Witchcraft

Witchcraft (1988)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

A mother (Anat Topol) brings her newborn son to her mother-in-law's house and sure enough the husband (Gary Sloan) and his mommy (Mary Shelley) are actually Satan worshipers wanting to make the newborn the next Antichrist. Believe it or not but WITCHCRAFT was actually a huge hit when it was released to video back in 1988 but I do wonder how many people rented this thing and could have guessed that twelve sequels would follow. Obviously, the film is just another rip-off of ROSEMARY'S BABY but we get a funny little goof in the opening credits when a title reads "Origional Screenplay by" but perhaps this error was done on purpose since the film certainly wasn't original. The film itself makes a few major mistakes in regards to a made-for-video exploitation film. The biggest is that it's pretty dull from start to finish with not much happening anywhere in the first hour. The film isn't shy about ripping off other devil-child movies so horror fans might get a few kicks out of spotting the various rips. The film really doesn't contain too much violence or blood and the real sin is that it doesn't even offer up any nudity making it quite tame all around and there's really nothing here we haven't seen much better many times before. Even those awful rip-offs from the 70s at least offered up violence, gore or nudity. The performances aren't too bad for this type of film and I'll at least give director Rob Spera credit by turning in a professional looking picture, which is something a lot of the made-for-VHS films from this era couldn't say. The film does offer up some campy moments including a priest whose face starts to mutate after entering the mother-in-law's house. Another campy moment happens with "visions" coming from a mirror, which is bound to get several laughs. Still, WITCHCRAFT doesn't have anything really going for it that separates it from the pact so there's no real need to see it.

Witchcraft is the first of no less than 16 movies and that is highly impressive!

It tells the story of a woman who goes to stay with her mother in law after she gives birth to her first child. Trouble is her husband and mother in law aren't what they seem and have ties to the occult.

Watchcraft first of all is unforgivably boring, very little happens. I think it's doing this for the purpose of building tension but it fails miserably.

When things do happen they look so poor as intended impact is lost.

I do hope the franchise improves as I'm 1/16 and suffering already.

The Good:

The fact that the franchise lasted so long is impressive

The Bad:

Very boring

Unoriginal

Generic cliched finale

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Witchcraft must get better or it wouldn't have lasted so long, right?

As Grace Churchill (Anat Topal-Barzilai) gives birth to her son William, images of a pair of witches being burnt at the stake flash through her mind. On leaving hospital, Grace's husband John (Gary Sloan) informs her that she will be staying at his mother's home for a while until she is ready to cope by herself. Before long, Grace starts to experience strange occurrences that eventually lead her to believe that John and his mother, Elizabeth (Mary Shelley), are up to something strange.

Rather unbelievably, this tepid supernatural thriller, which clearly takes its cues from Rosemary's Baby, has spawned fifteen sequels to date, apparently finding an appreciative audience by including plenty of nudity and soft-core sex. This first film, however, offers nothing in that department: it's dull, uneventful drivel for most of the running time, only coming to life in the final ten minutes where extremely patient viewers are rewarded with a spot of much needed gore, including a decapitation and an impalement.

As a horror movie completist, I now feel compelled to watch the rest in the series, no matter how bad they get: wish me luck… I get the feeling I will need it.

So the time has come for me to finally watch and review the WITCHCRAFT series that incredibly has created count 'em 15 sequels. After watching the original I am not sure why it deserved even one.

Its the story of new mother Grace Churchill (Anat Topal-Barzilai) who with hubby (Gary Sloan under the name Edward Ross) and new baby William go to her mother-in-law's (Mary Shelley...sadly, not the one who wrote Frankenstein) house to recover and regain her strength. Problem is the mother-in-law might be hiding some dark secrets.

In the end a slow-moving, not very original horror movie. Mixed with at times shaky acting (although mother-in-law Shelley does well in her role) and sub-par delivery. Maybe try ROSEMARY'S BABY or if wanting a witch movie try THE WIZARD OF OZ.

I have this movie on both VHS and DVD. They come with excellent artwork featuring a young attractive woman lay on an altar, a skull beneath her, and the film's title "Witchcraft" within a pentagram above her. A common case of great artwork but poor movie. Grace gives birth to a baby boy (that looks at least six months old in size), her and creepy but rich husband John move into his mother's large house. It is soon apparent that John has a very strange relationship with his mother, a 300 year old painting in which they appear together before being burnt for witchcraft is a major clue. For poor Grace in addition to marrying into an odd family the house also has a creepy mute butler (like large old houses so often do!). This is a cheap looking movie, I found the acting to be quite wooden, it's slow and predictable. There is some gore including a decapitation but the effects certainly are not very special. There is no nudity but incredibly this went on to spawn at least 15 sequels, these did feature a lot of naked female flesh. Witchcraft borrows from "Rosemary's Baby" to an extent. In the UK this is rated 18 but it now feels relatively tame and I am sure that a re-submission to the BBFC would result in a 15 certificate. Not many positives to speak of though Deborah Scott/Spera as Grace's friend Linda does look pretty hot in her tight mini skirts!