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The hour of the Witch

fascination with witches and sorceresses alive and well 2016
A film series shows some of that interest remaining strong in N America from a girl-power/feminist; meanwhile reports from Saudi Arabia, Ghana, India and Papua New Guinea - among other nations - show a rise in either witchcraft and/ or a fear of witches, who then must be killed in some horrible way.
Like in the Reformation of Europe (1500-1600s, when perhaps more than a million women were murdered as witches, (primarily in Germany and Scotland), the fear of witches and sorcery and the diabolization of vulnerable women such as widows, the poor, women who are odd, the Other, women with no relatives to protect them -  this rise of the fear of witches and probably the rise in black magic practices occurs during times of great socioeconomic upheaval and gender role alteration when people can't rely on old patterns to survive or gain status.
A big study out of Germany showed the majority of the women burned alive there happened to be midwives (and knew about abortifacients) and document how the Church wanted to eliminate the midwives' power and keep the people cranking out lots of children. 
In Flight of the Goose - the main character is a female shaman or far northern kind of "witch".