A Beliefnet article by Gus diZerega was promoted on CNN today. Entitled "10 Bad Portrayals of Witches and Pagans in Movies and TV," is is the result of a poll conducted by diZerega about movies "that most drove [Pagans] up a wall, limiting my request to those depicting witchcraft and NeoPagans."

The resulting list is largely comprised of movies about witches, which the article complains repeatedly depict witches as evil, murdering, and selfish.

Just how long are we going to continue perpetuating this nonsensical equation of modern witchcraft and historical folk belief?  For many hundreds of years, "witch" denoted precisely what these movies depict: a person, generally a woman, working highly malevolent magic against the community either for her own ends or else simply to make everyone else's life terrible.  These movies have nothing to do with the neopagan movement, and continuing to take folklore depictions and then claim they falsely depict modern witches is just disingenuous.

Of his entire list, I find only a few should even have gotten consideration:

  • The Wicker Man (original, apparently the new version is too absurd to invoke outrage) - This film plays to a lot of stereotypes that were circulating in Britain in the 1970s when the film was made.  Ironically, I don't find most neopagans object to this movie.
  • The Dark Secret of Harvest Home - I've never seen this one, so I'm going to just have to trust diZerega's comparison between it and The Wicker Man.
  • The Craft - This film follows four high school girls who start following a witch religion.  Some of them become selfish with their power, while others struggle to discover the responsible path.  While this film never mentions Wicca, many elements are clearly derived from Wiccan ritual.  On top of which, this movie has long been credited by many pagans for glamorizing witchcraft/Wicca and attracting the Wicklets to us in droves.  I therefore understand why this film annoys neopagans, even though I don't really blame the film itself.
  • Scooby Doo and the Witch's Ghost - This is the only film I personally find offensive.  Again, I haven't seen it, but apparently Wicca is not only mentioned, by a character flagrantly misuses it, claiming to be 1/16 Wiccan.  Bad research annoys me.
The mention of TV show Supernatural on this list I think deserves special mention. Again, it's here primarily because it depicts witches as bad, and again I have to remind folks that this is the historical use of the word.  Here I find the complaint doubly annoying because for five seasons this show has made it clear that in their world, practically everything supernatural is malevolent: demons, witches, ghosts, gods, shapechangers and even most psychics.  Heck, even angels are jerks.  While not specifically malevolent, most of them really don't care what happens to humanity and tend to trample them to achieve their own goals: which is, incidentally, the Apocalypse.  The world of Supernatural is dark for those in the know, full of terrors with very few bright spots.

The only valid complaint I see against Supernatural is the episode in which witches summon the god "Sam Hain."  Again, bad research annoys me, especially when the only place I head about the god Sam Hain is anti-pagan conservative Christian rhetoric.  So I've had a problem with one episode.  Again, it didn't personally offend me, but I don't like the repeating of blatantly bad information.

3 comments

  1. Michael // June 22, 2010 at 9:56 AM  

    I am actually quite surprised at what is on the list and what is not. I would have thought that "Charmed" would have annoyed some people. To me I enjoy the show. I have the complete series and I have it on as I type this comment. I own "Hocus Pocus", I find it funny and entertaining, plus I just love Bette. I don't have a problem with "Bewitched" either. The time of the show says a lot about why witchcraft was portrayed the way it was. The remake of the series into a movie was just plain stupid.

    I am with you on the "Supernatural" episode. That really annoyed me. I about called up the WB and complained. Maybe I should have.

    Thanks for the great post.

  2. Unknown // June 23, 2010 at 11:08 AM  

    I watch Supernatural, i'm a big fan, and yes, i cringed at "Sam Hain" too. However, for whatever it's worth, Kripke does a lot of that - taking history/myths and adding his own little twist to it. I call it "Kripkeology." the trick, of course, it to know what's "real" and what's "Kripkeology," and i'm sure enough people out there figured out the God Sam Hain was "Kripkeology." (at least, I'd like to think so...)

  3. N // July 12, 2010 at 12:02 AM  

    I have never seen the original Wicker Man, but the remake is not worth watching AT ALL if you are Pagan, Wiccan, or even just an nature-loving female. It's absolutely terrible, and it made me SO angry, I refuse to watch it. Every time the movie is brought up, I get into such a huff and list all the flaws that movie had. The only part I liked was when Nicholas Cage died at the end -- sorry to spoil the ending to an atrocious movie.
    I'm not going to lie, I love The Craft! It was the first movie I watched that showed the "Good Witch" (other than the Wizard of Oz, but that's a different kind of Witch, IMHO), and it was intriguing for me to watch. I really like how the "bad" witches got what they deserved at the end :)
    I adore Scooby Doo, including the movie The Witch's Ghost. Sure, the research probably could have been better, in the sense that one cannot be 1/16 Wiccan, but it does raise awareness to kids that there is such thing as good witches out there. Plus the Hex Girls' music was pretty damn catchy.
    I guess I am less judgmental when it's more "kiddish", as opposed to when it's more realistic.