Witchtrap

Disappointing follow-up film from Kevin S. Tenney, who showed great promise with Witchboard, is actually a ripoff of his own Witchboard and Night of the Demons. With awful special effects and ludicrous acting & direction not to metion a recylced script, this stands out as one of the worst horror films of the 80's. Not even good in a bad way.

Rated R; Nudity, Graphic Violence, and Profanity.

This is not a sequel to WITCHBOARD. It's written and directed by Kevin S. Tenney, the director of WITCHBOARD. In fact, on the VHS copy I purchased, there's a notice on the back declaring WITCHTRAP a non-sequel. It's also, included, no kidding, as a notice right before the title sequence for WITCHTRAP. I guess Tenney was threatened with a lawsuit? Was Witchboard that successful that he'd be hassled about his obvious sequel to it? Also, on the packaging is the tag-line, "This time, it's not a game." So, what was the "last" time? WITCHBOARD, maybe? Sequel, perhaps? Please see disclaimer.

Anyway, I picked WITCHTRAP up, amongst other gems, at a local library sale for a whopping 50 cents. It was a rental from a now defunct video store called Top Video. Pretty beat up copy, and I usually prefer to stay away from rentals, but couldn't resist, plus it had Linnea Quigley in it. How bad could it be? Pretty bad, actually. The acting is quite awful. It helped that they drove around in vintage 1980s cars, wore Members Only jackets and sported the latest hairstyles. However, the people driving the cars, and sporting the funky clothes, couldn't cut it as performers. It's about the level of porn acting, maybe a little bit better and I suppose, the guy playing the detective, James Quinn, was okay, sometimes, but that's about it. Quigley, doesn't have much of a part and does what she's hired to do. She has a shower scene and she appears to be laughing when she gets killed.

The premise of the film is fairly typical for this genre. A man named Devin Lauter inherits a mansion from his long deceased uncle, Avery Lauter. Avery, it seems was some kind of warlock or other, and died brutally in the home and, naturally, possesses the place and kills erstwhile inhabitants. That's why the nephew, Devin, hires a crack team of paranormal experts and some detectives, for security, to figure the place out. Of course, once they arrive things go horribly wrong. If only they had gone horribly wrong in any kind of an interesting way. The pacing is very slow and the gruesome deaths aren't very gruesome. Flying hatchets were never that scary to begin with, and WITCHTRAP proves that they still aren't.

There is, however, a certain production value to WITCHTRAP. The pacing sucks but the editing and camera work is clearly professional. In fact, there were a couple of things I thought were kind of neat, here and there, like a scene where some hands come through a door. But, believe me, those moments were few and far between. And, by professional, I mean they had some money behind it, so it's watchable, unlike, say, a lot of the stuff from Full Moon video. I have to also say, that compared to a lot of direct to video digital cheapies I've seen in recent years, some of these ultra low budget filmmakers could learn a thing or two from WITCHTRAP. Unfortunately, that has more to do with how bad some current filmmakers are then any particular quality WITCHTRAP has. Again, there is some technical competence in the film but, unfortunately, not enough to redeem it.

Almost twenty years on, it's a bit tricky to consider recommending WITCHTRAP. There's no arguing that it's a pretty bad film. It fails on some of the most fundamental levels consistently enough to irritate just about anyone interested in these types of films. The gratuitous nudity is pretty uninspired, as is the violence, and the poor acting exceeds camp into just plain awful.

Still, if you're a connoisseur of 80s horror, if there is such a thing, you might be able to tolerate the bad film-making. Linnea Quigley is in it, after all and that helps. It also helps that it is so dated. If you grew up in this era, nostalgia might get you through.

So, if you see it for 50 cents, or maybe a dollar, and need something to play in the background as you do other things, WITCHTRAP just might be up your alley. Otherwise, you're better off with almost anything else.

Hands down one of the worst films that I've ever seen, but I can't resist telling people they must see this laughable junk! If you had a bad day, don't feel low...WATCH WITCHTRAP! The acting is terrible, the deaths are real cheese, and the writing and directing are pitiful, but this film is a spoof! Kevin Tenney wrote this as a spoof to his 1985 film WITCHBOARD. It succeeds in spoofing that as well as spoofing itself! I cannot stress enough how camp this movie is! It's pure cheese! The ending is also terrible...as contrived as hell...the effects are cheesy, etc. but the film succeeds in creating more unintentional belly laughs then I've ever experienced. Watch WITCHTRAP, you will see what I mean.

Paranormal investigators and private detectives are hired by the owner of an inherited Gothic mansion that appears to be haunted. Witchtrap is basic in plot, not that it matters. This is a horror flick wheres scares come first. Sadly, having revisited it many years after my first viewing - both times on VHS - I found it to be somewhat disappointing. The acting is pretty poor and I am not sure if the movie is meant to be part comedy or if they just employed a cheap script writer, there are plenty of bad lines here. It is saved to an extent by some enjoyable gory deaths, including a body melt, plus Scream Queen Linnea Quigley gets naked in the shower (she is also one of the better actors too).

This triffle of a film, gives new meaning to the word bad. Bad direction, bad script, bad editing, bad special effects, bad acting, everything about this film is bad. No redeeming features what-so-ever (some might argue, saying Quigley naked is always good, but you can always rent any of her other films.). One of the absolute worst films of all time. Not even good for a couple of laughs and not good in a cheesy way. Avoid it. 1 out of 10.