Witchtrap

Hands down one of the worst films that I've ever seen, but I can't resist telling people they must see this laughable junk! If you had a bad day, don't feel low...WATCH WITCHTRAP! The acting is terrible, the deaths are real cheese, and the writing and directing are pitiful, but this film is a spoof! Kevin Tenney wrote this as a spoof to his 1985 film WITCHBOARD. It succeeds in spoofing that as well as spoofing itself! I cannot stress enough how camp this movie is! It's pure cheese! The ending is also terrible...as contrived as hell...the effects are cheesy, etc. but the film succeeds in creating more unintentional belly laughs then I've ever experienced. Watch WITCHTRAP, you will see what I mean.

This comes across as so amateurish it's amazing it got made. The script is lazy and naive, the acting is by numbers. Gratuitous nudity adds nothing. Yet... somehow... it's almost impossible to turn off. Maybe you just end up wanting to see justice done, and nobody makes it out alive. Meh!

Lauterhouse, affectionately referred to as "slaughterhouse" by its owner Devin Lauter (played by the director, who should have stayed hidden behind the camera!), is a big SoCal mansion on a secluded plot of prime real estate. Devin wants it converted over to a bed and breakfast, but the sadistic ghost of his late uncle, a former stage magician, keeps killing off whoever enters.

Paranormal researcher Agnes Goldberg (Judy Tatum) is hired to photograph and exorcise the ghost and organizes a team of paranormal experts that include her "mental medium" husband Felix (Rob Zapple), "psychic medium" Whitney O'Shay (Kathleen Bailey) and sexy video-tech Ginger Kowowski (Linnea Quigley), plus three low-grade rent-a-cops for protection. Naturally, things don't go as planned when Uncle Avery (J.P. Leubsen, the creepy guy from WITCHBOARD) starts to use his powers to kill everyone off.

Looking for some of the worst amateur acting and dialogue ever to hit the small screen? Then look no further! Tatum and Bailey are so monotone they make Ben Stein look like Laurence Olivier! Other highlights include a showerhead impaling a neck, a black character who threatens, "I'll tapdance on your face like Bojangles Robinson!," a pudgy voyeur groundskeeper, an exploding head, blood that looks suspiciously like Cherry Kool-Aid, Tenney's trademark AWFUL wisecracks, Linnea in the shower, a possession, a human meltdown and much, much more. It's all delirious fun. I laughed a lot while watching it. In fact, every time I see this for sale, I pick up a copy to give to one of my friends as a gag gift.

I would rate this a 9 for laughs and entertainment value and I give it some credit because the plot is actually competent even if much of the dialogue is not, but going by craftsmanship, it's a generous 3 out 10.

Disappointing follow-up film from Kevin S. Tenney, who showed great promise with Witchboard, is actually a ripoff of his own Witchboard and Night of the Demons. With awful special effects and ludicrous acting & direction not to metion a recylced script, this stands out as one of the worst horror films of the 80's. Not even good in a bad way.

Rated R; Nudity, Graphic Violence, and Profanity.

Paranormal investigators and private detectives are hired by the owner of an inherited Gothic mansion that appears to be haunted. Witchtrap is basic in plot, not that it matters. This is a horror flick wheres scares come first. Sadly, having revisited it many years after my first viewing - both times on VHS - I found it to be somewhat disappointing. The acting is pretty poor and I am not sure if the movie is meant to be part comedy or if they just employed a cheap script writer, there are plenty of bad lines here. It is saved to an extent by some enjoyable gory deaths, including a body melt, plus Scream Queen Linnea Quigley gets naked in the shower (she is also one of the better actors too).