The Witchmaker

The Witchmaker (1969)

** (out of 4)

The setting is deep in the Louisiana swamps where legend has it there have always been witch's who kill young ladies. It turns out one of the last members of a coven of witches is doing the killing and soon more victims arrive. A group of psychic researching, posing as location scouts, show up and before long they come face to face with the witches.

THE WITCHMAKER was one of the first films to try and cash in on the success of ROSEMARY'S BABY and it pretty much goes by the handbook as far as witch movies go. Well, to be fair, I guess we should say that a lot of films dealing with witches and Satanic curses showed up in the later part of the 1960s but this one here certainly isn't among the best.

It's really too bad that there were so many flaws with this picture because there are some very good things scattered throughout the running time. The film was obviously shot with very little money and this actually helped the picture and especially where the look was concerned. The swamp setting is actually wonderful and the film has a good atmosphere to it. I think a lot of the atmosphere was created because they simply didn't have much money for a fancy looking picture so we're left with a rather raw film.

The problem with the film is that the majority of the over-long 98-minute running time has characters talking and the dialogue isn't that interesting. In fact, I'd also argue that none of the characters are all that interesting and you certainly don't care about any of them. The more they talk the more annoying they become and you eventually just tune them out. The performances range from fair to poor but this is pretty typical of this type of film.

I will say that the film offers up quite a bit of blood and especially for a movie of this era. There's not really any graphic violence and there is some rather funny bits of sexuality. It seems the director was willing to hint at the nudity but not show it so whenever you think you're about to see something we then get a quick edit. The highlight of the film is when actress Thordis Brandt goes running through the woods but covering her breasts to make sure there isn't any nudity shown.

Not that this isn't a very respectable effort overall, and an atmospheric midnight movie. It manages to be both somewhat old fashioned and somewhat modern. The filmmakers aren't afraid to jazz up their production a bit with some violence and nudity, but never go overboard, always maintaining a mood of doom and gloom until its dark twist ending. Alvy Moore plays it pretty straight as a professor who ventures into swampy territory, with some students in tow, to do some psychic research while a killer is claiming nubile local girls. Thordis Brandt is buxom blonde Anastasia, a psychically gifted "sensitive" (yes, the word is used as a noun here) and the granddaughter of a witch, who will help them obtain details, and Anthony Eisley co-stars as our studly hero Vic. Meanwhile, a local Satan worshipper, Luther the Berserk (hulking John Lodge), senses Anastasia's potential and plots to use her for his own purposes. "The Witchmaker" is one of a few productions put together by Moore and contemporary L.Q. Jones, above average genre films that managed to be both intelligent and creepy. These also include "The Brotherhood of Satan" and "A Boy and His Dog". The movie does have a wonderful "late show" sort of appeal, and does have some very nice moments, but they're spread sort of thin at first, as the film gets bogged down in talk and just sort of plods along. However, it does ultimately start getting better, and more interesting in general. It becomes quite fun when Luther starts inviting all manner of witches to his abode, some of them played by the likes of Sue Bernard ("Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!"), Patricia Wymer ("The Babysitter"), and TV horror host Larry "Seymour" Vincent. Also appearing are character actor Burt Mustin, and Helene Winston, who also acted in "The Brotherhood of Satan" and "A Boy and His Dog". Lodge is the most fun as the villain of the piece, a part that John Davis Chandler was originally tapped to play. Moore and Jones are the executive producers, and William O. Brown is the writer / producer / director. The film does benefit from the music score by Jaime Mendoza-Nava, although some viewers could find the lighting by John Arthur Morrill to be too murky. The undeniable highlight of the entire thing is seeing Brandt run in slow motion while covering her ample bosom with her hands. Worth seeking out for die hard horror fans eager to discover the lesser known efforts of yesteryear, "The Witchmaker" is interesting viewing as far as witchcraft cinema goes. Seven out of 10.

Alvy Moore leads a group of individuals into the deep swamplands to investigate paranormal activity. As luck would have it, this little neck of the bayou has been the locus of several ritual murders over the past couple of years, of which all the victims were pretty young girls. One of the crew of outsiders(the lovely and zaftig Thordis Brandt) is the descendant of a witch, and her presence piques the interest of an evil warlock determined to recruit her into his coven.

Despite its financial strife, The Witchmaker is an atmospheric, smartly made production with an effective curveball ending, and I suspect it may be a bit more lettered in illustrating the various wonts of occultism than many other films of its type. Surprisingly scary at points, and benefiting from a creepy score by Jaime Mendoza-Nava, this one's worth seeking out(if only for the scene of Ms. Brandt running slow-motion and topless through the swamp, cupping her hands over her gigantic bare breasts).

7/10.

Dr Ralph Hayes (Alvy Moore) leads a group of psychic researchers into the wilds of a Louisiana swamp. A series of murders has Hayes thinking there might be a witch operating in the swamp. One of his team, Anastasia (Thordis Brandt), is a sensitive - someone tuned to picking up psychic impulses. Hayes hopes she will be able to lead them to the witch. But the local witch, Luther the Berserk (John Lodge), has his own plans. He wants Anastasia in his coven. He starts killing off Hayes' team one-by-one. Can Hayes and Co save Anastasia and the rest of their group?

The Witchmaker isn't what I'd call a good movie in the traditional sense, but it is reasonably effective and enjoyable if you're into this kind of thing. The biggest plus The Witchmaker has going for it is atmosphere. At times, the atmosphere is palatable. The isolation, the creepy swamp, the Satanic trappings, and the even the low budget look of the film - all worked on me and filled me with a real sense of unease. If there's one thing that really creeps me out, it's low-budget Satanic mumbo-jumbo. Also, I thought John Lodge was particularly effective as Luther. He uses his size to his advantage as he attacks the members of Hayes' group. It's a really frightening visage.



As my rating indicates, the movie isn't perfect to me. The biggest issue I have is Alvy Moore. The problem is that as long as I've been alive, Alvy Moore has always been Hank Kimble from Green Acres. You see, not only is Green Acres on of my two or three favorite television shows, but the stammering, forgetful Kimble is my favorite character. I can't look at the man and not think of Kimble. So when, as Dr Hayes, he's trying to give some sort of scientific explanation to what's happening, it doesn't work. It sounds so silly coming out of Alvy Moore's mouth. I complimented the film's atmosphere, but unfortunately, Alvy Moore ruins whatever atmosphere the film has built up at that point. He goes off-screen, things get creepy. He comes back, not so creepy. It's too bad for The Witchmaker that Alvy Moore was so good at playing light, zany comedy.

After four local girls are found, murdered, hung up downside down in tree, and drained of blood in a Louisians swamp , an intrepid documentary team comes to investigate. They're actually a lot more intrepid than intelligent though because they decide to stay in an isolated cabin in the middle of the swamp with their only way in or out being a local yokel in a boat who promises to come back and get them in a week, but is incommunicado in the meantime. One of the female members of the team is a "sensitive" who is attuned to witches and who had a grandmother who was an actual witch. The perpetrators turn out to be a female witch, Jessie, and a male "berserker", Lucas, who maintain their youth by drinking human blood. They make short work of most of the team, but take special interest in the "sensitive" who they hope to add to their coven.

This has elements of a lot of future movies--not only "The Blair Witch Project", but also "The Legend of Hell House" as well as other Louisiana-filmed regional obscurities like "The Crypt of Dark Secrets". On the other hand, however, this film is really quite unique in a lot of ways and there never has really been another film like it. It kind of invents its own mythology what with the "berserker", the witches who stay young by drinking blood(which sounds more like vampires), and odd facts like garlic making one invisible to witches and pig's blood being very bad for black masses. The film is also strange in that it in many ways seems like a 50's film, but then it also contains some surprisingly graphic violence and not-so-graphic sex and nudity, and it has the kind of nihilistic ending much more common in 70's films. The most weird and memorable aspect though comes at the end when the villains hold a coven meeting/black sabbath and their coven turns out to include any number of witches, real and fictional, from throughout history, including "Goody Hale" (one of the few Salem residents NOT accused of witchcraft).

The cast is mostly unknowns. The male lead was in "Green Acres", I guess. Two of the coven members are Patricia Wymer (as the "Hag of Devon") and Sue Bernard (as "Felicity Johnson"). Wymer played the titular (and ass-ular) character in "The Babysitter" and also appeared in "The Young Graduates". Bernard, a former Playboy Playmate, had been the bikini-clad girl in Russ Meyers "Faster Pussycat, Kill, Kill" and appeared in a number of 70's horror/exploitation films such as Bert Gordon's "The Witching" (also somewhat similar to this) and Curtis Harrington's "The Killing Kind". The pair have all of about two lines between them here, but this isn't really a film that depends much on actors (although the guy playing "Lucas" is pretty good). It gets plenty of mileage just out of its genuinely unique weirdness.