Season of the Witch

To get the most out of 'Season Of The Witch' ignore the horror tag and put Romero's zombie movies out of your mind. This is more of a character study cum social document of an early 70s bored housewife's attempt to find meaning in her life. Faced with dull bourgeois conformity on one side, and a counter-culture that offers no real answers on the other, she eventually finds her own direction. Low budget, variable performances and all, I still found this to be a much more complex and accomplished movie than Romero's most recent effort 'Bruiser'. While it doesn't impress as much as his overlooked vampire gem 'Martin' (which shares certain similarities in approach and theme), it's not to be dismissed. It may not be entirely successful, but I highly recommend it.

Director George A. Romero is a smart guy. His movies usually have a lot more going on in them than what appears on the surface.

SEASON OF THE WITCH is about a bored, disillusioned "housewife" who dabbles in witchcraft. It's also a study of the cataclysmic changes underway in the late 1960's and early 70's. It was a time when the more puritanical structure of the 1950's was collapsing under the weight of personal and social experimentation / freedom.

Jan White's character is willing to accept new -actually, very old- ideas and a liberating lifestyle that will drive her emotionally-absent husband nuts. That is, if he even notices!

This movie explores the sexual revolution, female awakening, and several other topics of its era. Witchcraft has always been a perfect metaphor for female power, causing terror in those who would much rather keep it buried. Too late. The spell is cast...

This is one of my favorite films of all time. Joan, who seems to be suffering from a midlife crisis, breaks away from her world of therapy, bridge and cocktail parties and becomes involved in witchcraft. We never know if she REALLY has magical powers or not. Her nightmares and fantasies remind one of Roman Polanski's "Repulsion." In the end, Joan seems to finally have it all together. A definite must-see for any true Romero fan.

Despite the fact that this film is by George Romero and it's sold as a horror film, _Season of the Witch_ (aka _Jack's Wife_ which is, in my opinion, the better title) isn't really a horror film.

Or, at the very least, it isn't a *straightforward* horror film and anyone going into this expecting Romero's typical gore and suspense will definitely be disappointed. The closest the film comes to typical horror are some wonderfully eerie sequences involving a man in a grotesque satanic-looking rubber mask (exploitatively depicted on some of the older videocassette sleeve covers for the film) trying to break into the main character's house.

What this film amounts to is the story of one woman who finds herself dissatisfied with the daily plod of her existence as a respectable wife in a respectable suburb. She feels herself aging. She's secretly bitter toward her husband and her friends. It's never really clear what she wants exactly because she doesn't seem to know herself, but she does become intrigued by a woman in the neighborhood who claims to a witch. She meets with this woman and, though she's afraid of black magic, she's inspired to explore it on her own. She goes out and buys a book on the subject and some witchcraft paraphernalia and then begins casting spells from her kitchen.

Despite the non-gory subject matter, there are some things in this film that bear the distinctive signature of Romero and his influences. There's a keen visual wit on display, particularly in some scenes involving mirrors. There are some odd hallucinatory dream sequences here that come straight from the more supernatural side of Italian horror (particularly the opening scene). Many of the scenes are ramshackle and crudely staged, but not in an altogether bad way. Rather, they almost recall a documentary. There's genuine tension (but not "horror film" tension). You don't know where scenes are going to go or what the characters are going to do or say next. You never really get inside many of the characters, but they're offbeat and watchable (particularly the young student-teacher, who's into drugs, casual sex, and some pretentious post-late 60's philosophy).

Not everything in this film works. It's badly edited. Much of the acting is weak. However, the film does have an intriguing, almost New Wave, experimental-like cadence. It's rough and full of jagged edges, but, in that respect, it's really no worse than Jean Luc-Godard at his most indulgent. Even more so than _Martin_, this is Romero's "art film". If it were a piece of music instead of a movie it would be slow, discordant and lo-fi.

This is recommended for all Romero admirers to see at least once.

Ranks right up there with "The Witch Who Came From the Sea" and "The Stepford Wives" in the obsolete sub-genre of 70's women's lib horror. Arguably George Romero's most unusual and underrated film, this is less a horror film than a sociopolitical bitchslapping of the male-dominated American dream. Although witchcraft does play a part in this, the focus is largely on our leading lady's middle-aged, menopausal anguish...a feeling of solitary confinement in a pseudo-sterile life with an abusive/absent husband, thankless daughter, and a circle of ingenuine, gossipy "friends".

This is a very well done low-budget film, and comes highly recommended...although rigid horror buffs may end up disappointed. 7/10