The Devil Takes a New England Holiday

The Witches of Eastwick (1987) 

The Lords of Salem (2012) 

Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (1988)

In the Spring of 1692 a group of young women in Salem, Massachusetts claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused others of witchcraft. Mass hysteria seized the town, and over the next few months, 19 people were hanged for the charge of witchcraft while five others died in custody. 

By September of that same year, public opinion turned against the trials, and they ended. The Massachusetts General Court would later annul all the charges of witchcraft. Historians concur with what people of the time came to believe: the charges of witchcraft in Salem were a deadly hoax.

Hollywood does not agree. Oh, sure, occasionally a film has been made from history's point of view, such as The Crucible. Usually in movies, the witches are real -- which is the case for the three films we’ll look at today. Not only do they feature able necromancers, but (fitting with our theme this month) also the devil as well.

The Witches of Eastwick is based on a novel by John Updike about three women who live satisfying lives in Eastwick, a small village in New England. Alexandra (Cher) is an artist and the single mother of a daughter. Jane (Susan Sarandon) is an infertile, divorced music teacher. Finally, Sukie (Michelle Pfeiffer) is a columnist for the local newspaper and the mother of six daughters. The three friends try to support each other, but none of them seem happy.

Then a new man comes to town. Or -- is he a man?

Jack Nicholson plays Daryl Van Horne, a man who disrupts the village with his vulgarity. And seduces the three women, one by one. They establish a strange, polygamous family until the women decide to cast the devil out, leading to a battle between the devil and the women who have discovered their witchy powers.

You might ask, what does any of this have to do with Movie Churches? Interestingly, director George Miller continually puts the local church in the center of everything. The aerial establishing shot in the credits even has the church in the center of the shot. Many of the exterior shots have the church in the background.

A few scenes actually take place inside the church. We hear the congregation singing a favorite of mine, “Lead on O King Eternal,” but one woman in the church, Felicia Alden (Veronica Cartwright), opposes the three friends and their new lover. 

When she speaks out against them in a church service, she seems to go more than a little mad. She screams “Whores! You know what’s going on in that house? Perversions! Drugs! Incest! Spanish flies!” Her husband has to drag her out of the church. 

Felicia goes to the hospital where the doctor explains, “Some fat got into her brain.”

There is another major scene in the church. As the pastor is preaching on Elijah, a mighty wind blows the door open and Daryl, who has been battling “the witches of Eastwick,” comes through the doors. 

He has been tarred and feathered, and he explains, “Sorry, having a little trouble at home, just female problems.” And then he vomits... a lot. He is then able to talk again. “Let me ask you something. You’re all church-going folks. Do you think God knew what He was doing when He created woman?... I really want to know. Was it another mistake like tidal waves, earthquakes, and floods? You don’t think God makes mistakes? Of course, He makes mistakes. But when we make mistakes they call it evil. When God makes mistakes they call it Nature. So what do you think? Women? A mistake? Can we find a cure, a vaccine?”

The congregation looks at the Devil with puzzlement and concern, but he leaves the sanctuary enraged.

Overall, it seems like a nice little church.

A very different film, a horror film rather than a comedy, is Rob Zombie’s The Lords of Salem. The film opens in 1696 and shows a coven of witches denying Jesus and pledging themselves to Satan.

We then see these same witches burned at the stake for their practices (which history shows is not how “witches” were dealt with in New England.)

We then go to the future where an author, Francis Matthias (Bruce Davison) is promoting his new book, Satan’s Last Stand: The Truth About the Salem Witch Trials on the radio show of D.J. Heidi Hawthorne (Sheri Moon Zombie). Matthias argues that “witchcraft is a psychotic belief brought about by a delusional state of mind.”

As the film goes on, Heidi encounters witches through a band called the Lords of Salem and through women at her apartment complex. It turns out Heidi is a descendant of those who persecuted the witches of Salem, and the witches are taking vengeance on her and other relations of those early witch hunters.

So where does the church show up in this film? In New England, as was true in Europe, civil authorities rather than ecclesiastical authorities prosecuted people for witchcraft. Not in this film.

There is a brief appearance of a contemporary church in the film. One day as Heidi is walking her dog, she stops to go inside a small country church. She sits in a pew. A priest comes in and she says “Hi!” 

The priest responds, “Why are you here?” in a voice that sounds more than a little judgmental.

Heidi: “I don’t know. I was walking by with my dog, I thought I’d come in. Is that okay, are you closed?”

Priest: “No. We’re never closed. God is always there, ready to listen.”

Heidi: “I just needed to sit and think.”

Priest: “It is a nice place to come and sit.”

Heidi: “Yes, nice.”

The priest sits next to Heidi on the pew and says, “You're a very sad girl.” He then grabs her arm and says, “You have to understand there is a war in heaven between Satan and Michael and his angels but you must understand, God does not forgive angels when they sin, He sends them to hell. You are a filthy whore of Satan. Christ can’t save you, only I can save you.” He tries to kiss her. And then Heidi wakes up.

The priest looks down on Heidi, waking up in the pew, and says, “I believe you fell asleep. It’s very peaceful here.”

Heidi finds an old book, the diary of the Rev. John Hawthorne, her ancestor. It tells how he opposed the master witch who made the devil’s music and so he killed that master witch. So the contemporary witches kill Heidi and other descendants of the opponents of witches from back in the day. They do so in a ceremony that mocks the church. They even post a “Jesus Saves” cross.

This time around, the devil wins.

Today’s last film with a real witch in New England is Elvira: Mistress in the Dark. Again, the church isn't seen much in this film, but toward the end of the film, the title character finds herself sentenced to death in the contemporary New England village of Fallwell, Massachusetts.

A priest comes to Elvira’s cell before she is taken to be burned at the stake. She's happy to see him arrive, thinking he's there to save her. He says he is there to save her soul, but then he (like about half of the men in the film) makes a pass at her, grabbing her breasts. This priest really brings down the Movie Churches Steeple rating, bringing these three movies to Two Steeples.

Veterans Month: Last Flag Flying

Last Flag Flying (2017)

On Veteran’s Day, we in the United States honor those who have served this country in the military. Here at Movie Churches, one day just wasn't enough, so we've taken the entire month of November to look at films that feature either veterans of wars or soldiers in war. We're finishing the month this week with 2017’s Last Flag Flying.

It's directed by five-time Oscar nominee Richard Linklater, who also wrote the screenplay (based on the novel of the same name by Darryl Ponicscan). When the film came out, it was thought to be a sequel to the classic 1973 film, The Last Detail, but it isn’t exactly that. Ponsicscan’s novel is a sequel, but the film introduces a new cast of players instead of the characters portrayed by Jack Nicholson, Otis Young, and Randy Quaid.

This film is set in December of 2003, with a Vietnam vet, Larry "Doc" Shepherd (Steve Carell), seeking out two of his war buddies to help him bury his son, who was killed in the Iraq War. He first finds his friend, Sal (Bryan Cranston), a tired-looking bartender, and together the two go find another friend, Richard Mueller.

They arrive at the Beacon Hill Baptist Church. The sign in front of the church reads, “Come to me all you who are burdened and heavy laden, and I will give you rest - Jesus.” 

Sal isn’t sure about going inside the church, commenting, “If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all.” 

But Doc says, “You’re going to love this, I promise.”

The Reverend Richard Mueller (Laurence Fishburne) is preaching, A banner up front reads “Holy Unto the Lord,” and there is a Christmas tree (helping this post make a nice transition from November's Veteran Month to December's Christmas Month here at Movie Churches). “See, as Christians, brothers and sisters, we have choices. We can lay down our will and follow God’s will.” Doc and Sal sit in the back of the sanctuary, behind an enthusiastic African American congregation. Rev. Mueller sees them and is obviously disconcerted.

After church, Richard invites Doc and Sal to his house for Sunday dinner and introduces them to his wife, Ruth (Deanna Reed-Foster). “You married up,” Sal says. 

Doc asks Richard to join them in the mission to bury his son. Richard is hesitant. He talks privately with his wife. “I try to be a decent man. I regret any role I played in all that foolishness back in Vietnam. I grew up. I found my way.” He is afraid of backsliding if he joins his old friends. 

His wife reprimands him for even thinking of not helping his old friends, “Are you demonstrating Christ-like behavior? You can’t refuse anyone, you’re a preacher.”

So the Reverend tells Doc, “Whatever it is that’s troubling you, it is best to talk about it.”

Doc tells him his wife died a couple of years before, and “Larry Jr. joined the Corps a year ago. Two days ago they told me he was killed. He’s coming home tonight. He will be buried in Arlington, and I was wondering if you guys could come with me.”

Richard responds with a somewhat canned response, “I can promise you, you will see your wife and son again in a better place.” 

Which brings Sal to say, “What better place? Can you find it on the internet? How come none of those floating in heaven got word back to me?”

Still, the three old friends get on the road. Sal’s mad driving leads Richard to swear from the back seat, which delights Sal, “I thought you were lost forever, I really did.”

When they arrive at Arlington, they learn that though Doc’s son is to be buried with honor, it is under false pretenses. The official position is that he died in battle, but actually, he was killed accidentally by friendly fire.

Doc decides he doesn’t want his son to be buried at Arlington. He wants him buried back in his hometown next to his mother. He asks for the body, but is told, “ I can not release the body to anyone but a licensed mortician.”

Richard steps forward, “Or a clergyman, right?” And yes, they're told, the body can be released to a clergyman. They rent a U-haul to take the body back home.

Sal and Richard continue to dig at each other as they travel. Sal says, “You used to be fun.” 

The Reverend responds, “I still am, when it’s right in God’s eyes.” 

Sal continues to protest that he doesn’t believe in God, so Richard tells him, “You don’t believe in God, but he believes in you.” Richard tells how he went from being a bad man to a preacher. God talked to him, telling him to go to church, where he met Ruth. Richard says Jesus and Ruth changed his life and led him to become a preacher.

During their trip, the trio decide they need to make a side trip. They talk about their part in a man's grisly death when they used the morphine he needed for themselves. They decide to go to his mother's home, but when they get there, they decide that instead of confessing the truth, they should tell her that her son died a noble death. They decide her need for a happy resolution is more significant than their need for confession.

When they arrive in Doc's hometown, Sal and Richard put on their dress blues to honor Doc’s son at the funeral.

Burying the dead and comforting families is one of the most essential duties for clergy. Sadly, it takes some pressure to make Richard perform this duty, but he does, so we’ll give him a Movie Churches rating of Three out of Four Steeples.

On the Small Screen in Colorado

For our Colorado film, I was looking forward to featuring one of the greatest films ever made, by which I mean, of course, 1984’s classic war film about a Soviet invasion of the United States: Red Dawn. Sadly, I found that the Patrick Swayze masterpiece was filmed in New Mexico. Sorry, Wolverine fans.

Fortunately, there are other great films that are set and filmed in Colorado, at least in part. Christopher Nolan’s 2006 film about a deadly rivalry between magicians (played by Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman), The Prestige, takes place mostly in England. But a very important part of the film takes place in Colorado. Jackman’s character goes to Colorado Springs, Colorado, to ask Nikola Tesla for help in developing a magic trick. Tesla is played by David Bowie (one of many great losses of 2016). And the Colorado segments were filmed in Colorado.

The magicians of the film escalate a violent duel, and neither learns the vital lesson of Jesus from Mark 8:36: “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world and yet lose his soul?”

A number of the films set and filmed in Colorado, like The Prestige, take place only partially in Colorado. For instance, 1983’s Wargames has Matthew Broderick as a high school student In Seattle, Washington, but computer hacking and the threat of thermonuclear eventually bring him and a young Ally Sheedy to the Cheyenne Mountain Complex in Colorado Springs.

National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983) is about a cross country family car trip, and one of the stops is Colorado (filmed in Pagosa Springs and Pueblo). The Chevy Chase comedy is not kind to old women and small dogs. Another very popular comedy, 1994’s Dumb & Dumber (with Jim Carrey) features a great deal of travel, including important stops in Estes Park and Copper Mountain, Estes Park and Copper Mountain.

1969’s Downhill Racer stars Robert Redford as a professional skier who travels throughout the world, from Austria to France to Idaho Springs to Boulder, Colorado. (Redford’s athlete is more than a bit of a jerk.) 1985’s American Flyers with Kevin Costner is about bicycle racing, and it has races in various states, but the big race is in Colorado. Sylvester Stallone’s 1993 film Cliffhanger is about the sport of mountain climbing. (And it’s about theft and hijacking, but those aren’t really sports… Or sporting.)

Two other sports films -- which also happen to feature teen romance -- were set and filmed in Colorado. 1978’s Ice Castles, about a world class figure skater, was filmed in Colorado Springs (and Minnesota). That film stars Robby Benson, as does 1977’s One on One about college basketball. It was filmed entirely in Colorado.

There have been a number of Westerns set in Colorado, but they have often not been filmed there. 1953’s The Naked Spur, however, starring James Stewart and Janet Leigh and directed by the great Anthony Mann, did much of its filming in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.

And there is also a horror film that was filmed in Colorado. 1980’s The Shining, directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring Jack Nicholson, was filmed in Colorado. The film is about a man who takes his family to an isolated hotel in the Rockies. The family is all alone. Well, except for maybe the ghosts. And the madness. And the murder. It doesn’t seem the film could have done wonders for the tourist industry.

Seen on the Small Screen in Nebraska

Whenever possible in these state films posts, I write about films that are both set and filmed in the state we’re visiting. In some states there aren’t enough such films to write about.

A number of films supposedly set in Nebraska aren’t filmed there (such as Heaven is for Real, which was filmed in Canada). But chiefly due to the efforts of one filmmaker, Alexander Payne, Nebraska has plenty of films for our purposes. Payne is an Omaha native who’s been nominated for Oscars for directing; and he’s won two Oscars for screenwriting. Over half of his feature films are set in Nebraska.

One of the screenplays that wasn’t Oscar nominated, but did win the Golden Globe for screenwriting, was About Schmidt. Jack Nicholson starred as Warren Schmidt in this droll 2002 comedy about an insurance executive who retires and begins to search for meaning in his life. It is a road film in a Winnebago. All the Nebraska locations were filmed in Nebraska -- even some of the Kansas and Colorado scenes were filmed in Nebraska. The film includes a sequence in the Great Platte River Road Monument, a popular state tourist attraction. And even the insurance office where the fictional Schmidt, Woodmen of the World, is an actual company headquartered in Omaha.

About Schmidt has a number of elements that fit well in Movie Churches. There is a funeral in a Lutheran Church. The minister tries to provide good counseling, assuring Schmidt that he can be angry at God. There’s also a wedding in a church, complete with Noel Paul Stookey’s “Wedding Song.” But the most unique spiritual element in the film is Schmidt’s decision to sponsor an African child. The program in the film is Child Relief, but it seems to be modeled after Plan International. There are a number of such programs, like GlobalFingerprints (which we recently wrote about).

You may be surprised to learn that Payne’s film, Nebraska (which was nominated for 2013’s Best Picture Oscar) was set and filmed in Nebraska. It tells the story of another old man who made a trip. Bruce Dern (nominated for the Best Actor Oscar) plays the man who makes the journey from Montana to Nebraska in an attempt to collect sweepstakes winnings. June Squibb, the same actress who played Schmidt’s wife in About Schmidt, plays Dern’s wife in Nebraska.

Payne set and filmed two other features in Nebraska, both political satires. Payne’s first feature film, 1996’s Citizen Ruth, starred Laura Dern as a pregnant woman who finds herself in the middle of a fight between pro-life and pro-choice forces. 1999’s Election starred Matthew Broderick as a high school teacher who rigs a student council election to the detriment of a too perfect honor student (Reese Witherspoon’s star making performance.)

Besides Payne, other filmmakers have set and filmed features in Nebraska to some acclaim. Terms of Endearment, the 1983 winner of the Best Picture Oscar, makes great use of locations in Lincoln (including the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.) James Brooks also won Oscars for his writing and direction of the film, and Shirley MacLaine and Jack Nicholson also won acting Oscars.

2009’s Up in the Air was nominated for a number of Oscars, including Best Picture, direction (Jason Reitman), writing (Reitman), and acting Oscars (for George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, and Anna Kendrick) though it didn’t have a win. But scenes were filmed in Omaha.

1991’s The Indian Runner didn’t earn any Oscar nominations, but it did earn critical acclaim for the film’s writer and director, actor Sean Penn. The story of two brothers who love each other but can’t get along was filmed in Omaha and Plattsmouth.

Finally, one more Oscar winner, 1938’s Boys Town. Spencer Tracy won an Academy Award for playing Father Flanagan, the priest who founded a home for at risk boys. Filmed at Boys Town (and in the MGM studios), the film brought international attention and support to Flanagan’s work. (A sequel, 1941’s Men of Boys Town, was not a success.)