Witchcraft

So the time has come for me to finally watch and review the WITCHCRAFT series that incredibly has created count 'em 15 sequels. After watching the original I am not sure why it deserved even one.

Its the story of new mother Grace Churchill (Anat Topal-Barzilai) who with hubby (Gary Sloan under the name Edward Ross) and new baby William go to her mother-in-law's (Mary Shelley...sadly, not the one who wrote Frankenstein) house to recover and regain her strength. Problem is the mother-in-law might be hiding some dark secrets.

In the end a slow-moving, not very original horror movie. Mixed with at times shaky acting (although mother-in-law Shelley does well in her role) and sub-par delivery. Maybe try ROSEMARY'S BABY or if wanting a witch movie try THE WIZARD OF OZ.

The opening of the movie intercuts a man and a woman being burned at the stake for witchcraft during colonial American times with a woman giving birth. That burning scene is repeated in a number of the sequels (more about them later).

Grace Churchill is the mother, a woman who emigrated from Poland with her parents, who died in a murder/suicide. She's a former junkie (if I heard correctly), but cleaned up and was surprised to find John Churchill one of the state's wealthiest men was interested in marrying her.

After the birth, they live with his mother in her huge house. Parts of the house are dusty, with things covered with sheets, and she's not supposed to go into that part. The family butler shows up to block it off when she tries to show it to her friend Linda. He becomes a little friendlier when given a fresh flower from the garden, and then isn't always there to guard the off-limits room.

That room has a mirror in it, in which she can briefly see colonial people, and also has visions of the future, though she's not sure she really saw them. She also has a dream, or maybe it isn't, in which she wanders outside at night and finds two people engaged in a ritual, and her mother-in-law Elizabeth is one of them. Blood drips out of Elizabeth's mouth.

The family also has a bunch of strange friends, older people who don't talk much. Grace's priest comes to the house to baptize William and he has a vision of flames, and becomes ill.

To some extent, as some have said, this borrows from Rosemary's Baby, which is certainly the better movie. There's even a steal of a famous shot of that movie, where the camera points through a doorway, partly showing a woman on a phone. However, the camera here actually does peer around, whereas in Polanski's film, the shot makes the viewer want to try to peer around.

Rosemary's Baby was followed by a little-seen and reportedly poor TV movie, Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby. Witchcraft is followed by a surprising twelve sequels so far (most of them relatively poor), though the last of them has not been released yet. Possibly the only horror series to have out-sequeled this one is the Asian anthology series Troublesome Night.

Witchcraft II picks up about eighteen years after this one, and does feature a number of flashbacks to this. Most of the sequels can stand on their own, but due to the number of flashbacks in II, it might be best to start here.

Witchcraft II also features some nudity, while there was none in this one, unless there is more than one version of the film. Some of the later Witchcraft sequels stray into erotic horror, and some feature scenes that could be considered softcore I suppose.

The main recurring character in all but two of the sequels (8 and 10) is Will Spanner, who is baby William Churchill in this one, and William Adams in the second - there's never any doubt in the movie that the baby will make it through, just what he'll be like when he gets older. Though none of them are brilliant, I don't think they're quite as bad as many others do. When in the mood for a cheap horror movie with lots of nudity, they're OK.

"Witchcraft" is a relatively unknown underground horror flick. Though the film has been received extremely bad reviews, it managed to spawn a total of twelve sequels (to date, at least).

The plot of the film is similar to the earlier "Rosemary's Baby". Grace Churchill has given birth to her first child, when her husband temporarily moves them in with his mother. While staying in her mother-in-laws creepy, old mansion, Grace begins experiencing bizarre incidents that lead her to believe her new family isn't what they seem.

Honestly, I'm not sure why this movie got such bad reviews from people. The only real problem I found with it was the editing style - which gives the film the look of an episode of "Murder, She Wrote". The sets of the film are quite creepy. The acting (by a primarily newcomer cast) is good. The music (though performed on a synthesizer) fits the tone of the film.

All in all, "Witchcraft" isn't an Oscar winning film, but it's a interesting way to pass 90 minutes.

My review was written in January 1989 after watching the film on Academy video cassette.

"Witchcraft" is an underwhelming supernatural horror piece, released direct-to-video (with video post-production and credits).

Unrelated to another new (Italian-backed) scream pic named "Witchcraft" and toplining Linda Blair, this film adds a dash of "Rosemary's Baby" to the hoary formula of a new mother's fears and the oppressive move to a gothic mansion.

Pretty Anat Topol-Barzilai is the new mother of a bouncing baby boy who haplessly finds herself moved in with a decidedly evil-seeming mother-in-law (Mary Shelley is the actress' gothic stage name) in an ancient house. She starts seeing visions, particularly in mirrors, and wisely fears for her newborn's safety. Following a burn-at-the-stake prolog, it's finally revealed that Shelley and Anat's huband Gary Sloan are reincarnated witches and they're definitely after the kid.

Pert Deborah Scott adds some life as the heroine's best pal, but pic is mainly a string of genre cliches executed by helmer Robert Spera with very little imagination. Pace slows to a crawl in the second half.

Topol-Barzilai is pleasant to look at, with her ample figure kept under wraps here even in scenes (such as human sacrifice climax) when a bit bolder approach is in order. Shelley, despite her apt name, fails at achieving a transition from menacing to out-and-out evil.

I have this movie on both VHS and DVD. They come with excellent artwork featuring a young attractive woman lay on an altar, a skull beneath her, and the film's title "Witchcraft" within a pentagram above her. A common case of great artwork but poor movie. Grace gives birth to a baby boy (that looks at least six months old in size), her and creepy but rich husband John move into his mother's large house. It is soon apparent that John has a very strange relationship with his mother, a 300 year old painting in which they appear together before being burnt for witchcraft is a major clue. For poor Grace in addition to marrying into an odd family the house also has a creepy mute butler (like large old houses so often do!). This is a cheap looking movie, I found the acting to be quite wooden, it's slow and predictable. There is some gore including a decapitation but the effects certainly are not very special. There is no nudity but incredibly this went on to spawn at least 15 sequels, these did feature a lot of naked female flesh. Witchcraft borrows from "Rosemary's Baby" to an extent. In the UK this is rated 18 but it now feels relatively tame and I am sure that a re-submission to the BBFC would result in a 15 certificate. Not many positives to speak of though Deborah Scott/Spera as Grace's friend Linda does look pretty hot in her tight mini skirts!