La sorcière vierge

Watchable if only for the appearance of the delectable Patricia Haines (Mrs. Michael Caine as was), Virgin Witch also subverts some 70s clichés quite neatly.

Nice music and fairly attractive photography lift this from the mire as does the Surrey location.

Some passages and attitudes obviously grate a little with 21st Century sensibilities. Be disappointing if they didn't. But all in all a pleasant and (to this viewer at least) pretty sexy hour or so.

And who wouldn't want to wake up next to the unclad Ms Haines?

Or is it just me?

VIRGIN WITCH is about sisters, Christine and Betty (Ann and Vicki Michelle). While auditioning for a modeling job, Christine gets mixed up with the odd, leering Sybil Waite (Patricia Haines). This leads to a photo shoot for Christine, with Betty along for the experience.

Sybil takes them to a secluded estate, where the weirdness factor explodes exponentially. Of course, the title comes into play, and Sybil's eeevil plans are revealed.

VW is one of those early 1970's movies out of England, replete with one nude scene after another. Have no fear, no excuse to show naked females has been overlooked. This is one of those "art films" that our wily ancestors would have snuck off to see. Those raised on the internet will find little to see here that could possibly rise above quaint or tame. Still, it fits right in with other such films of its era.

REASONS TO WATCH: #1- There's much fun to be had in the quick camera zoom-ins to extreme facial closeups! #2- The out-of-nowhere, jazzy musical interlude at the Stag Room is actually pretty good! #3- Christine's initiation ceremony is a hoot! #4- The silliest head-flailing, body-twitching finale to any soft-core occult movie, ever! Ever!...

'Allo 'allo, it's tasty British sitcom star Vicki Michelle revealing much more than she ever did on TV, accompanied by her almost as sexy and even more uninhibited sister Ann. The curvaceous pair star as Christine (Ann) and Betty (Vicki), beautiful siblings who are drawn into a coven of witches after Christine accepts a job with lesbian modelling agent/high priestess Sybil Waite (Patricia Haines).

Despite its witchcraft theme, Virgin Witch film is less about the supernatural and more about getting its lovely stars completely naked as often as possible; as such, the film is almost completely devoid of scares but packed with nudity and sex, with hardly a minute passing without one or both of the girls stripping off for a nude photo-shoot, bath, shower, or romp in the woods. Even when they're dressed, the girls wear the shortest mini-skirts possible!

The wild Wiccan rituals in which the sisters participate are the film's sleazy high-points (or is that 'low-points'?), the girls being offered to the coven's lucky leader Gerald (Neil Hallett) for sex while his naked acolytes cavort around them in ecstasy, the scenes lit in garish primary colours, the camera swinging crazily to and fro. The frenetic finale is particularly bonkers, degenerating into a wild orgy of writhing bodies, precisely who is doing what to whom being virtually unfathomable.

7.5 out of 10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb.

This is a nice piece of time-wasting British exploitation cinema with the delectable Michelle sisters becoming embroiled in witchcraft and various sexy shenanigans in a picturesque country-house setting ('filmed on location in Surrey, England').

There's a good score by Ted Dicks, including a rather seductive little tune called 'You go your way', performed by Helen Downing. And effective turns by old-hands like Neil Hallett (as the lecherous head of the coven) and Keith 'Excalibur' Buckley as the excitable investigative boyfriend. A highpoint is the scene-stealing performance by the lovely Patricia Haines ('The Night Caller') as the lesbian boss of a dodgy model agency. She, along with the sisters, disrobes in the hilarious 'initiation ritual' sequence.

Get hold of the 1993 Redempton VHS - a good, colourful print.

A girl gets a job for a modeling agency, only to later discover that it's all a cover to recruit young girls for a coven of witches. Her sister and her sister's boyfriend get dragged along on the adventure.

The plot here is a little shaky. While the goals of the coven aren't really revealed, and the modeling agency may or may not be real (they never explicitly say), there is a definite story. Whether or not it's enough story to really matter is up to the viewer, I suppose.

The obvious reason this film was made was not to make a horror film or a classic film or any other type of film except one: a movie where two sisters (as well as many others) are naked in approximately 90% of the movie. In the modeling agency, in a field, on a car, in a witch's ceremony, in bed... I didn't time it, but to say that 90% of the film has nudity is really not much of a stretch.

According to Wikipedia, "The film has subsequently been disowned by its sibling stars Ann and Vicki Michelle. Vicki's website makes no reference to the film, while Ann's cryptically refers to it as 'not an experience Ann cares to remember'." I suppose this shouldn't surprise me. Although one (if not both) of the girls became known from this film, it's not really something you want to say was your crowning achievement.

The witch aspects were done very well, with the ceremony and explanation of the high priest's role very believable. The topic of magic was very minimal, which I guess is unfortunate, but it didn't take away from the witch storyline as much as you might think.

On a personal note, my biggest disappointment with this film is the choice of the leading actress. The sister is far more attractive than the lead, so I would have rather their roles were reversed. This way, the attractive one would have more on-screen nudity. Although, if you're watching this to get turned on (as the tagline implies) you might be let down: after the first fifteen minutes, the nudity was so pervasive it wasn't even that odd anymore (like living in a nudist colony).

If you're into exploitation films and horror films, this is worth checking out. The plot is thin, the acting decent and the nudity excessive. Hey, some people go for that -- they made a whole market of the stuff. I expected much worse from this, so I guess I can't complain and would not even be opposed to owning it if it was available for a reasonable price.