The Crucible is a 1996 film, written by Arthur Miller and based on his play of the same name. It was directed by Nicholas Hytner and stars Daniel Day-Lewis as John Proctor, Winona Ryder as Abigail Williams, Paul Scofield as Judge Thomas Danforth, and Joan Allen as Elizabeth Proctor.

Miller was nominated for an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay, with Allen also receiving an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Plot

Early morning in 1692 Salem, Massachusetts. All of the young village girls meet in the woods with an African American slave from Barbados named Tituba. Tituba begins a ritual and the girls call out the names of men they wish to marry. One girl, named Abigail, does something different. Instead of calling for the man she loves, named John Proctor, she kills a chicken, and drinks the blood, and wishes for Proctor's wife to die. The girls begin to dance (one of them even runs naked) and run through the woods and suddenly are surprised when Abigail's uncle, Reverend Parris (Bruce Davison) come to them. As the girls scream and run away, Parris' daughter, Betty, falls over unconscious.