Christian parents are being warned about Hexed, an animated Disney film scheduled to be released at Thanksgiving that portrays witchcraft and black magic to children in a light so favorable even a former psychic/witch is calling the film disturbing.According to a Disney press release, Hexed is about an impulsive and unconventional teenage girl named Billie (voice of Hailee Steinfeld) who was never able to fit in at school. One day, a bracelet her mother told her never to remove slips off her wrist, and she suddenly discovers secret magical abilities. Once unleashed, these powers hurl her into a wild journey out of suburbia and into a vast witch realm called Hexe. Once there, she teams up with her mother, Alice, (voice of Rashida Jones), and together they uncover family mysteries that could change the world of witches forever.
What’s most disturbing about this movie is that its directors, Fawn Veerasunthorn and Jason Hand, along with co-director Josie Trinidad, say the story is ultimately about finding where you belong.
As Veerasunthorn said, “A wonderfully strange phenomenon is happening all around Billie, something she can’t explain. She's someone who has felt miscast in her own life, and it takes leaving her normal world behind and entering a hidden world of wild, unhinged magic to begin to understand herself.”
Jason Hand agrees. "Hexe is a place where Billie begins to feel seen for the first time in her life. She embarks on a journey of self-discovery that reveals a powerful connection to magic, and in the process uncovers long-held secrets about her family.”
Resorting to the dark arts as a way to find oneself is exactly what happened to former psychic medium and Christian author Jenn Nizza who warned about the glamorous appearance of witchcraft in Hexed and how easily it can lead the innocent astray.
In an interview with CBN, Nizza said she was also a young girl searching for answers and belonging when she fell into the trap of witchcraft. “Through that vulnerability … she’s [Billie] is offered this purpose, identity, and power through witchcraft. That is exactly how it started for me when those demonic doors were opened … at age 12 [or] 13.”
And just like Billie in the movie, Nizza thought the divination and psychic service she was providing was helping people.
“I was doing readings because I believed I really was talking to deceased people, and I had to help them get messages out to their loved ones that were here for … healing, solutions, some sort of peace, some sort of wisdom,” she told CBN.
It wasn’t until after she abandoned the occult that she learned who she was really summoning during those sessions – the devil, who was masquerading as people’s grandmothers, husbands, wives, and children.
“I was completely demonically oppressed,” she said, and described times of intense depression and anxiety which resulted from these practices.
The last thing she wants to see is a movie that uses the same tactics to lead girls into the dark arts.
Packaging witchcraft in a beautiful wrapper doesn’t make it spiritually safe, she says. “[It] makes me think of Satan masquerading as an angel of light — and that’s really disturbing.” We must disregard the aesthetic, she says, “because it’s the same evil and it’s the same author of these practices: the devil.”
Until the movie is released on November 25, we won’t know if actual occult practices, spells, divination, spirit contact or ritual magic is portrayed, but parents should wait until Christian reviewers such as Plugged In have had a chance to advise about its content before allowing their children to see the film.
In the meantime, join the movement to stop the release of this movie by signing on to the Tradition, Faith and Family petition demanding that Disney stop production of this film.
“Children should never be encouraged to admire witches and black magic. The Catechism states that magic and sorcery are 'gravely contrary to the virtue of religion (CCC, 2116–2117),'" the petition states. “As a faithful Catholic concerned for the innocence of America’s children, I demand that you stop the production of this film immediately.”
Let your voice be heard!
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