# Movies where hunting/burning witches is actually a good thing? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 24, 2015, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-hunting-burning-witches-is-actually-a-good-thing/735611 "2015-10-24T12:23:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2015, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-hunting-burning-witches-is-actually-a-good-thing/735611/21 "2015-10-24T23:05:42Z")
Mario Bava’s _La maschera del demonio_, or _Black Sunday_ as it’s known in the US. And doesn’t the TV series _Salem_ represent witches as a thoroughly bad lot, fully deserving of being burnt? (Although I only caught the first few episodes). ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2015, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-hunting-burning-witches-is-actually-a-good-thing/735611/22 "2015-10-24T23:12:33Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > I remember an old movie called “Horror Hotel,” in which the witches and warlocks were evil and immortal, and engaged in human sacrifice. Wait! Wasn’t that the hokey one where all the witches burst into flame with acting so bad even Lucille Ball would have said, “Waaaaaaaa…!” 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2015, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-hunting-burning-witches-is-actually-a-good-thing/735611/23 "2015-10-24T23:30:21Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > A lot of Disney would qualify here, I suppose: _Snow White_, _Sleeping Beauty_, _Tangled_. In _Sleeping Beauty_ there were three good witches/fairies who tried to protect her, besides the evil Maleficent. The other two have a single evil witch, but that doesn’t imply that all witches must be bad. She’s killed (in both cases accidentally) because she’s done bad things to the heroine, not just because she’s a witch. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2015, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-hunting-burning-witches-is-actually-a-good-thing/735611/24 "2015-10-25T00:30:45Z")
> [@Count\_Blucher](#): > > Wait! Wasn’t that the hokey one where all the witches burst into flame with acting so bad even Lucille Ball would have said, “Waaaaaaaa…!” 😛 Great movie, when the hero’s best friend, badly injured from a car crash and dying from a dagger in his back, grabs a cross and staggering as he walks, burns the witches before the clock is finished. ``` Also known as "City of the Dead" ``` > **[The City of the Dead (film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_City_of_the_Dead_(film))** > > The City of the Dead (also titled Horror Hotel in the United States) is a British 1960 supernatural horror film directed by John Llewellyn Moxey and starring Christopher Lee, Venetia Stevenson, Betta St. John, Patricia Jessel and Valentine Dyall. The film marks the directorial debut of Moxey. It was produced in the United Kingdom but set in America, and the British actors were required to speak with North American accents throughout. > In 1692 in fictional Whitewood, Massachusetts, a witch name... ---
**Author:** ![alted315](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/cc9497/32.png) [@alted315](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alted315)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2015, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-hunting-burning-witches-is-actually-a-good-thing/735611/25 "2015-10-25T01:00:03Z")
iirc the old Boris Karloff movie Black Sabbath ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2015, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-hunting-burning-witches-is-actually-a-good-thing/735611/26 "2015-10-25T11:56:50Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > I don’t think you’re going to find many examples of that, and for good reason. Even setting aside the pro-genocide implications of such a movie (!), in purely narrative terms it’s not going to be very interesting or satisfying to have the protagonists go around killing people who aren’t their antagonists. Tell me, friend, do you get worked up when Blade stakes up a vampire nightclub, too? 😉 In any case, that’s precisely the reason _why_ I’m asking, _because_ it seems so unusual—although, by a few examples in this thread, not actually _unique_. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2015, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-hunting-burning-witches-is-actually-a-good-thing/735611/27 "2015-10-25T11:59:05Z")
> [@Count\_Blucher](#): > > Wait! Wasn’t that the hokey one where all the witches burst into flame with acting so bad even Lucille Ball would have said, “Waaaaaaaa…!” 😛 I saw it when I was 9 or 10 on the Channel 5 _ **Creature Feature.** _ I’m sure it WAS as awful as you remember, but I was so young when I saw it, I wouldn’t have recognized a hokey script or terrible acting. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2015, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-hunting-burning-witches-is-actually-a-good-thing/735611/28 "2015-10-25T16:24:30Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > Tell me, friend, do you get worked up when Blade stakes up a vampire nightclub, too? 😉 I’ve never seen any of the _Blade_ movies and I’m not worked up about anything. I’m just trying to figure out what you’re asking here. I would have considered _The Wizard of Oz_ a classic example of a movie where killing witches is depicted as a good thing, but you explicitly excluded that one in your OP because Dorothy only kills the _wicked_ witches. > [@](#): > > In any case, that’s precisely the reason _why_ I’m asking, _because_ it seems so unusual—although, by a few examples in this thread, not actually _unique_. So you _are_ asking for movies where it’s portrayed as a good thing to kill witches regardless of whether they’re actually dangerous or have done anything wrong? There are movies where all witches are portrayed as evil and therefore dangerous, but a movie about how heroic it is to kill old ladies is going to be a tough sell unless it’s clear they’re a real threat. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2015, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-hunting-burning-witches-is-actually-a-good-thing/735611/29 "2015-10-25T16:44:10Z")
> [@alted315](#): > > iirc the old Boris Karloff movie Black Sabbath I think you have the wrong Karloff movie. **Black Sabbath** had the three stories hosted by Karloff (Boris the vampire terrorizes his family, woman terrorized by guy on the phone who won’t stay dead, dead woman terrorizes ring-stealer [they may have hinted the dead woman was a witch–that one STILL gets me; that dead woman was SOOO ugly]). If you’re thinking REALLY old, maybe **The Black Cat** with Karloff and Lugosi; Boris was supposed to be a witch. I could be confusing this last with **The Raven** (1935). ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2015, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-hunting-burning-witches-is-actually-a-good-thing/735611/30 "2015-10-25T17:26:46Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > In _Sleeping Beauty_ there were three good witches/fairies who tried to protect her, besides the evil Maleficent. Fairies are not witches in that movie :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2015, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-hunting-burning-witches-is-actually-a-good-thing/735611/31 "2015-10-25T17:33:39Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > So you _are_ asking for movies where it’s portrayed as a good thing to kill witches regardless of whether they’re actually dangerous or have done anything wrong? There are movies where all witches are portrayed as evil and therefore dangerous, but a movie about how heroic it is to kill old ladies is going to be a tough sell unless it’s clear they’re a real threat. Oh, ferchrissakes. He’s asking for movies where _witches are always evil_. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2015, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-hunting-burning-witches-is-actually-a-good-thing/735611/32 "2015-10-25T17:36:18Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > Mario Bava’s _La maschera del demonio_, or _Black Sunday_ as it’s known in the US. And doesn’t the TV series _Salem_ represent witches as a thoroughly bad lot, fully deserving of being burnt? (Although I only caught the first few episodes). Wait! Isn’t **Black Sunday** where Robert Shaw shoots down a coven of witches flying blimps over the Super Bowl? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2015, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-hunting-burning-witches-is-actually-a-good-thing/735611/33 "2015-10-25T17:50:51Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > Anything else that comes to mind—well, doesn’t seem to come down on witches for _being_ witches, per se, just for being _antagonists_. Dororthy Gale had no personal quarrel with the Wicked Witch, and even less with Glinda. Well Dorothy was kind of manipulated into the conflict by that masterful manipulator Glinda, which is the only reason the Wicked Witch cares about a country girl from Kansas. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2015, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-hunting-burning-witches-is-actually-a-good-thing/735611/34 "2015-10-25T18:00:09Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Oh, ferchrissakes. He’s asking for movies where _witches are always evil_. Is he? I am honestly not trying to be pedantic here, I really cannot tell from the OP what sorts of movies he’s looking for. The response I got when I asked didn’t shed any new light onto it for me. (Maybe if I’d seen _Blade_ I’d get it, but I haven’t.) A movie where all witches are evil would presumably have witches as the antagonists, but he said in the OP that this wasn’t what he wanted. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2015, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-hunting-burning-witches-is-actually-a-good-thing/735611/35 "2015-10-25T18:33:53Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > Is he? I am honestly not trying to be pedantic here, I really cannot tell from the OP what sorts of movies he’s looking for. The response I got when I asked didn’t shed any new light onto it for me. (Maybe if I’d seen _Blade_ I’d get it, but I haven’t.) A movie where all witches are evil would presumably have witches as the antagonists, but he said in the OP that this wasn’t what he wanted. You seem to be thrown by this line: > [@](#): > > Anything else that comes to mind—well, doesn’t seem to come down on witches for being witches, per se, just for being antagonists. Dororthy Gale had no personal quarrel with the Wicked Witch, and even less with Glinda. He wants movies where witches are antagonists because they are witches - where being a witch is an inherently immoral state. The Wicked Witch isn’t wicked _because_ she’s a witch, she’s wicked _and_ she’s a witch. She’s the antagonist because she wants to rule Oz, but her desire to rule Oz isn’t directly related to her being a witch: her sister is also a witch, but is a good person. By contrast, in something like _Warlock_, the movie I mentioned above, a witch is by definition a person who worships Satan in exchange for magical power. He’s the antagonist in that film because, as a witch, he’s trying to free Satan from Hell, which will be the start of Armageddon. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2015, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-hunting-burning-witches-is-actually-a-good-thing/735611/36 "2015-10-25T20:50:02Z")
I remember a movie called “Blood on Satan’s Claw”. Townsfolk killed a bunch of witch wanna-bes. Don’t remember if they actually had witchy powers or if it was just an excuse to go lord of the flies on folks they didn’t like and have lots of sex. ---
**Author:** ![Sterling\_Archer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Sterling\_Archer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sterling_Archer)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2015, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-hunting-burning-witches-is-actually-a-good-thing/735611/37 "2015-10-25T21:13:16Z")
Chronicles of Narnia doesn’t have many witches, but it is definitely a world where being a witch is automatically evil. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2015, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-hunting-burning-witches-is-actually-a-good-thing/735611/38 "2015-10-26T02:09:56Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > He wants movies where witches are antagonists because they are witches - where being a witch is an inherently immoral state. The Wicked Witch isn’t wicked _because_ she’s a witch, she’s wicked _and_ she’s a witch. She’s the antagonist because she wants to rule Oz, but her desire to rule Oz isn’t directly related to her being a witch: her sister is also a witch, but is a good person. I _am_ being nitpicky now, but the Wicked Witch of the West’s sister was the similarly wicked Witch of the East. (The one crushed by Dorothy’s house.) Glinda was apparently no relation. I’m not the first to [point out](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6exm2Hi28Xw) that Glinda is arguably even worse than the two witches labeled as “wicked” – she _could_ have helped Dorothy to return to Kansas the moment they met, but instead sent her off on a wild goose chase that resulted in the convenient disappearance of the Wizard of Oz and the death of the last of Glinda’s witchy rivals – but she is overtly portrayed as being good in the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2015, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-hunting-burning-witches-is-actually-a-good-thing/735611/39 "2015-10-26T05:42:37Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > He wants movies where witches are antagonists because they are witches - where being a witch is an inherently immoral state. The Wicked Witch isn’t wicked _because_ she’s a witch, she’s wicked _and_ she’s a witch. She’s the antagonist because she wants to rule Oz, but her desire to rule Oz isn’t directly related to her being a witch: her sister is also a witch, but is a good person. By contrast, in something like _Warlock_, the movie I mentioned above, a witch is by definition a person who worships Satan in exchange for magical power. He’s the antagonist in that film because, as a witch, he’s trying to free Satan from Hell, which will be the start of Armageddon. For clarification, strictly speaking, I’m asking about movies where the practice of organized witch hunting/killing is unequivocally a “good thing”—implicitly, one imagines, this would probably be in a setting where “being a witch is an inherently immoral state.” So, like **Miller** notes, _The Wizard of Oz_ doesn’t count because a) the Wicked Witch is being hunted because she’s the _villain_, who _happens to be_ a witch, not merely _because_ she’s a witch, and b) at least _some_ witches are good, and on the heroes’ side. _Warlock_, on the other hand, does count, as it features a professional witch hunter as a hero, and totally “in the right”—_and_ witches, in that movie’s universe, are by definition evil and dangerous. Which you’d think would be the _logical_ prerequisite for such a scenario, but it’s not strictly _required_. I mean, it _would_ more more difficult, thematically unsettling, bad storytelling, or even societally “problematic” to do a story where the witches were by all appearances _benign_, but that slaughtering them for just existing was still depicted unironically as “good”—but I’ve seen a great _many_ movies with uncomfortable, stupid, or deranged themes in my time. _Nothing_ would entirely surprise me. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2015, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-hunting-burning-witches-is-actually-a-good-thing/735611/40 "2015-10-27T00:23:43Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > For clarification, strictly speaking, I’m asking about movies where the practice of organized witch hunting/killing is unequivocally a “good thing”—implicitly, one imagines, this would probably be in a setting where “being a witch is an inherently immoral state.” The best example I can think of has already been mentioned by **Sattua** , the movie version of the Roald Dahl book _The Witches_. The story involves an orphaned boy who lives with his grandmother, and they wind up staying at a resort at the same time as a sort of national conference for witches. After discovering the witches’ evil plan, which involves a magic potion that can: turn people into micethe main characters manage to defeat the witches by using the potion on them. In the end the boy and his grandmother make a plan to track down witches in other countries, use the potion on them, and kill them. I’m actually not 100% sure the “and kill them” bit made it into the movie, but that’s definitely how the book ends. In the book the grandmother is also a retired witch-hunter, although I can’t remember if this is stated in the movie. Anyway, it’s clear that the boy and his grandmother are good people and that destroying all the witches in the world is the right thing to do. It’s probably significant that in _The Witches_, witches aren’t humans who use magic. They’re a type of demon or ogre that can disguise themselves as humans. These witches are by nature the enemies of humans, so there’s no possibility that a witch could be good or harmless by human standards. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-hunting-burning-witches-is-actually-a-good-thing/735611.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-where-hunting-burning-witches-is-actually-a-good-thing/735611.md?page=3)