dimanche 8 janvier 2017

The Rise of the Supernatural and the Use of Witchraft

The great question now is to wonder why Adam Simon and Brannon Braga have chosen to represent this historical event by using the fantastic and supernatural genre.

We can say that the supernatural has been in the heart of most of the cinematographic productions way after the creation of this genre also called “gothic fiction” in the 18th century with books like Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Since the publication of the Twilight saga in books and then on screen, a boom of witchcraft, ghosts and vampires has been observed inside pop culture. Vampires have stayed a long time the perfect anti heroes and representatives of the supernatural genre and have attracted more than a billion persons all over the globe, but witches have never been that coveted since the creation of Salem. Witches have been known through many  series good ones, by the way such as Charmed, Witches of East End, the Vampire Diaries (with the character of Bonnie) and of course the very famous Harry Potter saga. What is different with Salem is that we deal with a historical event mixed with fiction and with the supernatural which tends to be more faithful to some social issues. What is worth noticing is that Simon and Braga have chosen this type of event to fix with the trend of the moment while talking about real facts. Indeed, Salem is one of the only TV series belonging to this genre talking about things that really happened in the past.




Interview of the creators of Salem
Brannon Braga and Adam Simon 
about the choice of the subject in season 1 and 2






Magic is an important theme of the series. Indeed, we all know about the Witch Trials but do we really know about the kind of magic used by the witches at that time? The answer is obviously no because we are torn up between popular believes and slight historical indications. According to the Oxford dictionary, witchcraft means the practice of magic, especially black magic; the use of spells. Producers have played with this kind of hesitation and solved it by using a specific kind of witchcraft. Indeed, throughout the episodes, we see the witches stewing strange substances in cauldrons and acting strange with animals. Animals such as frogs and spiders have a huge role in the witchcraft of the main characters of the series but anything on the historical records testify about it. So they have fallen for the popular believes about witchcraft in Salem but they might have forgotten the broom! They obviously have taken things into consideration to adapt history, popular believes and fiction to get the audience's attention and to avoid conflicts with historians. 


Salem represents the perfect mixture between the supernatural and the historical genre. Indeed, it gives a new vision of the Witch Trials, and the blend of the supernatural and history allows the viewers to learn more about main issues of that period. This can produce a kind of curiosity among the audience, pushing them to be interested in these events and then to compare, as we did through our watchings and researches, the fiction from reality. The advantage with tackling this kind of story is that the end is already known by the viewer, but it is the voice of the producer to fix to reality or not, and we think this creates a lot of suspense for the viewer.




The history of witchcraft was actually real. Contrary to vampires and werewolves, witches  have existed, they were real human beings which turns the TV series in a sort of historical documentary even though the producers say that they do not take any responsibility for telling the story as it was because they consider it to be the job of historians. They have seen in this historical event a great chance to use supernatural and to fix with the rising trend of this style. 

1 commentaire:

  1. Interesting remarks about the mix of genres in the series (fantastic and historical). The video interview is very nice to watch.
    I’m a bit bothered when you say that “witches have existed”. Yes, in the sense that some people had a certain knowledge of plants and their medicinal or poisonous properties, and were called / called themselves witches. But don’t tell me you think they actually had supernatural powers! In the supernatural sense, witches do not exist, any more than vampires or werewolves do.
    But you are right, the supernatural dimension made the series dramatic and entertaining, and provided an exciting complement to the historical dimension.

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