By Valerie Milano
Los Angeles, CA (The Hollywood Times) 10/10/25 – Jane Clark’s Witchy Ways arrives just in time for spooky season, but its real enchantment isn’t broomsticks or hexes, it’s heart. A supernatural rom-com about finding the courage to live authentically, the film pairs a breezy, Practical Magic-style tone with a contemporary queer love story that feels warm, grounded, and, yes, magical.
Eve (Diora Baird), a high-powered brand manager running on logic and caffeine, retreats to her late mother’s cottage and meets Danni (Marem Hassler), a neighbor from a lineage of witches. What begins as a wary friendship becomes a crackling attraction. When Danni’s home and heritage are threatened by a vindictive neighbor, Eve must choose cling to the world she can quantify, or step into a life charged with intuition, community, and love.
Baird’s comic timing and open-hearted warmth make Eve irresistibly human; Hassler’s Danni is flinty, luminous, and wise without the cliché. Together they spark, the banter is playful, the chemistry unforced, and the romance, to borrow Clark’s own phrasing, “wrapped up in the love and the magic.”
Clark steers the film with a sure hand, balancing rom-com beats with witchy world-building that never drowns the characters. The art direction and lighting give the cottage and coven spaces a lived-in glow; production design leans cottagecore without tipping into kitsch, and color work (particularly in the later passages) deepens the emotional arc as Eve’s defenses drop, and Danni’s world opens.
Candis Cayne, trailblazer, scene-stealer, and here an ideal confidante, brings a soulful steadiness that rounds out the ensemble. Cameos from Guinevere Turner, David Fumero, Marc Price, and Paul Fox thread in a pleasing genre/cult-cinema lineage without elbowing for attention.
The original music and song placements are spot-on. Clark tapped longtime collaborator Jennifer Corday to music supervise and write an original track; aptly titled “Sweet Spell” which captures the spirit of the film and shimmers over the closing credits. Sean Wiggins contributes a needle-drop that, as Clark told me, “fit perfectly…without recutting.” The score by Charlton Pettus and Doug Petty deftly rides the line between rom-com buoyancy and supernatural shimmer.
Click below for our exclusive interview:
In our conversation, Clark traced the film’s genesis to a cocktail catch-up with Hassler and a binge of A Discovery of Witches. But the alchemy clicked when she revisited Practical Magic: “I love the tone…and the love between the two women,” she said. That tone became her North Star while she researched modern witchcraft, discovering, in her words, “a whole community…often living in the ‘broom closet.’”
That discovery is the film’s thematic backbone. The parallels between the witch community and LGBTQ+ visibility are clear without ever feeling didactic. “I wanted everybody to watch it and walk away believing in love,” Clark said. The choice to let romance lead and let magic amplify that romance is smart, and, in the edit, she pushed the VFX just enough to make the metaphor sparkle.
The casting had its own fate-touched twists. Hassler was initially pegged for Eve; when the original actress for the witch role fell away, Hassler shifted to Danni, “You are the witch,” Clark laughed. Baird came aboard after an Instagram clip convinced Clark she had the rom-com chops to match her dramatic résumé. A tarot reading, performed on the script months earlier, had “two queens” that eerily foreshadowed the final pairing; Clark still grins at the coincidence.
The journey wasn’t all stardust. Clark spoke candidly about production turbulence, delays and even the FBI temporarily confiscating drives during an unrelated investigation. The team pressed on, took a strategic festival lap to bank reviews for AFM, and secured distribution through Wolfe Video. It’s the kind of indie saga that would flatten many films; Witchy Ways feels buoyed by exactly the resilience it celebrates.
At its core, Witchy Ways argues that authenticity is a form of spellwork. Coming out, whether as queer or as a witch, is framed not as shock but as congruence. The film’s most persuasive magic trick is emotional: the way belief (in yourself, in another person) transmutes fear into connection.
Verdict
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (out of 5)
Charming, gently funny, and sincerely romantic, Witchy Ways casts a feel-good spell that lasts beyond the credits. If you want cozy Halloween vibes with real emotional stakes, and a love story that treats “magic” as a metaphor for trust, this one’s for you.
Where to watch & follow
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Now available via Wolfe Video to buy/rent on Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, and Fandango at Home (with availability expanding internationally via Apple TV in Canada, the UK, Ireland, France, Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, and Switzerland).
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Official site: https://www.witchywaysmovie.com
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Socials: Witchy Ways on TikTok & Instagram; additional clips on YouTube under Clark’s company, FilmMcQueen.
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Writer/Director/Producer/Editor: Jane Clark
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Cast: Diora Baird (Eve), Marem Hassler (Danni), Candis Cayne, Guinevere Turner, David Fumero, Marc Price, Paul Fox
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Music Supervision & Original Song: Jennifer Corday
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Featured Track: Sean Wiggins
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Score: Charlton Pettus & Doug Petty
If you’re ready for a cozy-spell queer romance that believes, fiercely, in love and agency, Witchy Ways is a delightful watch.
Filmmaker Jane Clark has partnered with VENUS, a new and rapidly growing LBQ (Lesbian, Bisexual, Queer) community app and platform, as the host of Scene & Story, an upcoming interview series spotlighting today’s leading LBQ directors.
Jane and Witchy Ways star Marem Hassler will also be special guests at the VENUS-sponsored Halloween Meet & Greet at The Ruby Fruit on October 31.
The Ruby Fruit, Los Angeles’ iconic LBQ+ bar and community space, will host its annual Halloween Costume Contest, presented by VENUS, with Jane and Marem serving as guest judges.
The Ruby Fruit
3510 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026
Doors open at 7 PM / Music by JSTJO – https://www.
