History Main / SalemIsWitchCountry

* [[NonIndicativeName Ironically]] subverted by the RealLife Salem, Massachusetts, as the historical Salem Witch Trials did ''not'' take place there. They instead took place in Salem ''Village'', now called Danvers [[RenamedToAvoidAssociation to distance itself from the reputation]], which is about 14 miles from the city of Salem (it hasn't stopped Salem from cashing in on its "witchy" reputation's tourist value, though).

If the author [[CriticalResearchFailure does not do any research]] about the trials, the people that were tried as witches will be shown as being [[BurnTheWitch burnt at the stake]][[note]]Those convicted were hanged while [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giles_Corey Giles Corey]] was crushed to death because he refused to plead to the charges.[[/note]] or only women will be depicted as the victims of the WitchHunt.[[note]]More of the victims were women but several men were also arrested and/or killed.[[/note]]

* The "The Witch is Back" episode of ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'' shows that one of the Halliwell ancestors was [[CriticalResearchFailure lined up to be burned at the stake in Salem]].

** A strange storyarc in ''[[TeamUpSeries Marvel Team-Up]]'' involved Comicbook/SpiderMan, the Comicbook/ScarletWitch, Comicbook/TheVision, [[ChromeDomePSI Moondragon]], and Doctor Doom time-traveling to Salem to fight a warlock who was involved in the Salem Witch Trials. Unfortunately, the heroes defeated the Warlock but could not stop innocent people from being hanged.
** The HiddenElfVillage of New Salem is inhabited by descendants of witches who fled Salem when the WitchHunt started there. The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem%27s_Seven protectors]] of the village are known as the [[TheNotableNumeral Salem Seven]]. The leader of New Salem, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agatha_Harkness Agatha Harkness]] has also worked as governess to [[Comicbook/FantasticFour Franklin Richards]] and magical tutor to Comicbook/ScarletWitch. She is several centuries old and may be one of the original witches from the Witch Trials.

** In the first issue of the ''Comicbook/XMen: Hellfire Club'' miniseries, Hiram Shaw (ancestor of Sebastian) is a minister in Salem who is hunting witches but is also a magic-user himself (and at one point claims to be the [[TheArchmage Sorcerer Supreme]]). It turns out [[HumanoidAbomination Dorm]][[DimensionLord ammu]] is behind the events, and Hiram is trying to stop it. Oh, and Hiram's son ends up running away with Abigail Harkness, from the same family as Agatha, and who is - of course - really a witch and burns the town down.
* Violet from the "Bride and Groom" arc of the ''Comicbook/{{Nightwing}}'' series is the daughter of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tituba Tituba]], the slave girl accused of teaching witchcraft in Salem. Violet has several powers including the ability to [[LifeDrinker drain the life forces]] of people to maintain her {{immortality}}.

* Aramis Merrow from the ''Comicbook/SouthernKnights'' is a teenage sorcerer from the days of the Salem Witch Trials. His parents put him into a [[RipVanWinkle magical sleep]] when their coven was attacked and he was accidentally revived by the Knights when they moved into his old house.
* ''Comicbook/TarotWitchOfTheBlackRose'': The Black Rose Coven is based in Salem and several of its members were [[BurnTheWitch burnt at the stake]] during the trials.

* ComicBook/GrantMorrisonsBatman run, which made a thing out of homaging and reconstructing wacky Silver Age concepts, did a more serious version of "time-displaced Batman + witch hunters in colonial New England" in the second issue of ''The Return of Bruce Wayne''.

* Creator/StephenKing's ''Jerusalem's Lot'' (or ''Salem's Lot'' for short) also seems to be based on Salem, at least in name. The short story ''Jerusalem's Lot'' shows occult things going on in the town, while it's main appearance in ''Salem's Lot'' is more focused on vampires.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* Ironically subverted by the RealLife Salem, Massachusetts, in that the historical Salem Witch Trials did ''not'' take place there. They happened in Salem ''Village'', now called Danvers, which is about 14 miles from the city of Salem (it hasn't stopped Salem from cashing in on its "witchy" reputation's tourist value, though).

* ''VideoGame/Fallout4'', taking place in and around UsefulNotes/{{Boston}} and eastern Massachusetts, has Salem as a location on the map, and the local witch trial museum is the subject of [[NightmareFuel one of the scariest sidequests in the game]]. [[WhatCouldHaveBeen At one point]] the quest there would have been even witchier: it was supposed to concern [[ILoveNuclearPower mutants with powers like fireballs or ice magic]], because in early development the ''Fallout 4'' game engine was exactly the same as the ''VideoGame/{{Skyrim}}'' engine. The Skyrim spells got DummiedOut, so the questline changed.

* Mentioned in various {{Noodle Incident}}s on ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'' including the name of the [warlock who's being punished by having [[BalefulPolymorph been transformed into]] a] cat, Salem. Although ironically enough when Sabrina's high school has a FieldTrip to the actual Salem in "The Crucible" episode, the fact that there were no witches in Salem is hammered home.

* WebVideo/AtunSheiFilms: When the [[TheWitchHunter Witchfinder General]] travels to modern-day Salem, he sees it overtaken with occultism and neo-pagantry(as it is in real life), which shocks and horrifies him. He also winds up learning that all his friends and family are dead in the modern-day. The episode culminates when he storms the Satanic Temple HQ[[note]]which really is based in Salem[[/note]], only to be greeted warmly and told to check out the gift shop.

* Danvers would still gain some spooky history to undeniably call its own, though. Namely, it's the site of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danvers_State_Hospital Danvers State Hospital]], a mental hospital that was designed to ''not'' be a BedlamHouse but, due to lack of funding and overcrowding, degenerated into one anyway. It's said to have been the birthplace of the {{lobotomy}}, as well as the inspiration for Creator/HPLovecraft's Arkham Sanatorium (which in turn inspired Arkham Asylum from the ComicBook/{{Batman}} comics), and it has a very storied reputation for being haunted (the film ''Film/{{Session 9}}'' was set there). Incidentally, it was built on the hill where John Hathorne, the judge of the Salem witch trials, had once lived. The place was progressively shut down between 1969 and 1992; what's left has since been renovated into an apartment complex.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': The "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E4TreehouseOfHorrorVIII Treehouse of Horror VIII]]" segment "Easy-Bake Coven" parodies the Salem trials, with Marge being accused of witchcraft in 17th-century Springfield and thrown off a cliff... revealing that she actually ''is'' a witch.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheScoobyDooShow'' episode "To Switch a Witch", there is a ([[ScoobyDooHoax fake]]) witch running around Salem. Not only do the townspeople instantly form a TorchesAndPitchforks mob, they also use the witchcraft museum exhibits like the dunking stool on the captured witch (Scooby-Doo in a dress).

* ''Series/{{Bewitched}}'' had a series of episodes entitled "The Salem Saga" that not only launched Salem's Witchcraft-as-Tourism industry, but a statue of Samantha graces one of the main squares in the city and the [[http://www.hawthornehotel.com/ Hawthorne Hotel]] displays a page from the teleplay in the lobby.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': The "[[TheSimpsonsS9E4TreehouseOfHorrorVIII Treehouse of Horror VIII]]" segment "Easy-Bake Coven" parodies the Salem trials, with Marge being accused of witchcraft in 17th-century Springfield and thrown off a cliff... revealing that she actually ''is'' a witch.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheScoobyDooShow'' episode "To Switch A Witch", there is a ([[ScoobyDooHoax fake]]) witch running around Salem. Not only do the townspeople instantly form a TorchesAndPitchforks mob, they also use the witchcraft museum exhibits like the dunking stool on the captured witch (Scooby-Doo in a dress).

So what is Salem, Massachusetts famous for? [[OurWitchesAreDifferent Witches]], of course.

** In the TieInNovel, ''One Year Gone'', Dean discovers a [[{{Diary}} journal]] by one of his ancestors from the time of the Witch Trials that reveals all the people hanged were innocent and that real witches instigated the trials as a cover for their evil activities. At the end of the book, while fighting the witches, Dean summons the ghosts of all those killed in the Trials and they kill the two evil witches responsible for their deaths.

* In the BackStory of ''VideoGame/MurderedSoulSuspect'', the trials executed several [[ISeeDeadPeople mediums]], falsely accused of gaining their powers from a DealWithTheDevil. [[spoiler: The BigBad is the ghost of Abigail Williams, the girl who condemned several women to their death with her accusations during the trials, who is possessing people to kill mediums as the [[SerialKiller Bell Killer]].]]

[[folder:Films]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'', taking place in and around UsefulNotes/{{Boston}} and eastern Massachusetts, has Salem as a location on the map, and the local witch trial museum is the subject of [[NightmareFuel one of the scariest sidequests in the game]]. [[WhatCouldHaveBeen At one point]] the quest there would have been even witchier: it was supposed to concern [[ILoveNuclearPower mutants with powers like fireballs or ice magic]], because in early development the ''Fallout 4'' game engine was exactly the same as the ''VideoGame/{{Skyrim}}'' engine. The Skyrim spells got DummiedOut, so the questline changed.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDoo'' episode, "To Switch A Witch" there is a ([[ScoobyDooHoax fake]]) witch running around Salem. Not only do the townspeople instantly form a TorchesAndPitchforks mob, they also use the witchcraft museum exhibits like the dunking stool on the captured witch (Scooby-Doo in a dress).
* Another ''Scooby-Doo'' project ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndTheWitchsGhost'' does something similar. It uses a Salem stand-in named Oakhaven with its own witch trials that uses as a tourist trap, up to and including ''the entire town'' being in on [[ScoobyDooHoax the hoax of the day]]. However thing is though, witches are still real in this movie's universe (more specifically there are evil witches and good ones called "Wiccans", with a good helping of ArtisticLicenseReligion for good measure) and the titular witch's ghost even shows up for real in the climax. [[spoiler: It's also best described as sort of the inverse of ''Paranorman'''s twist (see below), since she was presented as a misunderstood Wiccan at first...[[UnreliableNarrator but that turns out to be a lie]]. ]]

* The town of Blithe Hollow, Massachusetts in ''WesternAnimation/ParaNorman'' is an expy of Salem, one that has cashed in on its blood-soaked history by becoming a tourist trap. The plot revolves around the former townsfolk who led the witch hunt coming back as zombies [[spoiler:thanks to Agatha, the girl they condemned as a witch, cursing them in retaliation]].

Some overlap with LovecraftCountry may occur; in fact, Lovecraft himself set some stories in Salem and in [[NoCommunitiesWereHarmed Arkham]], a fictional town that's suspiciously like it (see below under Literature). Will often involve a NewEnglandPuritan, as these were the ones running the actual witch trials. RoswellThatEndsWell is very similar, only with {{alien|Tropes}}s instead of witches.

* ''Film/BellBookAndCandle'' has Kim Novak as a Salem witch who has survived into the 1950s and uses her magic to romance Creator/JimmyStewart.

* According to people of Spain, witches actually lived in Galicia.

* ''Theatre/TheCrucible'' by Creator/ArthurMiller, which is set during the actual Salem witch trails and uses the incident as a metaphor for the RedScare of the early 1950s.

So what is Salem, Massachusetts famous for? [[WitchClassic Witches]], of course.

* Witches are real and were in Salem at the time of the witch trials, but the story takes place in a verse in which [[GoodWitchVersusBadWitch witches are not necessarily evil]].

* ''Theatre/TheCrucible'' by Creator/ArthurMiller, which is set during the actual witch trails and uses the incident as a metaphor for the RedScare of the early 1950s.

Well, more accurately, it's famous for the Witch ''Trials'' of [[UsefulNotes/TheThirteenAmericanColonies 1692–93]], in which bizarre behavior amongst the town's children led to a massive outbreak of hysteria, which led to townspeople [[WitchHunt accusing their neighbors of being witches]], which led to various arrests and trials, which led to a number of hangings. The episode is often held up as one of the greatest instances of mass hysteria and moral panic in American history, and the search for a reasonable explanation behind it has pointed to everything from an outbreak of ergotism to "People just be crazy, y'all."

At any rate, thanks to the trials, Salem has come to be associated with witches and witchcraft. These days, this means the city enjoys a renaissance amongst the [[UsefulNotes/NeoPaganism neo-pagan]] community, who have set up shop there en masse. But in popular culture, it means that there are {{functional magic}} users, for good will or ill, who have been in Salem for quite a time, perhaps even dating back to the time of the Witch Trials.

Some overlap with LovecraftCountry may occur; in fact, Lovecraft himself set some stories in Salem and in [[NoCommunitiesWereHarmed Arkham]], a fictional town that's suspiciously like it (see below under Literature). Will often involve a NewEnglandPuritan, as these were the ones running the witch trials. RoswellThatEndsWell is very similar, only with {{alien|Tropes}}s instead of witches.