Pacto com o Diabo

A 300 year long feud between a a coven of witches and a family of wealthy land developers comes to a head when an old cemetery plot is disturbed, unearthing the grave of a witch once buried alive. Morgan Whitlock, head of the coven , now has his means to take revenge on the usurpers of his land and sets the resurrected witch upon them.

A rarely seen and almost forgotten horror, Witchcraft is now available on the MGM / Fox "Midnight Movies" label, paired as a double feature with Devils of Darkness. The big draw for me is that it's one of the last legitimate horror films in the career of Lon Chaney Jr., so seeing it nearly pristine on DVD is a treat I never thought I might indulge in. To my surprise, Chaney's part wasn't quite as big as I hoped, but this is okay as the rest of the cast is made up of mostly British actors, and the Brits rarely disappoint in the realm of horror. Better still is that Hammer Film veteran Don Sharp is at the helm, who has given us Kiss of the Vampire, and Rasputin the Mad Monk, among other genre pictures. Handsomely shot in black and white, Witchcraft has all the atmosphere that both Gothic and 60's contemporary horror fans crave. The mute witch makes for an eerie apparition as she silently stalks her prey, I might liken the scenes of her on the prowl to scenes in A Drop of Water from Bava's masterful anthology.

While it's true that the plot is nothing new I do feel the film has style to burn. Modern viewers will likely doze off as it is bloodless and the pacing is a bit lethargic, however in many scenes this deliberate pacing works very well. 7/10