Witchouse II: Blood Coven

Another Witchouse (this one, Blood Coven), another Romanian shoot. The film, like the first, is set in Covington county, MA, but was shot in and around Full Moon's Castel Studios in Bucharest. The "haunted house" exteriors is a local crematorium.

Best Quote: Soderquist: "If Clark could only use the power in his nasal passages for good instead of evil..." The only thing (or, I should say, person) keeping Blood Coven's head above water is the casting of Andrew Prine (of Grizzly fame!) in a dual role. While he's not given much to work with in an uninspired script, there's something about him that is eminently watchable.

You'll notice a bunch of "home movie" footage, I guess, cashing in on the Blair Witch craze the year prior (although director Bookwalter says it's an homage to his old movies directed in Cleveland...please...). The townspeople interviews shot in video were the only compelling thing in the flick, to be honest.

The build-up is OK. But the last fifteen minutes are some of the poorest creature v. human battles I've seen. Maybe worse than the Power Rangers. The special effects are so poor, and the action so dull, you'll be amazed that Band had this Bookwalter guy direct more crapfests for Full Moon.

Save your money.

I'm being generous when I say that the original Witchouse was not one of Full Moon's finer hours, yet somehow it seemed to have a sequel in the works before it was even released. I call it a sequel, but if we're being honest it's not really a sequel, it's just got actress Ariauna Albright playing an evil witch called Lilith in a completely unrelated plot that's almost the same.

Albright is introduced as a Professor leading a team of annoying students headed up by mouthy cameraman Norman (Nicholas Lanier) and blonde beauty Stephanie (Elizabeth Hobgood) to Massachusetts where 4 unmarked graves have been found. They are met with (supposed, we never really see it) hostility from the townsfolk regarding this, though Sherriff Harmon (Andrew Prine) feigns hospitality. As Norman and Stephanie search the town records for clues, a bone fragment getting into a cut on the professor's hand leads to her acting very strangely, and this all comes to a crescendo with the town's dark history of witch trials coming back to haunt them, and the students.

I take back every bad word I said about the original. It was bad but at least it felt like a Full Moon level production - this is the absolute pits. There's some Blair Witch style camcorder footage to roll eyes at, but truth be told the whole movie looks like it was shot with a potato.

I actually wasn't aware that this, and the first movie it turns out, were shot in Romania. We see that little exteriors that it can pass as small town America, but I do find myself bemused as to why you'd film a gothic themed horror in Romania and not just set it there?

The characters are nonexistent, the plot sparse at best (given and no scares so to speak of. This whole affair seems to be purely designed with the purpose of trying to make Lilith into a 'horror icon'

I'd be doing it a favour calling it disposable, this is actually really bad. I might rag on Full Moon, but they usually have something of a standard watchable level. This is so far below it, I honestly think they should be ashamed.

Slightly tedious joint from Full Moon and Tempe during their few years together. Ariauna Albright is back as Lilith and is very good as she was in Witchouse. The film, like many of Tempe's movies, is a little raw yet this works in contrast to the clearly scripted elements of the film in scenes such as press interviews where the speech could sound more natural. A lot of the locals seem to think Lilith LeFey is a "rock chick" from Lilith Fair (have they not heard of Sarah McLauchlan!?!). Lunar edition of the DVD has a fascinating (but overlong) tour of Castel Film Romania, the studios where many Full Moon films were produced and several other interesting features. Tempe clearly love their movies to the same extent that Charles Band at Full Moon has neglected or abused his. Shame that it might be though, Tempe's passion hinders Full Moon's creativity. Loud rock score by SFB and 7 Months distracts from the story, special effects by David Barton are pretty good. Lilith rocks...perhaps she is at Lilith Fair after all!

Another movie shot on video and film looked to fool us into thinking it was SHOT on film. Dammit!! I sure hope this little fad fades away. This movie would still have been no good had it been shot on film... bad acting, camera, you name it. Avoid it.

This is a sequel, but it has not much in common with the first movie. You can watch the movies (there are three of them alltogether)) in any order - or only one of them. Or none of them to be fair.

That being said, this is slightly better than the original. It still won't ever make it to any top horror movie list. Too little of everything (or anything) to make it - this rather breaks it (no pun intended). Quality is mixed - suspension of disbelief alone might not work either.