Directed by Nicholas Hytner • 1996 • United States
Starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Winona Ryder, Joan Allen

Adapted by Arthur Miller from his own acclaimed play, this searing drama of persecution and betrayal—often read as an allegory for the McCarthy trials of the 1950s, but possessed of an evergreen resonance—makes the leap from stage to screen with vivid intensity thanks to a powerhouse cast. In seventeenth-century Salem, Massachusetts, a group of young women are accused of practicing witchcraft after an occult rendezvous in the woods. Led by Abigail Williams (Winona Ryder)—who is consumed by hatred for the wife (Joan Allen) of her ex-lover (Daniel Day-Lewis)—the accused turn their fear and rage outward as hysteria sweeps through the town.