| Movie Review | The Journal of American History, 89.3

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| Movie Review | The Journal of American History, 89.3 | The History Cooperative

Movie Review

Secrets of the Dead II: Witches Curse. Prod. by Jenny Barraclough. Thirteen/WNET New York in association with Channel 4 (UK), 2001. 60 mins. (PBS Video, 1320 Braddock Place, Alexandria, VA 22314-1698; 1-800-344-3337; <shop@pbs.org>; <http://shop.pbs.org/education>[Sept. 23, 2002])

Be afraid, be very afraid: the ergot theory of the Salem witch trials is back. The claim that tainted bread caused the events of 1692 is one of history's undead. The hypothesis first appeared in Science in 1976, resurfaced in American Scientist in 1982, and took book form in 1989. Long discredited by historians and scientists alike, it gets its silliest airing yet in this hour-long shock-u-mentary. The premise is simple. To scholars who have offered multilayered and competing explanations for what happened in Salem—arguments focusing on gender relations, town politics, Indian wars, and fraud—Witches Curse offers a one-line rejoinder. To paraphrase James Carville, "It was the rye, stupid." . . .

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