MovieChat Forums > The Gathering (2007) Discussion > Another witch Bashing movie!

Another witch Bashing movie!

posted 17 years ago by zorn456
24 replies | jump to latest

ignorance is bliss, I guess that is how the world works.

Everytime the witches has to be the bad guys the evil one and then Christans goes around preaching that we are evil and use movies like this as proof.

If someone wrote a movie to make the Catholic church look evil and keep writing a movie like that they would be skinned alive and persecuted.

Wiccans are peaceful nature loving folks, that does not believe in harming anyone.

It is so said that Hollywood seem to be the wiccans biggest enemy with all of these movies.

Well at least we had Charmed, and Practical Magic, and any other movies shwon wicca in its true light.

[–] paradigmtruth 17 years ago

ummm okay then....

[–] FaydeToBlak 17 years ago

NOT ALL WITCHES ARE WICCAN. I'M A WITCH AND NOT WICCAN.

[–] missbe 17 years ago

But FaydeToBlak during the movie the teacher (played by Jamie-Lynn) said that Anne (the mom) was involved in Wicca.
She said specifically Wicca.

[–] bluekrush 17 years ago

She doesn't say the mother is invovled in wicca. I have it on dvr. She calls anne and evan (her friend) seekers. She askes the husband if anne ever discussed her faith with him and he says not really. Then they go into her office and she said she teaches comparative relgion. The dad looks up at her wall on Neopaganism and here are various things.. He is staring at a particular thing and she says that is the wheel of the moon "sort of a wiccan calendar." The dad says "wicca, that's witchcraft, right?" and she answers many belief systems include supernatural and magical powers in their practice..." She is basically saying there are more than one belief system that uses the word witch and magic. Then he asks her if his wife is a witch.. she doesn't answer .. he asks a bunch of other questions.. without giving her time to answer and then he says he doesn't care if his wife is a witch.

[–] Dorianofkoln 17 years ago

“Well at least we had Charmed, and Practical Magic, and any other movies shwon wicca in its true light.”

Personally, I am so very glad that the above statement is NOT true… And while I do understand what the OP meant, it’s still not a “true” statement, not really.

--------------------------------------------
Engage brain before speaking... Please.

[–] Ashareem 17 years ago

Amen to that, Dorian!

[–] taramaclay1 17 years ago

And just in time for Halloween. Gee, what a surprise...

[–] artemis2000 17 years ago

its so not true that if a movie bagging out the catholic church was made hollywood would get 'skinned alive'....ummmm davinci code! its more popular to think of the church or the government as the bad guys then it is to think that witches are.

[–] amelian1 17 years ago

speaking of witch bashing movies, have you caught The Wicker Man yet? I was disgusted!

You have to admit there are many similarities with witchcraft to wicca. Considering they are both non-christian, polythiestic, and an earth based religion.

I loved Charmed and Practical Magic as well but there wasn't much of true wicca/witchcraft in either one. They didn't celebrate or do rituals.

Thanks to a cold, I have too much brain fog to rant today.

Later.

[–] Ashareem 17 years ago

speaking of witch bashing movies, have you caught The Wicker Man yet? I was disgusted!

Which version? The original with Edward Woodward, or the abortion featuring Nicholas Cage? Neither of them are particularly "witch bashing movies."

[–] sestra151 17 years ago

Why are movies about the "bad" witches so annoying? Omen, Damien, etc....ad nauseum. They're soooooo alike. Dull movies about impotent gods.

[–] blacklatexfan 17 years ago

Wiccans are NOT witches, though many of us profess an exclusive claim on the title of "Witch". FORMAL Wiccans have only been around since Gerald Gardner. And anyone who claims otherwise does NOT know the history of their own religion. This mess of calling Wiccans as Witches keeps coming up from the idea that as magic (natural) users, Wiccans have to be id ed as OBVIOUS magic users and have adopted the title of "witch" for themselves. This film and MOST of the films that SOME Wiccans get getting riled up about are NOT about Wiccans AT ALL, anymore than all Christians should be id ed with the specific ideas of the Baptist or Protestants or Roman Catholics despite being all "Christians".

>If someone wrote a movie to make the Catholic church look evil
>and keep writing a movie like that they would be skinned alive
>and persecuted.

Hmm haven't looked at a lot of movies then have you? Let's start with the "Three Musketeers" where the FULL Church is openly politicking and supporting Cardinal Richelieu in his plan to overthrow the government?

How about Martin Luther (1953) where he is directly repressed by his Roman Catholic superiors for going against dogma rather than the historical notes of upsetting the German princes? Even in more recent versions it is STILL the Catholic church and NOT the princes who are the "bad guys" of the piece.

more still? "El Cid" easily comes to mind where again the Church is more than willing to commit mass murder in order to maintain its stability until the one hero shows his virtue even beyond his death.

and many others all the way up to and including the now much lampooned "Da Vinci Code".

The same is true in several TV projects as well, most notably with James Clavell's "Shogun" where the Church is willing to overthrow the government and kill thousands for the security of their "Black Ship" and its annual tribute from the East.

And of course the granddaddy of them all has to be the famous "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" whereby EVEN THE CARTOON DISNEY version has the openly whipping and purging Quasimodo for that is something rather intense for SMALL children to see from a priest going even if it is a cartoon that is suppose to be in an era that is long past.

And we can go on and on whereby the formal Catholic Church has been portrayed as the OPEN villian in cinema, as well as many other religions and accepted organizations when the stories are written that way.

We need to accept that EVERYONE gets written as the villian of someone's FICTIONAL work. And taht is the KEY here -- This film is a FICTIONAL movie the same as "The Witches of Eastwick", "Bell, Broom and Candlestick". These are NOT documentaries about the Wiccan faith. Not even about the overreaching practice of the various Witchcrafts. These movies are for entertainment only.

But more directly on topic, this film is just a BORING movie that has little intensity and passion for its ENTERTAINMENT purpose. I wonder when they release this film on DVD what will be the focus of the presentation -- "thriller"? it is not; "suspenseful"? other than whether the wife is found or not and the reason why - meh; "intense" DEFINITELY NOT; "scary" other than the blood scene at the end of the first part (sorry do not want to give it away for those who have not seen it yet) Boris Karloff's classic Raven film has more scary moments than this film. The film just seems not to know what it wants to really be. Though I have to admit some of the camera work IS quite good, especially for a television movie. But it does not focus itself as a definite powerful story and therefore does NOT impress in its primary.

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] bluekrush 17 years ago

Wiccans do not own the word witch. The word is much older and just means someone who uses magic. Like witchdoctors in african based religions or other pagans besides wiccans... cause there are others you know. And I want to point out that there are good and bad people in every religion. So it is possible to find some crazy bad wiccans. It's fiction. And the movie NEVER IDENTIFIES THE COVEN AS WICCAN. Christians are portrayed badly often.. just like the above person said. One of my favorite movies is "dangerous beauty" .. the church are the bad guys in that movie. They also make them look like a crazy cult. Look at "Joan of Arch" the church basically burns someone because she said god talks to her. Do you know how many movies have been made about the inquisition.. yeah..christians look bad all through it, as they should. Let me not even get started with the corruption in the church and the popes. Some of them were evil son's of b's. There are also a million movies about fundamentalist in all religions that are made to look crazy and evil. And a lot of those movies are meant to portray something real. This movie never tries to make it look like a real story. Wiccans don't jump off balconys and turn into birds. They make it obviously fake. I am not religious.. I have no motive in making any religion look worse than any other.. but it's crazy to think that there are no bad people in a whole religion. There are good pagans and bad ones.. it's balance. Aren't you guys big on balance?

[–] curegirl0421 17 years ago

<It's fiction. And the movie NEVER IDENTIFIES THE COVEN AS WICCAN.>

Um, yeah it did. In part one, Jamie Lynn Siegler's character *specifically* states that the wife had "beliefs" and that she was a Wiccan. She used the word. Voila.

[–] bluekrush 17 years ago

Tell me exactly where that is. I have it on DVR and I can't find a single part where she even says the word wicca.. except in the beginning and it's to talk about a calendar on the wall.

[–] missbe 17 years ago

I completely agree with you! I was watching The Gathering and just kept thing to myself 'This is not what Wicca is'. There is no animal sacrifice or black magic in REAL Wicca.

[–] FaydeToBlak 17 years ago

To many Witches in mant cultures Witchcraft is just that a craft with no religious connection.

Hate to brake it to you when mentioning Wicker Man" Ancient Pagans did in fact practice human sacrifice. Sacrifice means to make sacred.

[–] gleeps 17 years ago

Witches have been trying to say they are good people, but thank God that there are movies like this to show that Witches are real and all completely evil and they all need to be destroyed by whatever means necessary.

[–] SomebodyWicked 17 years ago

the reason discrimination exists is because people have to look at things and say this movie is anti witch or anti wiccan... if i was a movie where there was a black person as a villain it would be racist... if there were mostly all women victims then the writers would be sexist... certain people always have to make things about discrimination... they always have to bring is up which is why its still around... pat your self on the back for being an idiot

the fact is that there is no politically correct movie... there is always a bad guy (or girl)... if there wasn't then there would be no real conflict and that would make for a pretty boring movie...

[–] unococoa 14 years ago

So, I'm a couple years late on this conversation, but Lifetime just re-aired this whole, boring mess of a movie with it's horrible ending. Also, I think many of the other posters made my point - that not all movies make witches look bad & that there are plenty of movies that make the Christian religion look bad. Also, there's always a bad egg in every group/religion/etc.
So, other movies that came to mind:
The Golden Compass: the Authority (God/religion) was bad while witches were part of the good team.
Mary Poppins was a good witch.
Glenda was the good witch of the north in the wizard of oz - balance was shown. :)
Sleeping Beauty (disney's) had 3 good witches to the one evil queen.
Bedknobs & Broomsticks was all about Mrs. Brown (a witch) trying to find a way to help defeat the Nazis.
And the grand-daddy of them all:
HARRY POTTER - okay so there were both good & bad, but it's not saying all witches are bad. AND, it's one of biggest books/movies of all time & everyone who's anyone loves it & therefore, loves the characters/witches.
Just my humble opinion.
Movies are for entertainment.

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