Darkside Witches

This film is about a case of witchcraft back in mirage in Northern Italy. During the burning at the stake the women made a pact with the devil to reincarnate in exchange of eternal worship. Back to our days these nice women are reborn to slaughter men of their village and overthrown the balance of good and evil and finally bring the hell on earth helped by the demon Pazuzu.

While not the most original one, the plot may look at the same time a bit ambitious for an indie movie. Speaking about the supernatural Genre this one has it all: witches, demons, exorcism, black mass, human sacrifices and even soft porn scenes!

Massive use flashback, flash forward and CGI make the film enjoyable and challenging at times. The atmosphere are somehow creepy and disquieting. The acting and character were overall OK, with exception of Sibilla AKA Barbara Bouchet that still sporta some kind of charme and talent way above the average of the movie. Special Effects not the best ones in my opinion especially when a naked woman turned witch rip off the heart of a man in a pub, but that scene is amazing for another reason and you'll see. Surprisingly good CGI, lot's of digital environments and flying creature makes this film a gem in that sense, especially you think that is an Italian indie movie.

Everyone who watched last Argento's efforts know what I'm talking about. Among the most successful scenes there is the Garden of Temptation where a bunch of pretty neat babies try to seduce Don Gabriel, and the descent to the hell where the Gabriel and the Crisp priest are brought by evil forces. Even the flying evil witches and the big demon are hi quality computer graphics. All in all a good movie enjoyable from and for the fans of old Italian Horror with a touch of porn, computer magic and a taste of vintage Hammer production.

First the story, it is a cool throwback to more Gothic, dark fantasy horror revolving around witches, persecution and revenge. You could place this situation in any European and Colonial setting and the story is the same. Females burned for being witches, town cursed, and wah-lah! Witches survive to get their vengeance. I actually love these kinds of films involving the occult and witches. The classic, old world concept of witches that may be insensitive to the modern day witch/Wiccan, but true to our ancient past's view of the hag/crone/wicked maiden.

Gerard Diefenthal manages to give the story some lift, creating iconic character types, Gothic settings, and plenty of drama mixed with gore. The film does move almost mirror-image to what I image the storyboard concept looked like. The transitions are blunt, quick changing and move the story quickly from moment to moment much like graphic novel/animation adaptations tend to do. For example one moment there is a woman in the kitchen preparing and in the next instant the scene transitions to her handing some homeless guy soup or something to eat with a wicked grin. The dialog is not over- burdening to the story, only crucial conversations that give the plot and sinister plans the witches have for the town, other characters idle chatter, or short scenes with just a couple of sentences. It allows for the action and suggested drama tell a lot of the story instead of some long speech like dialog delivered laboriously by the cast. It is overdubbed so be warned.

Now for me the nail in the coffin for this film isn't the overdubbed vs. subtitle choice, it is the CGI choices that were made to create the supernatural, witchy-ness side of the film. It is very low grade stuff, closer to Syfy on a dime. Think "Witchville". It is almost comical when those scenes take over the story. It all really shreds "Darkside Witches" momentum, and potential for being one of the modern day cult classics - you know the ones that are so bad they are good. Well the CGI here is just really bad and sad. That said, there are some really awesome, gory moments that use splattergore styled practical effects that scream Italian giallo! Really nice blood drenched moments. And the nudity is almost on soft-core porn level.

All this is why I had to watch the film a few times. At first I thought-"What is this crap?", then the practical effects moments kicked in and I was like "Heck yeah!". Overall "Darkside Witches" is not gonna go over well for most horror fans, I mean this film is really gonna aim at a small select group of people who like the Syfy, CGI saturated stuff that uses gaming level computer effects. I am truly conflicted. Not because I am split on the film. I am conflicted because I liked the story, I love films about witches, and the gore and horror here, when practical choices are made, are awesome! Yet the overdubbed voices are so hokey and kill the seriousness of the dialog and scenes that it is troublesome. The CGI is, in all honesty, crap! And the transitions and smoothness of the story just moves to choppy and hurried to allow for any real connection with the characters.

I was surprised to see anything coming from Italy these days and oh well, I was very disappointed to see how distasteful this film is. Many B- movies of the 60's and 70's were made with a sense of style and with a heart. Most of them didn't feature pornographic nudity and are now pretty much innocent by today's standards. Still they're not movies for the whole family.

The makers of this film surely didn't think twice about what kind of nudity in a film is acceptable if they're making a serious film. It's really an insult to say that this is a homage to the old B- flicks. The old movies were made professionally, they had professional writers, even professional directors, professional actors, professional crew. Many even had high production values of that day and still look stunning and many films were Italian. And when you compare to this, 2 million dollars doesn't appear to be money well spent if that was the budget.

I can't understand why the makers obviously wanted to push the boundaries in this day and age when just about anything is acceptable in a film. This movie even makes contemporary Argento films look so much better.

After watching the movie, My first impression was like "wow, I need more like this". This is A pure horror movie. And because I am A huge fan of horror movie, I really enjoyed the movie. It's got all those good effects, lots of blood and the soundtracks were so good that it felt like I was in the movie. It's A combination of horror, craziness, shocking, action as well as some fun. The graphics was too good. And there are certain surprises by which I was really entertained. I have to say I really liked the witches, vampires within the movie. It really reminded me of A game "The Evil Within". It has a vintage taste like an old Hammer film mixed up with some of the best Italian genre pearl from Lucio Fulci or Mario Bava with a soft porn touch and CGI boost. This is one of the best indie horror movies that I have watched lately and I can bet that if you like mad stuff you wanna watch this one.

This movie wasn't just stupid, it was beyond stupid.

The graphics s/f/x looked like they were done by a child on a home computer. I've honestly seen movies created by kids on you-tube which featured better graphics.

The storyline was inane and convoluted. There was nothing about it that was unique. It makes Quentin Tarantino's rip off scripts look good, which is a monumental task.

The casting looked like they just hired a bunch of porn actors and actresses for scale. The characters were trite and superficial. There was nothing about them that made you empathize with them or root for them. The actor who played the lead 'hero' priest looked like a refugee from a mobster movie.

I can't believe anyone actually thought it would be a good business decision to pay to dub this Italian production film into English so it could be released in the US. Dealing drugs would have been a better decision.

Don't waste your time.