I Became Very Inspired By Photographs Of Real-life Witches In The 1960s, Such As Anton LaVey And Alex

I became very inspired by photographs of real-life witches in the 1960s, such as Anton LaVey and Alex and Maxine Sanders. I also tried to find films about witches from that time, but they were nearly all exploitation and didn’t really interest me. Bell, Book and Candle was the closest to the feeling I wanted, but it was too modernist. I honestly never found any movies to draw from that were close to what I wanted, so I created a color palette from Tarot cards, and I made and commissioned the original paintings that appear in the film to look like what I thought a witch would paint.

The costume ideas came from her personality, the way I envisioned her as someone with intense princess fantasies who would embody her fantasies in her dress. I found some vintage Gunne Sax dresses and made a few more really romantic long dresses with a Renaissance or Victorian flair that also seemed witchy to me. A lot of choices were made symbolically or to reinforce character and theme. The décor was the same—it came from Tarot cards and from the desire to combine Victorian and hippie elements together, to go with her personality.

Anna Biller’s Pleasure Principles