The Love Witch

The Love Witch is Anna Biller's second feature film and my first time watching any of her works. The film is artistically spectacular - Costumes, shot making, colours, dialogue delivery - and original in scope. Biller commits to her genre (classic horror) and period-look (mid-sixties to early seventies, think "I Dream of Jeannie" or "Bewitched") and uses satire to turn the patriarchy on its head. It's a lot to try to accomplish in two hours. The film isn't without a few flaws. Sometimes the script is too thick and the pacing too slow, but overall, The Love Witch distinctively shines. Biller has a lot of promise as a director.

This is a difficult one to review because it isn't really a horror. There's nothing scary about it and I can understand that a lot of geeks out there rejected this throwback to the sixties early seventies.

If you watch it in that perspective then you will like this a lot because the way the cinematography was done is clearly an ode to those days. In fact, the score, the editing, the lighting, the colour grading the way of acting and speaking, it's all done in a sixties style. Maybe for some clocking in at two hours is way too long for some and I can understand that because it's all talking and talking. But it do offers some 'magick' when the witches arrive. It's so beautifully done and it all looks like a real coven. The nudity, the rituals, everything.

So if you are into witchcraft then this is one to pick up. If you are into very old horrors with talking and talking it's your stuff. If you think you are going to see gore or even red stuff, forget it.

Gore 0/5 Nudity 1,5/5 Effects 0/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5

A modern-day witch (Samantha Robinson) uses spells and magic to get men to fall in love with her, in a tribute to 1960s pulp novels and Technicolor melodramas.

Making its Canadian premiere at Fantasia on July 16, "The Love Witch" swooped in to Montreal with high recommendations. Hollywood Reporter has lauded it, as have the New Yorker, Rue Morgue, Chris Alexander for ShockTilYouDrop and Jason Coffman for Film Monthly. With everyone who is anyone in the world of film criticism coming out behind it, who could dare disagree?

Writer-director Anna Biller knew exactly what she was doing when she attempted to make this a throwback to the classic sexploitation films. Shot on glorious 35mm, the colors are vivid and absolutely striking, both in the film's overall look, and in the costuming and makeup. The set design even captures what I picture the West Coast in the 1960s must have been, a world of witchcraft where Anton LaVey would have felt at home. (Some critics have grumbled about the blend of 1960s and modern vehicles and cell phones; I can appreciate their desire for purity, but that was never really the point.)

Although the art direction and cinematography are what capture the look, the acting completes that illusion. The acting is terrible, but in the most wonderful way. Presumably, the actors were forced to watch an endless loop of trailers for films from Something Weird Video until they mastered the stilted language and mannerisms. Although Samantha Robinson is obvious the star and carries every sequence, Jeffrey Vincent Parise (GENERAL HOSPITAL) as Wayne was really the high-water mark for over-the-top melodrama. All of the characters had something a little off about them to make them endearing. And I love that the lead detective in the film is named Griff. I'd like to see this as a nod to the films of Sam Fuller, though it's probably just a coincidence.

Not to sound like a carbon copy, but just as much as I agree with the film's praise, I also follow in line with some of the negative observations. Frank Scheck of Hollywood Reporter says the film "might have benefited from some trimming, with several segments depicting wiccan rituals going on a bit too long." Where I differ is that I would go much further on this point, as Biller's editing is the real downfall of the film. Presumably, after all the hard work of writing, directing and decorating, Biller (now wearing the editor hat) didn't have the heart to trim her hard work. And this is a real shame, because after the first quarter to a third of the movie, the pace feels increasingly slow and the film as a whole comes off as awfully long. A half dozen sequences could have been cut entirely, or alternately a solid 20 minutes could have been removed to pick up the pace. A film this brilliant and visually sumptuous should not be risking putting its audience to sleep, but that's precisely what ends up happening.

And that's the long and short of it. Whether this film actually has a feminist message or is a film for women as Biller claims, I couldn't say. But it is unique, and a ridiculously successful throwback to the exploitation films that genre fans (myself included) are passionate about. When the film opens to a wider audience this fall, I expect it will hit home with a wide variety of viewers and may achieve minor cult status. However, if Biller (or someone else) trims a few minutes here and there between now and October, this could go well beyond cult and be a mainstream hit.

The first thing I have to say about The Love Witch is that it is one of the most beautiful looking new films I have seen for quite some time. Shot on 35mm it is sumptuously photographed, with exquisite use of colour and costuming throughout. It's a treat for the eyes, clearly going for the look of a film made in 1971. It achieves this very successfully, except perhaps for the presence of background modern vehicles and a scene with a mobile phone. Director Anna Biller – who also impressively wrote and produced this as well as scored some of it and made a lot of the great outfits – says that the film is supposed to be set in contemporary times but to be honest it never feels this way! This feels like it's circa 1970 all the way and, quite frankly, all the better for it. This extends to the acting styles, lighting and compositions, which all hark back to the styles of this earlier glorious cinematic era. Topping it off, there is some music taken directly from the 1971 films The Fifth Cord and A Lizard in a Woman's Skin, both composed by soundtrack genius Ennio Morricone. These bits of avant-garde mood music are full of tension and female sighs and really fit into the feel of the film very well. The fact that the music also comes specifically from Italian giallo films cannot also be a coincidence. These stylish pulp thrillers hit their peak in the early 70's and much of the visual feel of The Love Witch felt like it was at least partially a homage to the delirious colourful approach these movies embraced back in the day.

The story is about an urban witch whose ultimate aim is to get the perfect man. She moves to a new house and immediately starts ensnaring men in her deadly web. Newcomer Samantha Robinson plays the title role and she is very impressive. She certainly looks the part with her great outfits and outstandingly provocative eye make-up. Her performance is lightly erotic and humorous. There are in actual fact several somewhat funny moments sprinkled throughout the movie with all of the actors successfully contributing. Unusually for a film of its type, it has a feminist message interwoven into it. Biller made the quite valid point that if you want men to listen to feminist ideas in a movie then you really have to include them in a film that they are liable to pitch up to in the first place. To this end we have a film featuring, on the one hand, a gorgeous seductive sensual witch, while at the same time, some feminist theory added to the mix – so everyone's a winner basically.

It could probably be argued that at two hours it's a bit overlong. But I loved the ambition and, in particular, the visual beauty of the thing. It's certainly one of the more bold and interesting genre experiments of recent years. Clearly it is going to divide audiences, as it will be too much for some folks to fully get behind but I think if you have a particular love of the early 70's strand of exploitation cinema then this one has a pretty good chance of rocking your boat.

This is the story of a beautiful witch called Elaine, well played by Samantha Robinson, who uses spells to get men to fall in love with her but every time she finds one it ends tragically. Fantastic use of colour here, in particular reds, pinks and blues. It is also an homage to the style of the films from the 1960's of the likes of Hitchcock. Plus it does serve as an interesting insight to the world of witchcraft for those who are not learned in the topic, in particular wicca or white magic.And it has plenty of nudity. However, after an engaging first hour the second hour is unnecessarily long and sadly lets the film down.