You're probably right on both accounts. The film itself begs symbolic messages. I don't know if the original writer ever wrote what 'things meant', but it'd be easy to make it mean almost anything.

It is a truly strange film and haunts my childhood. I think it has a place in a horror forum. Consider the scene where the witch is writing in the sky. She writes the letters 'surr' As if she is about to write the word 'surrealism'.

Definitely a surreal film.

Some people believe it is used in mind control programs.

https://kassandraproject.wordpress.c...e-programming/

The Simpsons has a similar thing. We see the word SIMPS in the sky at the opening credits. Then the rest of the word appears. Suggesting the family are simps/simpletons.