It's quite a film. And if you know anything about the literature of the time, you'll appreciate the many sources it pulls from.

Very well put. Hawthorne's stories are a great companion to this movie.

The film is very much about Salem. But while telling a story the people of Salem would believe, it does not necessarily endorse their worldview. It's an exploration of what they believed, not a sermon preaching it.

Having seen the film, you are on the right track.

glad to see I'm not the only one who thought that. Too many "this movie is awful and btw I haven't seen it yet!" posts in this comment section.

if you go crazy with the fundamentalism, don't be surprised when you
unwittingly give fuel to horrible evils looking to destroy you.

I saw that as a potential interpretation as well, but one among many.

bingo. It presents a story but refuses to handhold you through an interpretation of it. It was an exploration of a myth, not a conclusive statement.

The director wanted this film to be a PURITANS nightmare not an AA DOWD'S nightmare.

this one explores the folktale history, but does not discount the psychological realities — including the gender politics — that lay under those stories. Its not just a movie that apes stories about witches, it really asks questions about those stories while existing inside one.

As Captain Dowdy says, it pretends that the Puritan worldview was justified.

but stories about witches exist, and this movie is an exploration of those stories and beliefs. It does not come down in any sort of judgment nearly as confidently as AA Dowd thinks it does.

The film is a narrative-driven cinematic study of a belief system, but not a stamp of approval of what it is studying.

The movie definitely does present that people who go looking for witches are setting themselves up for trouble. Even if the witches do exist. It definitely does NOT fit neatly into " anything we do to protect ourselves from them is justified.."

Dowd makes it sound that way, but its really not. It's very easy to interpret the film as arguing that theology fucks with your ability to logic through crisis.

The story in the movie is, but the movie itself is not. I'd have to know if you've seen the movie to explain that farther.

I agree completely.

Dowd is wrong IMHO that it argues that hysteria is correct if the devil is real.

I usually hate that too. But it works here because it is presented as a folk-tale. It is an attempt to get inside a certain mindset, and asks some very interesting questions about that mindset in the process.

If ever a movie need a SPOILER space…