Brush off your witch wands and prepare your cozy snacks; spooky season is here.Â
As October comes to a close, I have already gone through my list of fun and cozy Halloween movies from the 90s and early 2000s. Halloweentown (and the controversial Halloweentown High), Hocus Pocus, and The Addams Family have been on rotation for weeks. One film in particular holds a special place in my heart, and in the hearts of many young Black girls: Twitches.
The 2005 D-COM released only a week after I was born and throughout my life, it has been my favorite Halloween movie. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that this is not only because it’s a good movie, but my favoritism for Twitches was bred out of necessity.Â
Why “twitches” matters this spooky season
If you look at Disney’s catalogue of Halloween-themed movies, or even D-COMs in general, Twitches is one of a kind. Twitches stand alone as the only Halloween themed D-COM starring and prioritizing young black girls. At the time of the film’s release, this didn’t come as a shock. However, it’s 2026 ,and we still don’t have another movie for black girls that fits that Halloween vibe that we all crave this time of year.Â
Twitches set a precedent that hundreds of directors, writers, and producers were supposed to follow. While the entertainment industry continuously pumps out content that prioritizes the stories of white and non-black characters, Black watchers are overlooked.Â
Besides the cultural importance of the film, Twitches is everything that Gen Z watchers look for in their favorite nostalgic Halloween films. The main theme of the film, sisterhood, is a theme that many mainstream films attempt to tackle, but a lot of the time fail to understand the complexity of having a sister (and a twin at that). Twitches not only explores themes of identity within sisterhood, but also motherhood and socioeconomic differences between family members. There is no other D-COM from this time that touches all of these complex ideas in under 90 minutes.Â
I hope that this spooky season, more people realize the importance of Twitches and how young black female audiences need more movies that prioritize us, not just the trauma that we may go through. Before spooky season ends, give Twitches (and its sequel) a watch, and maybe one day, we’ll get another film that is as extraordinary as it is.