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.

Movie on the big screen in Alaska

The movie time on the web site was 8:00 pm. The movie time on the sign outside the building was 7:30 pm. They split the difference and started the show at about 7:45. With only one trailer (for Maggie's Plan, which we plan to avoid) and an ad, the actual movie started at about ten to. Which would have been okay; we were early, if we hadn't told friends to meet us there at 8:00 pm. But actually, movies are more of a sideline at the Blue Loon in Fairbanks, Alaska.

The Blue Loon is a cool, funky space with a bit of a quonset hut vibe going. It's a bar and a restaurant and a concert hall, and four nights a week they show movies. The week we were there, they were screening (Wednesday - Saturday) Neighbors 2 at 5:00 pm (or 5:30?) along with our film for the night, The Meddler. By the time the movie was over, the eating area had a DJ (VJ?) at work along with the bartender, wait staff, and ticket seller.

You could have a full meal and drinks at a table in the theater area, but we just had popcorn (a small popcorn, because they didn't have butter).

We enjoyed The Meddler, the story of a recently widowed woman (Susan Surandon) who moves near her daughter (Rose Byrne) so she'll have someone to occupy her time. The great J. K. Simmons does a fine job in the role that writer/director Lorene Scafaria must have imagined would be cast with Sam Elliott. There are no churches or clergy in the film, but an interesting point about the film was raised by the critic Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle. So often screenwriters justify having characters do horrible things because they wanted to make things "interesting." Some actors talk about the villain always being the more interesting role. But LaSalle points out that Sarandon's character is good, genuinely trying to help others, but still an appealing and intriguing character. Good does not equal dull as a reading of the life of Christ makes clear.

Mindy and our friend, Stephen, liked that the film featured chickens. The chickens enjoy music, particularly the stylings of Dolly Parton.

Many find it an odd feeling to leave a movie matinee and walk out into the bright sunlight. Even stranger to leave an evening show (7:30? 8? 7:45?) and walk out into the bright sunlight. But this was Alaska in June.

Dead Man Walking (1995)

When we first look at Jesus' parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25, many of us feel we can pat ourselves on the back. Acts of charity: Feeding the hungry and giving water to the thirsty? Oh, sure, I’ve given to World Vision and water projects. Befriending a stranger? Yes, I’m the friendliest person to be found in our church greeting time. Clothing the naked? Goodwill gets my every garment when they go out of fashion. But visiting the prisoner? That stops many of us short.

Sister Helen Prejean, the nun whose life is portrayed in the film Dead Man Walking, didn’t initially have a ministry focused on prisoners. We see her working with the poor, teaching children in an institution called Hope House. We learn that though she came from a somewhat privileged background, this white woman choose to live in a poor, African American community in Louisiana. But a letter she received from an inmate changed the course of her life.

Death row convict Matthew Poncelet (played by Sean Penn) wrote Sister Helen and asked for legal aid, and, if not that, at least some company. She asks around in her order for advice, and someone said, “Sounds like he could use some encouragement”.

When the sister (played by Susan Sarandon) comes to the prison, her cross sets off the metal detector. Before seeing the prisoner, she's required to speak with the priest in charge of visitation. He is concerned by her casual dress (she's not wearing a habit), afraid it might indicated a tone of rebellion. He wants to know her motives for coming, “Morbid fascination? Liberal sympathy?”  He makes it clear to her that these prisoners “aren’t Jimmy Cagneys wrongly accused.”

But when she sees Matthew, he insists on his innocence and begs her to help him file legal papers. He tells her, “You’re all I’ve got.” She seeks out legal aid and finds a lawyer who will help Matthew with an upcoming parole hearing. The lawyer thinks it would be good for Matthew’s mother to testify in the trial.

Sister Helen goes to visit Matthew’s family and learns of the great suffering they’ve gone through on account of Matthew. His brothers are taunted at school, and his mother is shunned in the community.

Sister Helen goes to the parole hearing, which is also attended by the parents of the murdered couple, a teenaged boy and girl. The father of the murdered boy confronts Sister Helen. He tells her he’s a Catholic and asks why she hasn’t been concerned with bringing him comfort. She offers her phone number, and he responds, “Me, call you? Think about that, sister. Think about how arrogant that is.”

Helen’s parents also question Helen’s choice to minister to a convicted killer. They ask if there aren’t more “decent folk” she could be helping.

She responds, “No one else cares about him.”

Her mother says, “Your heart is large, I just don’t want to see others taking advantage of you.”

Helen continues to visit Matthew, who doesn’t always make her visits easy. He asks her about sex and whether she wants to be with a man. He makes racist statements. And he continues to proclaim his innocence, though his guilt seems certain. He makes public statements about his embracing Aryan philosophy, which leads to Sister Helen being shunned by some in her predominantly black neighborhood.

The legal process does not work in Matthew’s favor, and he is given only a week to prepare for his death by lethal injection. He asks Sister Helen to provide spiritual comfort as he faces death. She agrees to do so.

But she also goes to visit the family of the murdered girl. They assume by her kindness that she is on “their side” and seeking the death of Matthew. They kick her out of their home when they learn she is still ministering to Matthew.

Sister Helen tells Matthew that Jesus experienced what he now faces. He was condemned as a prisoner to die, and He cares for him. But she tells Matthew that to be right with God he must confess his sin. She asks him to tell about the night of the murder.

Matthew admits to killing the boy. Sister Helen asks him, "Do you take responsibility for both of their deaths? There is a place of sorrow only God can touch. You are a son of God, Matthew. No one can take that from you."

"No one's called me a son of God before,” Matthew tells her,”They've called me a son of you- know-what before, but never a son of God. Who figured I'd have to die to find love? Thank you for loving me."

Sister Helen tells Matthew he can look at her when he dies, and the love he sees on her face will be the love of Jesus. Before his execution, she assures Matthew of his redemption on the basis of Christ’s death for him. Before he dies, Matthew expresses sorrow to the parents of the murdered children.

In one of the last scenes of the film, we see Sister Helen praying in a small country church alongside the father of the murdered boy. They agree that, “Forgiveness is work. Maybe we could help each other find our way out of the hate.”

The ministry of Sister Helen as portrayed in this film, visiting the prisoner, would be enough to get this movie church our highest rating of 4 Steeples. But as a bonus we see a Sunday Service with a wonderful gospel choir singing “This is the day the Lord has made” that would make me give the film a bonus steeple, if I could.

(The film is rated R for harsh language, primarily from Matthew, and for violent images. If you're a fan of the TV show Justified, you should look for the actors who played Arlo and Mags. They do look a bit younger here.)