For this assignment I chose three films about witches because it was the topic I found most interesting in this course. The first film was Black Sunday (Mask of Satan), directed by Mario Bava, the second was Warlock, directed by Steve Miner, and the last was The Crucible, directed by Nicholas Hytner, based on the play by Arthur Miller. Witchcraft was once and can still be a very controversial topic, as it challenges other people's religions and beliefs and is against Christianity. Each film was based on the witch and was set in the 17th century. The beliefs were mostly similar but differed from each other due to the places where they occurred. In Black Sunday, also known as Satan's Mask, the story takes place in Moldova, a European country. A witch, Asa, and her companion Javutich are sentenced to be burned at the stake for witchcraft by her brother, but shortly before dying Asa curses her brother, saying he will return to haunt all his descendants. This demonstrates the belief that women had evil power over men. The first religious symbol of the film then appears; it is the mask depicting the face of Satan. This mask was nailed onto the witch's face because it was believed to be their true face. The mask also ended the “birthmark” that women created because their eyes could not be seen. Nearly two centuries later, a doctor and his assistant are on their way to a medical conference and their carriage breaks down near the crypt where the witch is located. buried. They decide to be curious and discover the witch's tomb which has a glass window over her face, another religious symbol. A cross was engraved on the glass so that the witch was always facing it, unable to resuscitate. While swinging a bat, Dr. Kruvajan accidents... middle of paper... now that one was, the safer they were. Poor or already struggling people were usually the ones convicted of witchcraft. One of the symbols of witchcraft was the puppet. The Mary Warren doll has been seen as some sort of voodoo doll because supposedly the needle was used to stab Abagail because it appears with blood coming from the same place. The movie was extremely strange because it showed that the only way to get out of being a witch was to confess that you were a witch. Each of these films had the same common theme of witchcraft but had different symbols in each to represent them. . The reason behind all these movies and witches in general has always been Satan. They were believed to be there to carry out the tasks that Satan had commanded them to carry out. The films showed the religious symbols and themes that history has used to classify witchcraft.