The third film in the Houses of Doom series (after Lucio Fulci's The House of Clocks and The Sweet House of Horrors), Umberto Lenzi's The House of Witchcraft has one of those oddball Italian horror storylines that feels like it was made up on the fly, with logic definitely taking a back seat to atmosphere (at least I think that was Lenzi's intention).
The film starts with Luke Palmer (Andy J. Forest) waking from a nightmare in which he enters a country house, where he finds an old hag (Maria Cumani Quasimodo) in the kitchen, about to add HIS severed head to her cauldron. Luke explains to his psychiatrist - his sister-in-law Elsa (Susanna Martinková) - that the scary dreams began when he married his wife Martha (Sonia Petrovna), who has since developed an interest in the occult that has put a strain on their relationship.
Still, when Martha suggests to Luke that they go on a country break to try and save their marriage, he is happy to go along, but is surprised to find that the house Martha has booked looks just like the one in his nightmares. The owner of the house is a blind concert pianist, Andrew Mason, who shows them around the house: sure enough, the kitchen is all too familiar to Luke. Undeterred, Luke stays at the house, but witnesses something strange from his bedroom window: the old hag from his nightmares beating an old priest to death.
Feeling a little weirded out, Luke phones Elsa and asks her to come to the house, which she does, accompanied by her teenage daughter Debra (Maria Stella Musy); Mr. Mason's pretty blonde niece Sharon (Marina Giulia Cavalli) also arrives to stay for a while. Over the next couple of days, a series of bizarre occurrences and violent deaths lead Luke to believe that his wife is a witch!
With a random, nonsensical narrative (what was the relevance of the fatal car crash witnessed by Luke and Martha as they drive to the house?) and diabolical dialogue (try keeping a straight face when Elsa calmly announces, in all seriousness, that Martha needs an exorcist), The House of Witchcraft is far from good, but not quite bad enough to qualify as 'so bad it's good'. The pace is plodding and the deaths - a stabbing with a pair of shears and another with a kitchen knife - lack imagination and decent gore effects. After much inexplicable silliness (which includes a snowstorm in the cellar!), Lenzi wraps things up with an ending guaranteed to leave the viewer stunned by its stupidity.
3.5/10, generously rounded up to 4 for the sex scene, tasty Marina Giulia Cavalli ticking the gratuitous nudity box.
