Honestly, this film is pretty decent. It gets better as it progresses. The low ratings are probably from viewers that don't appreciate lower budget offerings.
Two of my top three movies of all time are Dario Argento's Suspiria and Inferno, so anytime a movie involving witches and witchcraft pops up and looks half decent I'll give it a try.
I have to say, for the first 15 minutes I was looking at my phone and contemplating switching the film off as I initially thought it looked uber cheap and was going to be crap. Thankfully I didn't, as I ended up enjoying York Witches' Society quite a bit.
The film leans more into horror in the second half and would have benefited from a tad more blood and guts I feel. Going a bit balls-to-the-wall with gore would have drawn in more of the horror crowd.
I got vibes of The Craft, Evil Dead, and Demon Wind while watching this movie, which was nice.
There are complaints about the fog in the movie but I rationalised it as an effect of the shift in reality in the area surrounding the pub. The fog highlighted this state of high strangeness that the girls found themselves in. The British Ufologist Jenny Randles referred to this state of high strangeness as the 'Oz Factor'.
Corn dolls, rituals, the rule of three etc. There is Witchy stuff in the film that is entertaining and satisfying.
York Witches' Society would have probably done really well on the Horror Channel or the Sci-Fi channel if they still existed. It's a perfect movie to introduce horror to your younger family members if they are that way inclined.
With some tweaking of the script (especially the dialogue), a bigger budget, and more gore, I believe this movie could have been a cult hit.
As it is, I enjoyed the movie. A great effort by all involved. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be available on dvd or blu ray, which is a bummer.
P. S If someone involved with this film sees this glowing review please send me a dvd 😁.
