The Setting Of 'Amish Witches' Is A Real Enclave

Lifetime original movie Amish Witches, arriving just in time for Halloween, aims to make the rural countryside, long thought of as a idyllic place to relax, into a terrifying landscape for the attack of an angry witch after she is excommunicated from the community. I can understand if you're hoping that the film's creepy location is a fictional one, but the setting of Amish Witches is in fact a real place. Whether you want to visit or avoid it, you might be wondering, where is Holmes County? Turns out this county, which is located in Ohio is indeed the home of many Amish people, though it's not known for vicious witch attacks.

Also different from the film, the Amish community is woven into the Holmes County culture, while the film describes the community where they're filming the project as secluded and isolated. The way the trailer is shot, too, makes it look like the little town that gets tortured by the witch is creepy, dark, and already scary before people start disappearing. But, the real Holmes County looks adorable, like a storybook and a history book combined to form one of the cutest little towns in world that somehow exists in both the 19th and 21st centuries at once.

The Holmes County Amish community has a Twitter account — they're pretty integrated with modern life, even if they eschew most aspects of modern culture. And if you're curious, you can actually visit Holmes County and pick up some handcrafted wooden trinkets or have Amish restaurant fare. If you've never had the chance to try Amish food, it's absolutely delicious. That fresh-churned butter really makes a difference. And, of course, I challenge anyone to look at that IG of local Ohio cheese and not start immediately craving a whole plate of it.

According to PBS, the Amish population is growing. "The Amish population has doubled over the past 20 years," PBS reports. "As of 2012 about 265,000 Amish adults and children live in North America. Over half of the population is under 18 years of age." According to Ohio State University's census, in Holmes County, there are reportedly around 30,000 Amish people, making it around 10 percent of the entire national population of Amish. And, also according to Ohio State University, Holmes County is 42 percent Amish, giving it the highest percentage of Amish to non-Amish people in the US.

So overall, Amish Witches doesn't really get at the reality of Holmes County, even though "true story" is in the film's title. What they've made into an isolate, terrifying town is actually a densely populated area filled with attractions you can visit and some very picturesque vistas.