Did you like Season of the Witch, the 1972 version? Were the old style movies something you wished they still made? Well, in 2016 at least, they did!
Title: The Love Witch (2016)
Cast and Crew
Directed by Anna Biller
Writing Credits Anna Biller1
Samantha Robinson as Elaine Parks
Gian Keys as Griff Meadows
Laura Waddell as Trish
Jeffrey Vincent Parise as Wayne Peters
Jared Sanford as Gahan
Robert Seeley as Richard
Jennifer Ingrum as Barbara
Randy Evans as Steve
Clive Ashborn as Professor King
Lily Holleman as Miss Curtis
Jennifer Couch as Wendy
Premise
A modern-day witch uses spells and magic to get men to fall in love with her, with deadly consequences. (from IMDB.)
High Points
The movie is designed to feel like it is set in the heyday of Gardnerian Wicca, and seemed to not only get the rituals and details accurate enough to pass, they also got the feel of the various people you meet if you hang out in the local witchy scene.
Low Point
Spending more time with gritty details and personalities described in the High Point isn’t really designed to feel good.2
Additionally, to stilted delivery and slow pace of the bygone era are bygone for a reason.
The Scores:
Originality: 4/6 Movies set in the bygone era of movies aren’t exactly new, but this was convincing.
Effects: 6/6 There aren’t many “effects” used, only a few camera tricks and smoke machines. That said, appearing like classic effects and even classic make-up and colorizing in 2016 is an accomplishment.
Production: 5/6 The movie’s look and feel was so authentic, it was stopped and verified to be a 2016 movie before getting restarted. The clear evidence that it was a modern story was in the third act, when minority police officers appeared, one person makes a cell phone call, and a reference to a DNA test. Those could have been rewritten to keep the story as taking place in the sixties/seventies.
Acting: 6/6 The characters are completely convincing as the people they portray, and there is a certain slowness and deliberate line reading that characterizes the genre that each delivers perfectly. The actors can easily be mistaken for actors from 1960s television series.
Story: 4/6 The path the movie takes feels like it meanders a bit, and some scenes feel as though they are inspired by Variety Shows and then shoehorned in. Again, this does fit well with the era the movie is representing.
Emotional Response: 5/6 The main character feels as though they are a victim of abuse that left them a broken person. She’s nuts and wrong, but the movie explains how she got there.
Overall: 4/6 The movie hit all of the goals it was trying to hit very well, but modern audiences moved on from those tropes.
In total, The Love Witch (2016) receives 34/42
1Good thing she didn’t star in it, too. We might have accidentally made her appear like Beetlejuice.
2I joked “I dated her” or “I know him” as I was watching this. In those cases, there’s a reason I don’t hang out with them.
The Schedule
October 5/6: Abigail (2024) and Abigail (2023): JD
October 12/13: Season of the Witch (1972) and Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) and Season of the Witch (2009) and Season of the Witch (2011) : JD
October 19/20: Hocus Pocus (1993) and Hocus Pocus 2 (2022): `Lex
October 26/27: The Last Voyage of the Demeter (2023) and Humanist Vampire Seeks Suicidal Person (2023): JD
October 31: The Love Witch (2016):`Lex and Sleepaway Camp (1983): JD and Dark Gathering (2023): Alexander Case
Anna Miller didn’t star in it, but she did the set design and made some of the costumes. Clearly, this was a labour of love.
I loved this film, but I understand that it might confuse some contemporary audiences. I had the creepy sense that someone had filmed the occult world of my childhood. And yeah, I think it might have been even better without the contemporary elements, but apparently, Miller wanted it to be in a kind of non-specific, 60s-70s-inspired timeless era.