Sorceress

B cinema filmmaker Jim Wynorski gives his faithful audience all the sex and nudity they could want in this moderately amusing movie. The plot is pretty nonsensical, but since it's serving to set up a bunch of genuinely titillating sex scenes, it's doubtful that there are going to be many complaints on that front. Larry Poindexter plays a lawyer named Larry Barnes, whose wife Erica (Julie Strain) is a witch. She uses her powers to try to secure a critical promotion for her husband, but instead of killing his competitor, Howard (Edward Albert), she manages to cripple him. This sets off Howards' wife Amelia (Linda Blair), who is herself in tune with the occult. Predictably, she puts into motion a plan of revenge.

Wynorski puts a great deal of his efforts into stressing the erotic elements rather than traditional horror elements. (A note to the unaware: this isn't really a horror film at all, but an erotic thriller.) Technically speaking, it has to be one of the most accomplished things that Wynorski ever did; the filmmaking is pretty slick. Photography and picture quality are sublime, helping to show off every asset in the bodies of our attractive female cast. To that end, Wynorski deserves some respect for just diving in head first, giving us an eyeful of Strains' anatomy in the very first scene.

The acting is tolerable from most concerned. Michael Parks is a little under utilized as a gardener / murder suspect. Wynorski regular Lenny Juliano regularly walks away with his scenes as Larry's outgoing colleague. It's a treat to see William 'Blacula' Marshall as the senior partner at the firm. And Albert really is quite good. Fans of B movie babes will be pleased with the roster here: Strain, Rochelle Swanson, Toni Naples, Antonia Dorian, Kristi Ducati, Melissa Brasselle. Wynorskis' peer Fred Olen Ray produced, and plays the role of Bill Carson.

The movie does accomplish what it sets out to do, but it's really hurt by an aggravating, incredibly clichéd ending.

Seven out of 10.

Produced by Fred Olen Ray and directed by Jim Wynorski. The involvement of these two names is already a proper indication that "Sorceress" isn't exactly going to be a high work of cinematic art, but merely a sleazy and flat out insignificant piece of 90's trash. Olen Ray and Wynorski clearly weren't interested in a movie about witchery spells and supernatural revenge, they just wanted to exploit the voluptuous chests of their female cast members as much as humanly possible. And who can seriously blame them, if that cast includes names like Rochelle Swanson, Kristi Ducati, Toni Naples and Julie Strain? Actually, the biggest starlet of "Sorceress" is Linda Blair, but unfortunately she doesn't get topless. She just accidentally ended up in a hopelessly inept B-movie production … again. "Sorceress" has the most ludicrous and imbecilic plot imaginable but, as said already, you're not supposed to pay attention to little details like that. As a matter of fact, the film is really a predecessor to the successful TV-series "Desperate Housewives". This is about a bunch of spoiled and snobbish rich women, the wives and mistresses of lawyers of an acclaimed agency, who got so bored that they became experts in the field of witchcraft and demonology. They use their powers to get their husbands promoted or to make each others' lives miserable. When one of Erica's spells narrowly goes wrong, costing almost the life of Amelia's beloved husband Howard, her man Larry leaves her. Erica falls off a balcony during the struggle, but she has enough black magic wisdom to haunt Larry's sexual fantasies from beyond the grave. Meanwhile, Amelia is out for revenge as well and she's even supremely witch enough to have Erica reincarnate as Larry's new love- interest Carol. Admittedly this all sounds a lot more complex than it actually is. "Sorceress" is a fairly straightforward B-movie with an enormous amount of plot holes and silly conclusion. This film is about Julie Strain's kinky outfits, the lesbian threesome halfway through the film, the shower interlude of Kristi Ducati and – to a slightly lesser extent – the sexy charisma of a mature Linda Blair.

Sorceress (1995)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Penthouse pet Julia Strain plays a witch who uses black magic to paralyze a man (Edward Albert) who was seeking a high paying job. The witch did this so that her former lover would get the job and help his career skyrocket. The paralyzed man is thankfully married to a woman (Linda Blair) who also happens to be a witch.

There's honestly more "plot" in this softcore flick than any other that I've ever seen. In reality there's probably enough plot here for four of these types of films but director Jim Wynorski is a genius when it comes to these types of "B" movies. SORCERESS became a huge hit when it first started to play on stations on Cinemax but when it came time to release it to Blu-ray the director was able to make an uncut version, which features a lot more full frontal nudity.

So, how is the film? In all honesty I found it to be fairly entertaining for what it was. Obviously if you're coming into this movie expecting CITIZEN KANE then you only have yourself to blame. The film certainly isn't a masterpiece but if you enjoy this type of low-budget movie then there's plenty here to be entertained by. This includes the non-stop nudity and softcore sex scenes, which Wynorski at least manages to make erotic. A lot of times I find these scenes to be laughably bad but the director handles them well here.

Another major plus is that the cast is actually very entertaining and helps keep you into the events. This includes Albert, Blair and Michael Parks. They're going to be the best known people here and while Blair was never a great actress her presence alone is worthwhile. I also thought Strain was good in the role of the witch and Rochelle Swanson is also good.

I really thought there was a tad bit too much plot a few too many characters but SORCERESS is at least entertaining, rather well-made and there's enough nudity to keep anyone awake.

The female cast of this movie is terrific: you've got Linda Blair (maturing nicely), Julie Strain (who doesn't get too many speaking lines - that's a good thing), Rochelle Swanson (equally convincing as a sweet innocent girl or as an evil possessed girl), Toni Naples, and the most beautiful of them all IMO, the simply stunning Kristina Ducati (how the goofy male lead, Larry Poindexter, deserved to get sexually involved with any of these women remains a mystery). However, beyond the chance to watch these beautiful and in some cases talented women, the movie has little to offer. The plot is disjointed and doesn't really get going until the last 15 minutes or so; and when Wynorski finally manages to create some suspense, a ludicrous "twist" ending comes and ruins everything. (*1/2)

***SPOILERS*** A hot and sexy Linda Blair as the Witch Amelia Reynolds is very upset with her friend and rival Witch across town Erica Barens, Julie Strain. Amelia getting her husband Hal, Edward Albert, to get a promotion at his job at the Giger & Greengrass law-firm over the more deserving Larry Barnes, Larry Poindexter, who happens to be married to Erica has her cast a spell on Hal causing him to lose control of his car and end up almost killing himself.

Larry finding out about Erica's attempt on his best friend Larry's life has a violent fight with her causing Erica to fall from the balcony to her death. It's when Larry goes back to his ex-wife Carol, Rochelle Sanson, that things begin to really heat up, emotional and sexually. The wicked Amelia tries to have the dead spirit of Erica take over Carol's body and end up murdering Larry who she holds as being responsible for her husband Hal's injury that left him permanently confined to a wheelchair.

Not much of a story but lot's of cheese and soft-core action with poor Larry getting manipulated by Amelia through the resurrection of Erica who plans to kill him the first chance he turns his back on her. Amelia is a bit whacked out herself not exactly knowing who is and who isn't a threat to her. Amelia even gets her poor and innocent gardener Stan, Michael Parks to first lose him family in a bloody house invasion break-in, then his mind, by being accused by the police as being the murderer, and finally is life, by getting blasted by Ameila herself. As he's made to runs into the Reynolds' house, under her control, as mad as a hatter trying to murder both her and the crippled Hal.

Larry Parks looked and acted so weird that you had the feeling that he accidentally walked onto the set of "Sorceress" and ended up being in the cast playing his part as Stan. Without the help or benefit of a script he improvised his way through and then slowly realized just how god-awful bad the movie really is. Stan getting killed off early in the film was a big plus for him since he didn't have to suffer,like those of us watching, through the entire brainless and mind-numbing movie.

It becomes evident to you as well as it did to the makers of "Sorceress" that all this shenanigan's on the screen has to come to some kind of hopeful and successful conclusion and a trick ending is put in to finally end the movie. The ending is about the best thing, besides Miss Blair and the rest of the very well-endowed woman cast, that one can say about the film.