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| 5 | %% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks! |
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| 11 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/salem_postcard.jpg]] |
| 12 | [[caption-width-right:350:An actual Salem postcard.]] |
| 13 | |
| 14 | ->''"The folk of Salem hath lost their religion, swoopstake, and doth tolerate and celebrate blasphemous, vile, and unnatural charms, spell-circles, and conjurations, and all things relating thereof to the black art of witchcraft."'' |
| 15 | --> -- '''WebVideo/TheWitchfinderGeneral''', on Salem's thriving occult tourism industry |
| 16 | |
| 17 | So what is Salem, UsefulNotes/{{Massachusetts}} famous for? [[OurWitchesAreDifferent Witches]], of course! |
| 18 | |
| 19 | Well, more accurately, it's famous (or infamous) for the witch ''trials'' of [[UsefulNotes/TheThirteenAmericanColonies 1692–93]], in which bizarre behaviors amongst the town's children led to a massive outbreak of hysteria, which led to the 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 logical explanation behind it has led to people pointing their fingers at everything from an outbreak of ergotism to "People just be crazy, y'all." |
| 20 | |
| 21 | 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. |
| 22 | |
| 23 | If the author 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]] |
| 24 | |
| 25 | Use of this trope can be... ''messy''. It can risk the UnfortunateImplications that [[ProperlyParanoid the hysteria was actually justified]]. One or more of the following strategies are typically employed to ensure that the Salem witch-hunters will be portrayed as villainous even if witches are real: |
| 26 | |
| 27 | * Witches are real, but it just so happens that there weren't any in Salem at the time of the witch trials. |
| 28 | * Witches are real and were in Salem at the time of the witch trials, but the story takes place in a universe in which [[GoodWitchVersusBadWitch witches are not necessarily evil]]. |
| 29 | * Real witches would easily be able to protect themselves with magic, so the witch-hunters were only ever a danger to falsely accused {{Muggles}}. |
| 30 | * The witch trials were actually orchestrated by the witches themselves, or at least a rogue faction of the witches, for some nefarious purpose. |
| 31 | |
| 32 | Spain has its own equivalent to this trope due to the UsefulNotes/ZugarramurdiWitchTrials, which characterized perpetually the Basque Country as a holdover of witchery and ancient paganism. Otherwise, the land of Galicia used to be the original Spanish witch country - they even have a ''saint'' witch of all things, St. Columba of Sens. |
| 33 | |
| 34 | A sub-trope of HollywoodNewEngland. 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. |
| 35 | ---- |
| 36 | !!Examples: |
| 37 | |
| 38 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 39 | |
| 40 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 41 | * ''Anime/WitchHunterRobin'' In episode 12, "Precious Illusions", Robin meets a witch called Methuselah who is [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld over 400 years old]] and survived the Salem Witch Trials. The witch tells Robin of the various {{Witch Hunt}}s over the centuries and talks about the motives behind them. |
| 42 | [[/folder]] |
| 43 | |
| 44 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 45 | * ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'': ''ComicBook/BatmanGrantMorrison'', 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 ''ComicBook/TheReturnOfBruceWayne''. |
| 46 | * ''ComicBook/{{BPRD}}'': In ''BRPD: Dark Waters'', three women were drowned in a lake by the intolerant priest in the Salem knock-off of Shiloh, Massachusetts. Centuries later, a similarly fundamentalist preacher goes running around causing trouble, and ends up dragged into the lake by their ghosts after their bodies are given a proper burial. |
| 47 | * ''ComicBook/CoffinHill'': The titular town of the series published by Creator/VertigoComics was settled by Emma Coffin, a witch who had fled the Salem Trials leaving nineteen innocents to die in her stead. |
| 48 | * ''ComicBook/DoctorFate'': Salem is home to the [[MageTower Tower of Fate]], sanctum of Doctor Fate, one of the most powerful magic users in DC canon. |
| 49 | * ''ComicBook/DraculaMarvelComics'': ''ComicBook/TheTombOfDracula'' depicted the events in Salem as the result of the [[VampireMonarch Lord of the Vampires]] manipulating the villagers into killing one another in order to avenge {{Drac|ula}}'s mistreated former love interest. |
| 50 | * ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'': 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. |
| 51 | * ''ComicBook/MarvelTeamUp'': A strange StoryArc involves 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 defeat the Warlock, but could not stop innocent people from being hanged. |
| 52 | * ''ComicBook/{{Nightwing}}'': Violet from the "Bride and Groom" arc 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}}. |
| 53 | * ''ComicBook/SalemQueenOfThorns'': The Creator/BoomStudios series follows Elias Hooke, a former inquisitor for the Puritan Church who discovers that only innocent people were killed at the trials and the true supernatural evil in Salem was a manifestation of nature, the Queen of Thorns. |
| 54 | * ''ComicBook/SalemsDaughter'': The Zenescope Entertainment series is a [[WeirdWest supernatural western]] that features [[http://www.comicvine.com/anna-williams/4005-78765/issues-cover/ Anna Williams]], a witch living in Salem who hides her inherited powers in the fear of sparking another WitchHunt two hundred years after the original trials. |
| 55 | * ''ComicBook/ShadeTheChangingMan'': In the issue "History Lesson", when Shade, Lenny and Kathy go [[TimeTravel back to the witch trials]], they end up taking [[Characters/{{Hellblazer}} John Constantine]] along with them. The three land in trouble, of course, both because of Shade's powers and local prejudice against Lenny's Jewishness. |
| 56 | * ''ComicBook/SouthernKnights'': Aramis Merrow 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. |
| 57 | * ''ComicBook/{{Spellbinders}}'': The comic is set around a fictional Salem high school called John Hawthorne High School where magic is accepted as a fact. A large part of the plot revolves around the rivalries between magical students (wicks) and non-magical students (blanks), and between the various covens. |
| 58 | * ''ComicBook/TarotWitchOfTheBlackRose'': The Black Rose Coven is based in Salem and several of its members were [[BurnTheWitch burnt at the stake]] during the trials. |
| 59 | * ''ComicBook/WorldsFinest1941'': Issues #186 & #187 featured a two-part story in which Superman and Batman travel back in time to colonial New England (about a century after the Salem witch trials, but who's counting?) where they rescue a young woman falsely accused of witchcraft and then Batman is similarly accused (by Superman, who is revealed to be possessed by a demon and uses his powers to make the townsfolk believe that Batman is a warlock) and nearly burned at the stake. |
| 60 | * ''ComicBook/XMen'': In the first issue of the ''ComicBook/XMenHellfireClub'' 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. |
| 61 | * ''ComicBook/{{Zatanna}}'': In ''ComicBook/Zatanna2010'' #15, "Witch Hunt", [[MagiciansAreWizards Zatanna]] sends some [[TheWitchhunter witch hunters]] that attacked her back to the Salem trials where they are ironically mistaken for witches by the Salemites who prepare to burn them at the stake. As Zatanna watches them from afar, her narration reveals she’ll save them before they actually die. |
| 62 | [[/folder]] |
| 63 | |
| 64 | [[folder:Film -- Animated]] |
| 65 | * 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]]. |
| 66 | * ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndTheWitchsGhost'' 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 above), since she was presented as a misunderstood Wiccan at first...[[UnreliableNarrator but that turns out to be a lie]]. ]] |
| 67 | [[/folder]] |
| 68 | |
| 69 | [[folder:Film -- Live-Action]] |
| 70 | * ''Film/AssassinationNation'' uses this for RuleOfSymbolism. It's set in a StepfordSuburbia called Salem, which experiences a moral panic reminiscent of the witch trials when a hacker leaks the personal photos and information of everybody in the town. |
| 71 | * ''Film/BellBookAndCandle'' stars Creator/KimNovak as a Salem witch who has survived into the 1950s and uses her magic to romance Creator/JimmyStewart. |
| 72 | * When she was alive, [[OurGhostsAreDifferent Bathsheba]] from ''Film/TheConjuring'' was a satanic witch descended from [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Eastey Mary Eastey]], one of the women hanged at the trials. |
| 73 | * The main characters of ''Film/TheCovenant'' are the descendants of five witch-families that fled from the Salem Witch Trials to the nearby Ipswich. To protect themselves, the families formed a covenant of silence to hide their powers. One family lusted for more power and was banished, their bloodline disappearing without a trace. |
| 74 | * ''Film/HocusPocus'' is about three witches, hanged in Salem, who are resurrected in TheNineties. Their backstory really doesn't fit with the historical record at all, unless they were supposed to be some separate case of suspected witchcraft. The film implies a significant AlternateHistory, since the witches' house has become a museum and their names are centerpieces of the witch tourism industry. |
| 75 | * ''Film/IMarriedAWitch'' starts off in the aftermath of father-and-daughter witches being executed in Salem. 250 years later, the spirit of the sexy daughter witch, having taken form as Veronica Lake, starts screwing with the descendant of the man that burned her. |
| 76 | * ''Film/TheLordsOfSalem'', where the titular Lords are a coven of infernal witches who date back to the Witch Trials and have been longing to get their revenge on Salem. |
| 77 | * The evil SplitPersonality that infects a past patient heard in recorded interviews and at least one of the cleanup crew in ''Film/{{Session 9}}'' {{may|be magic maybe mundane}} be of infernal origin. The {{abandoned| hospital}} mental hospital is located in Danvers, Mass, the former location of Salem Village. |
| 78 | * In ''Film/TheSorcerersApprentice'', one of [[LadyOfBlackMagic Morgana]]'s followers is Abigail Williams, one of the original accusers at the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abigail_Williams witch trials]] and herself a sorcerer. |
| 79 | [[/folder]] |
| 80 | |
| 81 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 82 | * The main character of ''Literature/ADiscoveryOfWitches'' is Diana, the last witch in a long line of Bishop witches who can trace their history back to the first woman executed in Salem. Her father Stephen Proctor's ancestor John was also executed in Salem. Diana's aunt Emily Mather is a descendant of Cotton Mather, who played an influential role in the trials. In the TV series, she is also descended from Tituba, the woman that the Parris family enslaved. |
| 83 | * ''Literature/FearStreet'': The origin of the Fear Family {{curse}} started in Wickham Village during the Salem Witch Trials, when Benjamin and Matthew Fier had Susannah Goode and her mother burned at the stake. This was really an attempt to keep Susannah away from Benjamin's son, Edward. As it turned out, Susannah's father was the actual witch, and placed the curse on the Fiers for destroying his family. |
| 84 | * ''Literature/GroundedForAllEternity'': The witch coven Sean and Charity's parents are from use Salem as a base of operations and frequent it regularly, though they don't live there full-time. |
| 85 | * ''Franchise/HarryPotter'': |
| 86 | ** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'' has a throwaway mention of a group of American witches attending the Quidditch World Cup. Their campsite has a sign reading "Salem Witches' Institute". |
| 87 | ** According to [[https://www.pottermore.com/collection-episodic/history-of-magic-in-north-america-en History supplementary material]] written by Creator/JKRowling for ''Film/FantasticBeastsAndWhereToFindThem'', there were at least two Scourers (rogue mercenary wizards) amongst the judges that instigated the Salem trials to settle their personal feuds. This led to several witches being killed alongside innocent [[{{Muggles}} No-Majs]] that were caught up in the hysteria. This led to the [[TheMasquerade International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy]] and witches and wizards went into hiding. |
| 88 | * Creator/HPLovecraft was fond of dropping references to the Salem Witch Trials into his works, implying that characters such as Richard Upton Pickman of ''Literature/PickmansModel'' had familial connections to genuine Salem witches. The witch who features in the backstory of ''Literature/TheDreamsInTheWitchHouse'', Keziah Mason, is said to have fled from Salem as well. Most of Lovecraft's works are set in the New England region, and he himself was from Rhode Island, but the original Lovecraft Country - his fictional towns of Innsmouth, Dunwich, and Arkham - was specifically in Massachussetts. |
| 89 | ** Additionally, ''Literature/TheShunnedHouse'' draws on another bit of creepy New England history that is often compared to the Salem trials: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England_vampire_panic the New England vampire panic]]. |
| 90 | * 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 ''Literature/JerusalemsLot'' shows occult things going on in the town, while its main appearance in ''Literature/SalemsLot'' is more focused on vampires. |
| 91 | * In the YA ReincarnationRomance novel ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Reincarnation]]'', one of the two lovers' lifetimes takes place in Salem during the witch trials. The girl is accused of witchcraft and [[ArtisticLicenseHistory burned at the stake]], giving her a fear of fire throughout the rest of her lifetimes. |
| 92 | * Creator/HowardPyle's short story "The Salem Wolf" is about a witch at Salem who uses her "evil eye" to curse a family, culminating in their eldest daughter involuntarily switching between wolf and human forms. |
| 93 | [[/folder]] |
| 94 | |
| 95 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 96 | * In ''Series/TheAddamsFamily'' episode "Halloween—Addams Style", Wednesday is crushed to hear from a neighbor that witches aren't real. So the family holds a seance in an effort to summon the spirit of Aunt Singe, an ancestor and a real witch who was [[ArtisticLicenseHistory burned at Salem]]. |
| 97 | * The witches in ''Series/AmericanHorrorStoryCoven'' are all descended from witches who fled Salem to escape the witch trials. |
| 98 | * ''Series/{{Bewitched}}'' had "The Salem Saga", a series of Season 7 episodes which 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. |
| 99 | * ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': |
| 100 | ** According to Giles, the Salem Trials was caused by the malign influence of the MonsterOfTheWeek from the "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E11Gingerbread Gingerbread]]" episode and it threatens to do the same thing to [[CityOfAdventure Sunny]][[TownWithADarkSecret dale]]. |
| 101 | ** Anya, who was [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld actually there]], makes the usual point that anyone with real magic powers could easily escape. |
| 102 | -->"So really it was only bad for the falsely accused, and, well, they never have a good time." |
| 103 | * The "The Witch is Back" episode of ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'' shows that one of the Halliwell ancestors was lined up to be [[ArtisticLicenseHistory burned at the stake]] in Salem. |
| 104 | * In the first episode of season 2 of ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'', Sara Lance ends up in Salem due to a Time-Scattering. When the Legends track her down, an angry mob is seeking to [[BurnTheWitch hang her for witchcraft]] due to having [[AllGaysArePromiscuous slept with most if not all of the town's women]]. It doesn't go well for the mob, as Sara's combat training allows her to effortlessly beat them back and send them running. |
| 105 | ** The Legends return to Salem in Season Four's "Witch Hunt", and witness some clearly magical goings-on. However, the source of the magic turns out not to be a witch but a [[spoiler:FairyGodmother.]] |
| 106 | * ''Series/MotherlandFortSalem'': In the show, there really were at least some witches in Salem, many of whom were hung. The survivors made a pact with the Massachusetts Colony to end persecution, fighting with the militia. It then carried over with the USA, and now in modern times they serve with the US Army, their basic training being done at the titular fort. |
| 107 | * Mentioned in various {{Noodle Incident}}s on ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'' including the name of the [warlock who's being punished by having [[ForcedTransformation 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. |
| 108 | -->'''Sabrina''': I’ve been thinking about it and Salem sounds like a dangerous place for a witch.\ |
| 109 | '''Zelda''': The Salem witch trials had nothing to do with real witches.\ |
| 110 | '''Hilda''': Besides, that was three hundred years ago. There’s nothing to worry about now except for over priced souvenirs. |
| 111 | ** And then it turned out that Sabrina got assigned the "witch" role amongst her field trip group (they were supposed to be part of a re-enactment, and AlphaBitch Libby exploited the opportunity that Sabrina lost her assignment card and didn't knew her role to accuse Sabrina and have the rest of the class bully her); even when the tour guide explicitly said at the end of the re-enactment that ''nobody'' had the "witch" role (as an exposition that paranoia was the biggest enemy of the Salem people). |
| 112 | * ''Series/RizzoliAndIsles'': In "Bloodlines", Jane and Maura investigate the death of a woman who was burned at the stake in Danvers, the suburb of Boston that used to be Salem Village. At the victim's house Jane, Korsak, and Frost find an altar, and a skull, meaning that Helen was a witch. They also find she owned three acres of land, and has genealogies since 1692. |
| 113 | * ''Series/{{Salem}}'' is [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory very loose dramatisation]] of the witch trials, with a major change: witches are real, and they're pulling the strings behind the scenes to get the Puritans to kill innocent people. |
| 114 | * This [[http://youtu.be/Uj0VtiGp4Hw sketch]] from ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' plays the [[KangarooCourt unfairness of the trials]] for laughs. [[spoiler: Then at the end, the hand of the accused starts [[HolyBurnsEvil burning at the touch of a Bible]] and he starts [[ShockAndAwe throwing lightning bolts]]. He is quickly found not guilty as the court runs away in fear.]] |
| 115 | * ''Series/TheSecretCircle'' takes place in New Salem, a town founded on little island in the Boston Harbor by six witch families who were fleeing the witch trials. The main characters are descendants of the families and inherited magic powers from their forebears. |
| 116 | * ''Series/SleepyHollow'': In the "[[Recap/SleepyHollowS2E15Spellcaster Spellcaster]]" episode, Katrina reveals that she is descended from a coven of witches that lived in Salem. The trials were started by a warlock who led the coven after he lied about killing one of witches in self-defense when he really murdered her by accident while professing his love for her. |
| 117 | * ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' |
| 118 | ** In the Season 3 episode, "[[Recap/SupernaturalS03E09MalleusMaleficarum Malleus Maleficarum]]", the Winchesters visit a town in Massachusetts that is near Salem as they investigate cases of murder committed via witchcraft. |
| 119 | ** In the TieInNovel, ''One Year Gone'', Dean discovers a 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. |
| 120 | * ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'': The Bennet family of witches originally lived in Salem but relocated to Mystic Falls after the trials started. |
| 121 | -->'''Bonnie''': Was our family [[ArtisticLicenseHistory burned]] in the witch trials?\ |
| 122 | '''Sheila''': No, the girls that were persecuted in Salem were entirely innocent. You have to have more than ignorance to trap a real witch.\ |
| 123 | '''Bonnie''': How did we end up in Mystic Falls?\ |
| 124 | '''Sheila''': Our family fled Salem in 1692 and relocated here. Our ancestors lived in secrecy for over a hundred years. It's important that we still do. |
| 125 | * [[Recap/WandaVisionEpisode8PreviouslyOn Episode 8]] of ''Series/WandaVision'' begins in Salem in 1693 with the attempted execution of the witch [[spoiler:Agatha Harkness]]. However, the twist is that she's being punished by her fellow witches for using forbidden dark magic. [[spoiler:Agatha]] turns the tables on them by draining their life forces before escaping. |
| 126 | * ''Series/WitchesOfEastEnd'': One of the many times that Freya and Ingrid were killed for using magic was at the Salem trials as shown in the "A Few Good Talisman" episode and the book it is based on. Also in the third book, ''Winds of Salem'', Freya is sent [[TimeTravel back in time]] to 1962 and has to avoid getting killed at the trials for a second time. |
| 127 | * The episode "[[Recap/TheXFilesS05E10Chinga Chinga]]" of ''Series/TheXFiles'' takes place in Maine, New England. Jane Froelich thinks that Melissa Turner is a witch, descended from a cursed lineage of Hawthornes in Salem. She also thinks Melissa's autistic daughter Polly is cursed, too. |
| 128 | * The main character of ''Literature/ADiscoveryOfWitches'' is Diana, the last witch in a long line of Bishop witches who can trace their history back to the first woman executed in Salem. Her father Stephen Proctor's ancestor John was also executed in Salem. In the TV series, Diana's aunt Emily Mather is a descendant of Cotton Mather, who played an influential role in the trials, and Tituba, an enslaved woman who worked for Rev. Parris's family, whose actions, along with those of Parris's daughter Betty and niece Abigail Williams, and other girls, triggered the trials. |
| 129 | [[/folder]] |
| 130 | |
| 131 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 132 | * ''TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening'' uses Boston as its central city, and as such, the mages of the area are tied to Salem. While they stayed under the radar of the Trials, one of the leading cabals of the area saw it as a warning of what might happen in the mages stayed separate, and used it as a reason for the area's Awakened to organize into a unified body. |
| 133 | * The jury is still out on if there was any magic users at the trials in the ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' setting but in the Sixth World, Salem has become a major centre for witches. This is mainly due to the number of followers of UsefulNotes/{{Wicca}} and other {{UsefulNotes/Neo Pagan|ism}} religions that were living in Salem before [[MayanDoomsday the Awa]][[TheDragonsComeBack kening]] who [[ReligionIsMagic gained powers]] when [[TheMagicComesBack magic returned]]. The percentage of magic users in Salem is estimated to be about six times the national average. |
| 134 | ** Salem was also the center of one of the biggest magical incidents that preluded the Awakening, when a Halloween celebration in 2011 went very wrong as TheWildHunt showed up to the party. |
| 135 | * ''TabletopGame/UnknownArmies'': A cabal called the New Salem Coven is mentioned as being unexpectedly wiped out by The Freebusters. |
| 136 | [[/folder]] |
| 137 | |
| 138 | [[folder:Theatre]] |
| 139 | * ''Theatre/TheCrucible'' by Creator/ArthurMiller, which is set during the actual Salem witch trails and uses the incident as a metaphor for [[UsefulNotes/JosephMcCarthy McCarthyism]] and the RedScare of the early 1950s. |
| 140 | * ''Theatre/WitchesTheMusical'': [[spoiler: At the very end, it is shown that without a doubt, Abigail really is a witch. She really did gain power from [[DealWithTheDevil signing Satan's book]], and she uses it to kill [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Warren Mary Warren]].]] |
| 141 | [[/folder]] |
| 142 | |
| 143 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 144 | * ''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 [[NuclearMutant 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. |
| 145 | * ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'': The final Pseudo-Singularity takes place in Salem; specifically modern-day Salem has suddenly been swallowed up by a dark void that has re-created 17th century Salem right down to the year the infamous witch-hunts started. Once Chaldea Rayshifts inside, however, they begin to notice various discrepancies between the actual events of and persons involved in the trials and what's going on in the singularity. [[FromBadToWorse And then the undead and ghouls start showing up]]... It eventually turns out that [[spoiler:the Demon God Pillar Raum was using the hysteria and horrors of the trials to [[BreakTheCutie break Abigail Williams]], a copy of the original from history, and turn her into the vessel of an [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos Outer God]] to [[LovecraftCountry overrun the world with Lovecraftian horrors]].]] |
| 146 | * 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]].]] |
| 147 | * Although the trials in ''VideoGame/TownOfSalem'' largely exist to uncover and lynch members of the non-magical mafia, some setups may also include Witches that can control other players at night. |
| 148 | ** And then there is the Coven expansion, with actual witches forming the coven. Some games even end up a MeleeATrois between the Town, the Coven, and the Mafia, with a few Neutral roles thrown in for good measure. |
| 149 | * This shows up in a ''{{racing game}}'', of all places. ''VideoGame/TheCrew'', taking place in a WideOpenSandbox rendition of the entire United States, features Salem, Massachusetts as one of the many small American towns you can visit, and appropriately, the place is [[HalloweenTown all decked out for a Halloween celebration]], with jack o'lanterns and other decorations lining the streets. |
| 150 | [[/folder]] |
| 151 | |
| 152 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 153 | * Hearthbrook is a coastal Massachusetts town set in LovecraftCountry in the comic ''Webcomic/DearChildren''. Guess what the main characters are looking for at the beginning of the story? Yep, witches. |
| 154 | * Averted in ''Webcomic/SomethingPositive'': a girl from a UsefulNotes/{{Wicca}}n coven [[https://somethingpositive.net/comic/trolling-for-goths-pt-3/ claims to remember]] her [[{{Reincarnation}} past life]] of being [[ArtisticLicenseHistory burned at the stake]] at Salem. Davan calls her out on it (except for the burning part, which has already been mentioned here). |
| 155 | * ''Webcomic/TimesLikeThis'': Cassie's reaction to a song - mentioning that she escaped being [[ArtisticLicenseHistory burned]] alive due to witchcraft accusations - was "it was a trip to Salem gone horribly wrong". |
| 156 | [[/folder]] |
| 157 | |
| 158 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 159 | * ''WebVideo/TheWitchfinderGeneral'': 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. |
| 160 | * J. M. [=McNab=] of ''Website/{{Cracked}}'' [[http://www.cracked.com/article_24403_reminder-america-celebrates-mass-murder-every-halloween.html wrote an article]] about this, particularly how the world (including the modern town of Salem) has treated the history of the witch trials. He views it as carrying massive UnfortunateImplications, a celebration of the breakdown of law and order in the face of religious fanaticism, paranoia, and petty property disputes. In particular, he sees works of fiction that portray actual witches in Salem as validating the hysteria that fueled the witch trials, comparing it to a world where UsefulNotes/NaziGermany tried to justify UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust by accusing Jews of being vampires (which wouldn't have been far off from [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_libel real anti-Semitic conspiracy theories]]), and then, years later, ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' gave the Cullens a backstory about fleeing the Nazis. |
| 161 | * ''Roleplay/SurvivalOfTheFittes''t: The town from which the students of V8 are from is none other than Salem, Massachusetts. Like its real life counterpart, there are no witches or anything supernatural but the pregame description of Downtown Salem mentions that the bulk of the town's tourism has to do with "witchcraft, the occult, and all things spooky in relation to the infamous Salem Witch Trials." |
| 162 | [[/folder]] |
| 163 | |
| 164 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 165 | * In ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'' episode "The Pest", Ms. Simian shows Gumball and Anais [[EveryScarHasAStory her various scars]] [[TimeAbyss that she's acquired over the last few million years]] to teach them that life isn't fair. One of them she claims to have gotten during the Salem Witch Trials, but we don't hear her elaborate further. |
| 166 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'': In "Witch One", Rita and Runt find themselves in Salem, Massachusetts during the Salem Witch Trials, where Rita is accused of being a witch. |
| 167 | * 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). |
| 168 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': The "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E4TreehouseOfHorrorVIII Treehouse of Horror VIII]]" segment "Easy-Bake Coven" parodies ''Theatre/TheCrucible'', with Marge being accused of witchcraft in 17th-century Springfield and thrown off a cliff... revealing that she actually ''is'' a witch. |
| 169 | * ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "The Magicks of Megas-Tu". A group of aliens with magical powers comes to Earth and is persecuted by human beings. They take refuge in Salem but are found out and harassed even there. Their situation was the basis of the Salem witch trials. |
| 170 | [[/folder]] |
| 171 | |
| 172 | [[folder:Real Life]] |
| 173 | * [[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. This includes the local police having a witch on a broom as part of [[https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/783241893043994624/j_podKJW_400x400.jpg their unit patch]]). |
| 174 | * 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 ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' comics), and it has a very storied reputation for being haunted (the film ''Film/Session9'' 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. |
| 175 | * In May 1878, a [[UsefulNotes/AmericanCourts civil case]] was held in Salem that is sometimes called the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_witchcraft_trial_(1878) second Salem witch trial]]. The plaintiff was Lucretia L. S. Brown, an adherent of the Christian Science religion, who accused fellow Christian Scientist Daniel H. Spofford of attempting to harm her through his "mesmeric" mental powers. |
| 176 | * The third and (currently) last ship named USS ''Salem'' is a ''Des Moines''-class heavy cruiser, currently a museum ship docked in Quincy. Appropriately enough, the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Salem_(CA-139)#/media/File:USS_Salem_(CA-139)_crest_1949.png ship's crest]] depicts a witch and her cat on a broomstick, flying over a crescent moon. |
| 177 | * Salem is the home of [[UsefulNotes/{{Satanism}} the Satanic Temple]], a religious activist group that, contrary to its name, doesn't actually believe in Satan except as an ideal. Rather, their main goal is to protest what they see as conservative Christian groups abusing various Supreme Court decisions related to religious freedom to proselytize on the public dime, staging publicity stunts like placing Satanic displays at public buildings in states that agree to permit Christian displays, or hold "After School Satan Clubs" in public schools that allow evangelical Christian groups to run similar clubs. Their headquarters in Salem doubles as an art gallery and a museum on historical [[MediaScaremongering moral panics]], including display of a bronze statue of {{Baphomet}} that they commissioned in response to the state of Oklahoma installing (and later removing due to controversy) a display of the Ten Commandments in front of their State Capitol. |
| 178 | [[/folder]] |
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