Night of the Witches

Sporting a movie-western badman's black hat, a Bible-beating preacher (Keith Erik Burt, a.k.a. The movie's director, Keith Larsen) interrupts a fisherman and his girlfriend during their ocean-side picnic. After instructing the boyfriend to catch another fish for him, the preacher seduces the girl and steals their jalopy. A pair of cops chase the preacher, who eludes them in a dirt-and-mud town. In his flight, the preacher stumbles upon a house of vaguely Satanic witches, led by the astrology-spouting Cassandra (Kathryn Loder).

In a concurrent development, a real estate salesman named Frank (Ron Taft) investigates the disappearance of his middle-aged boss, who earlier had infiltrated the witches' domain and was last seen as a willing participant in one of their demonic dance parties.

Frank and the preacher arrive at Cassandra's abode around the same time. Frank falls in love with one of Cassandra's dippy followers and ends up protecting the witches from the encroaching police. The preacher attempts to blackmail the witches, which as you might guess is a mistake.

A frequent denizen of the late-late-late show during the early years of Turner Broadcasting's Superstation, NIGHT OF THE WITCHES is an unfunny comedy that also tries to be a horror movie and a mild sex romp. In its favor, NIGHT OF THE WITCHES is ripe with snatches of psychedelic hippie dialog, a baffling mixture of sets and costumes from different eras (from the Old West to modern-day gangsters), and a car-chase first, in which a Model T outruns a big General Motors V-8 sedan.

1970's "Night of the Witches" was issued on a double bill with the Canadian feature "Dr. Frankenstein on Campus," short lived outfit Medford Films offering what must have been a mind numbing experience for those not already high on acid. Actor Keith Larsen ended his career by directing himself in six vehicles, of which this was the third, cowritten with Vincent Fotre, whose only other genre credits were 1958's "Missile to the Moon" and the English dubbed version of Mario Bava's 1972 "Baron Blood," starring Joseph Cotten and Elke Sommer. Using the pseudonym 'Keith Erik Burt' (his real name was Keith Larsen Burt), he casts himself as Preacher Ezra Jackson, an unrepentant sinner and thief who capitalizes on being a man of the cloth by ogling every female within easy reach, almost immediately as he seduces a pretty Latina while her boyfriend is fishing, then steals their jalopy to lead the cops on a merry chase on dusty mountain roads (shooting in Agoura, California). There are occasional cutaways to a private sanctuary housing a group of flower children who follow the Zodiac and earn their wealth telling fortunes, high priestess Cassandra (Kathryn Loder) leading each 'levitation,' in which some unfortunate soul goes to a better place with a drink of hemlock. It's definitely a clash between two irresistible forces, a supposed Preacher spouting the Gospel, and naive witches who believe they are righteously performing acts of kindness through the will of the stars, with a rock soundtrack of telltale lyrics to provide exposition. The ceremonies tend to drag, too much meandering for no purpose, a relationship developing between witch Athena (Randy Stafford) and handsome Frank Evans (Ron Taft), who seeks to spare her from the authorities while also unloading a million dollar island for cash. There's precious little horror to be found, some amusement yet not a comedy, accurately described as a psychedelic exercise that saw much exposure on television for a decade before vanishing. With a title like "Night of the Witches" it might have been Larsen's attempt to tap into the youth market with a modern update on "The Night of the Hunter," but his preacher was no Robert Mitchum and the acting was nonexistent (current prints are in awful condition).

"Night of the Witches" is a psychedelic 70's horror comedy about a lewd preacher who meets up with a coven of sexy witches.The main witch Cassandra often speaks with Jupiter in her colorful mansion.Very strange and somewhat surreal horror comedy with several truly bizarre characters.The character of preacher totally cracked me up.I enjoyed the main country song too.It goes like that ""He's a man of many pleasures,He's a man who's got the time,He's the man who told the preacher where to go-oh-oh...He won't talk behind your back,He's no ordinary jack,He's a man of many pleasures,don't ya know".The lack of nudity is a bit of disappointing,but if you are a fan of 70's weirdness grab the copy of Keith Larsen's "Night of the Witches" and treasure it!7 witches out of 10.Abre la puerta!

This movie does not fool around. The main character, a preacher, gets right into the action within the first five minutes of the film and lets the audience in on just what a rotten heel of a guy he is - and will remain throughout the entire film. A rather strange and bizarre film and even more amazingly without any gore or blood whatsoever. The eye catchers are a coven of witches who have set up shop somewhere - the exact location is never specified - and live by the Zodiac and astrological prognostications - which foretell that any number of visitors who come across their path will die horrible and bloody deaths - so in order to prevent that from happening, they take the law into their own hands and poison them before they can die violently. The women who appear on this film are all pretty attractive and the men in it are mostly a bunch of low grade morons. But this movie is kind of fun to watch in a cheesy sort of way just as long as you don't take the goings on very seriously.

Preacher Keith Larsen travels around Mexico using religion to seduce women. I've recently watched "The Ballad of Cable Hogue" in which David Warner plays a similar preacher character. Both films are from 1970 so that was thing for preachers in those days. It's only unrealistic in that they would prefer same sex relationships in real life. Anyway, Larsen is on the run from police for theft of an automobile and no doubt, several outstanding rape charges, when he finally makes it to a coastal mansion occupied by several women. Boy, is he in Heaven! Or has he actually arrived at Hell?

The big house is run by a coven of witches who worship astrology and, in their own way, are doing mankind a favour by killing people who are due to die painfully, by killing them off early. Kathryn Loder (Cassandra) is the High Priestess who controls the group and she is committed to her work.

The film is a comedy horror which thankfully doesn't have any gore. It's colourful and kookie but unfortunately, the quality is not good. It's a crazy storyline that is punctuated with a chorus that sings "Amen" at the end of each piece of philosophizing or prayer by our vicar. This film is definitely different. It's trashy entertainment – not sure it's very good, though. I guess that's the point of being trashy. It's a camp-fest.