Witchery

From the people who brought you Troll 2, here's another one that will make you scratch your head so much that you'll draw blood. Witchery, upon first glance, seems like any other haunted house/possession flick, but upon further inspection, it's anything but. Featuring both Linda Blair and David Hasselhoff (guess they were trying to target that German market?), Witchery is one of those movies you finish and, for the longest time, you think it was something you dreamnt about.

This is in no small part to the female lead's performance that can only be described as somnambulist. It's as if she's reading from cue cards or her performance is being channeled via another spirit that's possessing her. It's a thing of bad movie beauty.

Gore fans will find a lot to enjoy as people get their lips sewn shut in extreme close up.

That movie has been produced and directed by the same people, who enriched the world of cinema with such masterpieces, as Troll 2, The Crawlers... Well, although this movie is not THAT horrible and ridiculous, as Troll 2 and Crawlers, although special effects (done by the same italian "Greg Cannom" (Mrs. Doubtfire, Bram Stocker´s Dracula, Titanic, etc.) Maurizio Trani, who have done some poor FX for Troll 2 and Crawlers, this movie stinks anyway. It´s a low-budget hilarity, where the characters behave as nobody would in real life. It also contains some episodes from the first part of this masterpiece (Casa 3, or Ghosthouse (1987), and which is in no way better. All these four movies were produced by an ultra low-budget company Filmirage. By the way, they had used the SAME score in Crawlers and in Witchery! What a shame!

I recently picked this up on VHS under the title "Ghosthouse 2", although it has nothing at all to do with the original Ghosthouse film. I was expecting it to be terrible, after reading IMDb reviews, but it actually turned out to be OK. The setting of the film is what gets the most marks from me - I love seeing the shots of the house and island from the sea. It's THE perfect setting for a horror film. I do think it was a little wasted on this particular film though. Never mind.

The film itself isn't too bad, it just drags a bit in some places and I didn't like the witchcraft theme. I found the scenes where people are transported via that "Doctor Who" style vortex extremely cringe-making. It looked like something from a cheap 80's sci-fi film! Other than that I thought the death of the old woman was excellent - she gets her lips sewn together and is hung upside down above a lit fireplace. She can't scream for help and the others have no idea she's there. Now there's an original death for you! The parts where the helicopter flies around the house are also excellent - the people inside can't signal for help because the house has trapped them inside.

I would recommend horror fans to give this a watch, it's silly and boring at times but the good bits make up for that.

David Hassellhoff seemed to be lost in this film, not because it was a bad movie, but because it was so far from his days in knight rider, well only a few years, maybe his cash was drying up and he needed a top up, and Linda Blair, well you only have to look at her whatever movie she is in and the Exorcist comes flooding back. But even still this film was pretty good, and was still quite entertaining, especially the scene where the nagging old hag gets her mouth stitched together, and as if that was not enough is left dangling upside down in a chimney over a burning fireplace, just ignore the fuzzy picture and take it for what it is, A low budget gore feast.

A group of people are stranded at an isolated hotel by an evil witch (Hildegard Knef) who possesses them and kills them. I don't understand why the rating for this film is so low on IMDB. It's well made by the standards of the horror genre and featuring a good performance by Knef, some seriously scary scenes, and good effects. It is however unrelently mean and cruel. Unrated; Extreme Violence, Rape, and Profanity.