Witches' Night

Four buddies (including brothers) go on a booze rampage after the failed wedding of one of them and end up canoing in deserted woods, unaware that they will be the instrument of an age-old witchcraft ritual.

Male bonding (and male characterization in general) is rarely as faithfully described as in this great surprise of a B-movie. It's extremely rare that you can relate to the characters in a B-movie, especially male ones. Characterization though does not go in the way of action (there's even some boobs, though do not rent this movie for it !) and I found myself glued to my screen for the whole duration of the movie. Excellent use of darkness. The director knows what he's doing and for a first movie, this looked slick and professional. I, for once, agree with the other reviewers that the ending was a bit of a letdown, but on the other end, we do not necessarily need a shocker.

While out camping in the woods, a group of friends trying to help one get over a devastating break-up find themselves targeted by a group of witches looking to use them as the victims in a Satanic sacrificial ceremony and try to get away before it's too late.

Not too bad and definitely has it's moments, but not a whole lot, which is kinda surprising since this one had the potential to be really good and enjoyable with a fine set-up and some pretty decent moments that come about because of it. The problem really lies, though, in it's unseemly running time that makes this one far, far longer to get to it's main point than it really should, spending too long with the group out in the woods than it should and making the witch's coven come about too late to really get a full handle on it all. The scenes with them are too few to mean anything, and we really only get one ceremony scene from about 50 feet away, making even less of an impression than it could've. Still, the curses befallen the men are fun, there's some good gore and nudity and it has some fun in the finale to make up for everything, but too little too late.

Rated R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence and Nudity.

A rather enjoyable piece of old school horror, "Witches Night" takes the viewer on a wild ride and into dark places that we have not ventured in a while. Writer/Director Paul Traynor has obviously done his homework, and understands what it takes to make a modern horror film with classic scares. The film's premise is quite simple, a group of friends set out to cheer up a recently dumped buddy, and decide that a drunken canoe trip in Wisconsin is the right thing to do. Unbenounced to them, they fall prey to coven of (beautiful) witches and find themselves with various skin rashes and horrific visions... Solid acting from all involved, especially Wesley Walker in the role of "Rick". His foul-mouthed rants are at times hysterical and at other moments frightening. The cinematography looks superb, and the locations give the viewer a real sense of isolation and dread. The "Old Lady in the Woods" is down-right scary, and the producers of "The Blair Witch Project" could have taken some tips from these guys... I will agree with some other comments that the ending is a bit of a let-down, and seems really rushed. This is a shame, because the segments leading up to the final scene are suspenseful and creepy. Also there is a lack of any REAL gore, yet the sheer creepiness of the film leaves the viewer feeling uncomfortable...

All in all a great little Indie to add to any horror collection, "Witches Night" uses old school values to sell a modern tale about things we shouldn't mess with.

4 drunk friends end up at some store in the country somewhere. Some of them want some action, others want to leave. They run into a woman who rents them some canoes and they go out on the river.

At the very beginning of the movie we see some demonic ceremony where a male ends up impaled with a hot iron. So we can already guess what goes on in the woods.

When the friends are camping, they hear voices and run into 4 beautiful girls, who are in the mood for fun. But one guy, sad over his marriage-that-didn't-happen, leaves and his brother follows.

The next morning, the girls are gone and the two guys who spent time with the girls develop rashes. Little by little these rashes develop into serious boils. But the bizarre thing is that the script makes no allusion to these things. These supposed friends don't care a bit about the fact that one of them can't see anything because his eyes are swollen shut. This is just one of the many shortcomings of the script. The sad guy saw what looked like a witch somewhere and he's paranoid about the girls having been witches. The other guy meanwhile turns very aggressive against his friends.

In the end they conclude that the witches were responsible for what is happening to them and want to destroy them. The solution is for the guys to interrupt some evil ceremony that is about to happen during the full moon. Crazy aggressive guy will turn out to be a participant in the ceremony so they have to rescue him, too. So there's a confrontation between the guys and the evil witches. At the end there's a little twist, too.

The acting is very good, but the group of guys is not particularly likable or interesting, nor funny. There is one very funny line, and some mildly funny ones. The girls are absolutely gorgeous, but they get almost no screen time! There's a second or so of nudity, why not more when you are already making an R-rated movie. And this is supposed to be about sexy witches. Instead we follow these lame guys around for hours. A shame. Production is good with the limited budget, well directed. But the script doesn't give the audience much. It's smart and some research was done, but it doesn't have much in terms of entertainment value.

Four buddies on a canoe trip encounter four beautiful, sexually charged women deep in the woods. Their mistake. The women are witches, and the guys are made to suffer. Not very good, although reminiscent of drive-in fare from the 1970s, which means things could have been worse. More nudity might have helped. I didn't stick with it to the bitter end, which from all accounts sounds like I didn't miss a thing. The initial encounter in the woods reminded me of an episode from my own past. I was bicycling through water company property and ran into a couple of very cute girls walking along. One of them asked for a "lift," so I sat her on my handlebars for a brief ride. A couple of days later, we met for a skinny dipping session in the reservoir. Luckily, I didn't develop a rash. Those were the days!