation into the political resonances of repeated imagery in the witch horror films of the 2010s, began as my undergraduate thesis. After I signed my contract with Luna, I actually ended up returning to Columbia and writing several chapters as I was earning my Film and Media Studies Masters. The professors I worked with in the Film department—particularly Rob King, Ron Gregg, Nico Baumbach, and Annette Insdorf—were all incredibly supportive throughout, even after graduation. I couldn't be more grateful to the community in that program!”

The book probes us to look closely at a figure that has transcended generations, political movements and pop culture trends, to be one of, if not the most, important cultural horror icons—a figure burned, resurrected, and rebranded depending on what haunts us most. 

That Very Witch is available for purchase here. 

Payton McCarty-Simas is an author, programmer, film critic, and video artist with a focus on horror and genre film. Their writing has been featured in The Hollywood Reporter, Film Daze,  and The Brooklyn Rail among others, as well as spotlighted in The New York Times, CNN, and RogerEbert.com. Their short films and screenplays have been featured in several film festivals as well as shown at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. They are also the author of two books of nonfiction and film criticism, One Step Short of Crazy: National Treasure and the Landscape of American Conspiracy Culture (2024) and That Very Witch: Fear, Feminism, and the American Witch Film (2025).  Payton holds a Masters in Film and Media Studies from Columbia University and is a member of the Online Association of Female Film Critics and GALECA.