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Yaga: chicken bones? Saltburn parties? This folk horror is so debauched, it’s hilarious

31 October 2026 at 10:00

Heated Rivalry’s Hudson Williams and Carrie-Anne Moss star in this audacious mystery about a Slavic witch. There’s supernatural weirdness, detective work … and a hero who looks a lot like Tim Key dressed in leather

Halloween was once a simpler time, when neighbourhood kids would dress up as mythical serial killers, the undead or bedsheet-wearing ghosts. At some point, following America’s lead, it became sexy and cat-forward. It has now become a sort of conceptual art show. I’ve heard people this year planning to go to parties dressed as Erling Haaland, Prom Carrie (Prime Video edition) and Bad Bunny’s half-time Super Bowl show. It’s horrifying.

The perception of witches has evolved, too. Once understood to be a malignant version of the crone archetype, sympathy for witches has grown. They have been embraced as a feminist image of the older woman, free of patriarchal command and possessed of a powerful rage. In recent years, Maleficent, Elphaba from Wicked and Marvel’s Scarlet Witch have given witches a pop edge. Some of my most intense friends proudly wear slogan T-shirts proclaiming themselves descended from the witches whom society failed to burn.

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© Photograph: Bell Media/Sky

© Photograph: Bell Media/Sky

© Photograph: Bell Media/Sky

From This City Is Ours to Macklemore’s Free Palestine tour: the week in rave reviews

31 October 2026 at 09:00

The most fractious family in organised crime return while the US rapper embarks upon a series of benefit shows with some A-list guests. Here’s the pick of the week’s culture, taken from the Guardian’s best-rated reviews

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© Composite: BBC

© Composite: BBC

© Composite: BBC

Patrick Stewart Embraced His Baldness and Became an Icon

30 October 2026 at 21:35
It took him a while to realize that his lack of hair only added to his quietly commanding presence.

© Mark Sommerfeld for The New York Times

In his memoir, Patrick Stewart wrote that he came to regard his baldness as a strength: “As I reconciled myself to my fate — or is it pate? — I realized that I had been given a strategic advantage.”
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