The document discusses the portrayal of social groups in the film Malus. It describes how the film represents Wiccans and pagans accurately by showing their worship of nature and use of the pentacle symbol. It aims to remove the negative stereotypes of witches often portrayed by the Catholic Church. The film also represents females as strong and independent to challenge typical horror film stereotypes. Finally, the coven members are portrayed as teenage college students between 16-18 to seem realistic and show how their lifestyle changes them over the course of the film.

1. Malus Evaluation Question 2
Initially Malus represents the slowly declining social/religious group of Witches and
Pagans. The Catholic Church, implying that they are devil/evil worshippers, which is
not entirely the case, often portrays the Wicca religion negatively. When researching
into Wicca and Paganism I found that the only thing that witches worship is the
earth and it’s natural elements (earth, wind, water and fire). They associate
themselves with a pentacle because each point represents a different element they
worship, the fifth element at the top being the soul. When together the pentagram is
actually a symbol of ultimate protection against evil and in actual fact the inverted
pentagram is has been taken from Wicca and is now used notoriously in satanic
worship. It was important when constructing Malus to remain true to the religion as
it should be taken out of the negative light it, has been placed in. This way, the
portrayal of witches and the craft cannot offend any witches that could be potential
audiences.
By constantly referring to the pentacle in its correct form allows us to show the
coven of witches as they would actually appear in real life and therefore adds a
sense of verisimilitude in the film. They wear cloaks in the forest scene which is the
sacred garment of choice when completing rituals and practicing the craft.
The secondary social group we are representing in Malus is females. With the
constant battles of feminism and equal rights we felt it was important to represent
females in a strong and capable way showing independence and strong will, traits
that are often overlooked in horror films. In a way this could suggest that we are
challenging the typical stereotype of women in horror and not representing a coven
of Casey Becker’s.
Lastly, we are representing the teenage social group in Malus as all seven of the
witches are in college and age between 16 and 18. Again wanting to infuse
verisimilitude in the film, we decided to allow them to use a teenage socialect with
taboo/swearing and colloquial language in their dialogue. I felt that it would be
appropriate to make sure that the characters seemed normal at the beginning of the
film to show how the coven and their lifestyle choice changes them.