Season of the witch

Good Gravy! This is an odd movie. It's kind of like the bored-housewives-turn-on schlock released by Something Weird Video, except it's done as a "serious" movie. Plus, it's advertised as a horror movie because it was directed by George A. Romero, he of "Dawn of the Dead" fame. I watched the Anchor Bay special edition of this flick- the name on the video box is "Season of the Witch", the actual movie has the title "Jack's Wife", and in the theatrical trailer included on the tape the movie is called "Hungry Wives". But ignoring all that, I enjoyed most of this movie. The actors are all good, and the movie is packed with great dream sequences. The proof that this movie is above average is that it can use the tired "waking up from one dream only to find that you're still dreaming" device skillfully.

The plot concerns a bored housewife whose husband ("Jack", I guess) occasionally smacks her around, telling her she needs to "kick some ass" (he says that a lot). She's got a super-cute red head daughter who introduces her to a trippy stoner who turns her on to a swingin' life style. This movie's strongest scenes are the ones concerning Jack's Wife's growing hatred of her dull life and friends.

Although Jack's Wife and her booze-guzzling friends go to see a woman who practices witchcraft, but that's not really a big part of the movie. The "Season of the Witch" title comes from the inclusion of a song, performed by Donovan, with that title. This song, played loudly over a throw-away scene, sounds as if it was recorded by one group sans Donovan, and then they played it over the radio and recorded Donovan singing out of rhythm with it. It's very, very bizarre.

But anyway, this was an obscure little gem that I really liked, and it gets bonus points for including a scene with Mad Libs.

In the years between his legendary "Night of the Living Dead" and his outbreak thriller "The Crazies", filmmaker George A. Romero was actually trying NOT to get pigeonholed as a horror director. This is one of his efforts from that era. It's not for hardcore horror fans; other than a few nightmare sequences, it barely flirts with that genre. It's more of a sometimes arty, sometimes exploitative drama about a suburban housewife named Joan Mitchell (Jan White). Rather dissatisfied with her lot in life, she begins to think about things such as extramarital sex, and the idea of dabbling in the occult.

The performances are better than one might expect for such an independent, regional production. Romero uses his script as a set-up for exploring themes such as self esteem & self expression, female oppression, and the generation gap. For a while, it's likely to cause some audience members to be regularly checking their watches, as it rambles on at too deliberate a pace. It begins to maintain interest more consistently after the one hour mark. Regarding its artistic ambitions, Romero does seem to be enjoying himself coming up with those dream sequences. And in terms of exploitative elements, there is nudity both female and male, but never very much violence or gore.

"Hungry Wives" is fairly serious, but not totally without humor. Fans of the directors' output may want to see it for completions' sake, but it's not going to be for every taste.

Six out of 10.

A thoughtful character study with supernatural tinges, misleading marketed as a straightforward horror film due to Romero's reputation, this film raises more questions than it can answer but is involving despite its leisurely pace. Certainly a more honest confrontation of suburban anomie than the likes of American Beauty, anyway, it boasts a well-modulated lead performance from Jan White, as well as arresting dream sequences and an overall well-sustained quiet tension throughout.

Ranks right up there with "The Witch Who Came From the Sea" and "The Stepford Wives" in the obsolete sub-genre of 70's women's lib horror. Arguably George Romero's most unusual and underrated film, this is less a horror film than a sociopolitical bitchslapping of the male-dominated American dream. Although witchcraft does play a part in this, the focus is largely on our leading lady's middle-aged, menopausal anguish...a feeling of solitary confinement in a pseudo-sterile life with an abusive/absent husband, thankless daughter, and a circle of ingenuine, gossipy "friends".

This is a very well done low-budget film, and comes highly recommended...although rigid horror buffs may end up disappointed. 7/10

_hungry wives_ is sorely underrated by all viewers, and commentators here. no, it doesn't come close to equaling the indelible onslaught that is _night of the living dead_ -- nothing else in romero's oeuvre does, after all, not even _dawn_ -- but as a document from its time, it's a strange balance between the films which precede it (this is not, despite what some here have suggested, romero's second film -- it's his fourth!), viz. _there's always vanilla_ and _the crazies_.

strangely calm, and maybe low-key to a fault, this examination of an alienated housewife's numbing existence and slow infatuation with witchcraft is very much a part of the "personal films" movement of its era, and suggesting a glancing similarity to cassavettes is not unfounded. the first-generation feminism is certainly heavy-handed at this point, but the careful eye for detail that distinguishes all of romero's work, his compassion for his protagonist's melancholy (call it western pennsylvania social realism) and the ambivalent tone, notably at the end (not the "surprise ending," but what follows it), give this film as uneasy balance between horror and domestic drama. definitely worth seeing, and with as few expectations as possible. 7/10