Hood Witch 2025 Review: French Folklore Meets Internet Rage

Hood Witch (2025) Review: Frog Legs, Apps, and One Seriously Unhinged Witch Hunt

With a name like Hood Witch, I was so ready for some chaotic fun. I had “Leprechaun in the Hood” expectations: goofy, gory, possibly so-bad-it’s-good horror hijinks. But what I got? A slow-burn drama from France about a single mom-slash-witch-slash-tech-entrepreneur navigating a modern witch hunt. Yeah. Totally different spellbook.

This film originally dropped in 2003 overseas as Rocka, but in 2025, it got its U.S. release with a brand-new name: Hood Witch (thanks, Dark Sky Films). And at first? I was into it. Our lead, a practicing witch in an unnamed French city, is hustling hard—dealing illegal goods, developing a slick spiritual consulting app (basically Uber for witches), and raising her son in the middle of it all.

But then a client kills himself. The fallout? The internet turns on her in full, terrifying force, and we’re thrown into a full-on modern-day witch hunt. Think mob mentality meets cancel culture meets low-budget horror drama.

🧙‍♀️ The Setup Had Potential…

Thematically, Hood Witch is loaded. It touches on xenophobia, racism, the perils of digital mob justice, social media’s obsession with outrage, and the question of personal accountability in a connected world.

That sounds great. It could’ve been France’s answer to The Witch meets Unfriended. But somewhere along the way, this spell completely backfired.

😬 The Problems: Where Do We Even Begin?

Let’s talk about the main character. The film tries to make her sympathetic—a mother unfairly targeted, a healer trying to build something positive—but then undercuts all that in, like, the first 10 minutes.

She’s caught smuggling illegal, dangerous materials through airport security... while her kid is with her. That’s not "wrong place, wrong time" vibes. That’s full-on endangerment.

And it doesn’t get better. Throughout the film, she drags her child through danger after danger, seemingly with zero awareness or care. When the world does turn on her later in the film, yeah—it’s brutal, and some of the violence against her is clearly unjustified—but the emotional setup is already broken. We don’t root for her. We just kinda watch in baffled horror.

And no, she doesn’t change. She doesn’t grow. There’s no arc, no moment of clarity. Just a spiral.

🔥 The Mob Mentality: Unhinged... But Not in a Good Way

The key moment that sets everything off—a client jumping from a rooftop—is just bizarre. She’s clearly not responsible. She’s outside when it happens. A crowd witnesses it. But within seconds, they’re chasing her like she’s Freddy Krueger.

Why? Who knows. Logic left the building.

Later, they even trap her in her apartment and, instead of breaking down the door, the mob decides: “You know what would solve this? Burning the entire building down!”

…Huh?

The whole thing feels like a satire, except it’s not. It’s played dead serious, which somehow makes it even harder to take seriously.

📱 The Social Media Commentary (Or Lack Thereof)

Because the film centers on a digital witch hunt, a lot of scenes include TikTok-style posts, Instagram clips, and live-streaming chaos.

Here’s the issue: none of it looks real.

Live videos are formatted like static posts. Hashtags appear on “live” streams. Recording indicators are inconsistent. It’s like someone Googled “social media UI” once and guessed the rest. For a film trying to critique our relationship with social platforms, it doesn’t seem to understand how any of them actually work.

It’s not nitpicking—it’s the foundation of the movie’s premise. If you’re going to make a film about social media-fueled paranoia, you kinda need to get the basics of social media right.

🎭 Acting, Vibes & Direction

The performances are… fine. Nothing to write home about. The direction has moments of moodiness and tension, especially in the first third. There’s a decent amount of visual effort put into the potions, rituals, and more surreal scenes. There’s one scene involving frog legs that’s gross and weird in the best way.

But then the movie just unravels. The tone gets wildly inconsistent. Some moments feel like grounded social commentary; others feel like borderline supernatural horror. There’s never a clear rhythm or narrative focus.

⚖️ Final Verdict: Wasted Potential

Hood Witch could’ve been something really unique: a modern-day Salem, set in France, filtered through a Black, female lens, with commentary on how tech, race, and tradition collide in today’s world. I wanted to love this movie.

But the script is thin, the protagonist is poorly written, and the execution just doesn’t hold up—even by indie standards.

It feels rushed, confused, and—despite its ambition—shockingly un-self-aware. I admire the themes it’s trying to tackle. But trying isn’t the same as succeeding.

Final Score: 1.5 out of 5 stars

Save your time, save your popcorn. This isn’t the spellbinding ride it promised to be.

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