★ 6 / 10
**_Cabin-in-the-swamp… where witches dwell_** A team of paranormal
Wuchak
**_Cabin-in-the-swamp… where witches dwell_** A team of paranormal investigators venture deep into the swamps of Louisiana to find out why numerous young…
**_Cabin-in-the-swamp… where witches dwell_**
A team of paranormal investigators venture deep into the swamps of Louisiana to find out why numerous young females have been found dead, drained of their blood. They’re unaware that a sabbat-master lives there. Will any of them make it out alive?
“The Witchmaker” (1969) came in the tradition of films like "The City of the Dead” (1960), "Masque of the Red Death" (1964), "Devils of Darkness" (1965) and “The Witches” (1966), aka “The Devil’s Own.” That last one took the topic a step further by depicting a devilish ceremony more explicitly, which might strike modern viewers as cheesy and amusing. This one does a better job with a surprisingly well-done black ceremony in the last act (which smacks of a hedonistic Viking celebration more than anything else).
I included the year of release of those flicks to show the cinematic progression of witch-oriented movies in the ’60s. “The Crimson Cult” from 1968 is yet another example, aka “Curse of the Crimson Altar.” "Mark of the Witch" came out the year after this one, 1970. Then came “The Brotherhood of Satan” and “Race With the Devil” in the early/mid ’70s. LQ Jones was involved in the production of this one and “The Brotherhood of Satan.” He even appears in both, although his role here is uncredited.
Now, someone might criticize that I’m mixing up witchcraft with satanism, but so do all of these movies. Take this one, where an idol of satan is used in their diabolical ceremony.
On the feminine front, blonde Thordis Brandt is sharp as Tasha and Sue Bernard is notable as Felicity (you might remember her as the winsome bikini girl in “Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!” from 3 years prior). Brunette Warrene Ott is also worth noting as young Jessie. There are others but, for the most part, the director didn’t know how to shoot women (no pun intended), such as was done passably in “Mark of the Witch.”
The ending is kinda eye-rolling but, otherwise, this is way better than I thought it’d be for such an obscure occult-oriented flick from the ’60s.
It runs 1 hour, 39 minutes, and was shot in Marksville, which is in the heart of Louisiana; interiors, however, were done in the studio in Los Angeles.
GRADE: B-
★ 5 / 10
The DARK swamps of witchcraft
Coventry
I am definitely giving this movie another chance, IF it ever receives a proper DVD release complete with restored sound and polished up picture quality. I…
I am definitely giving this movie another chance, IF it ever receives a proper DVD release complete with restored sound and polished up picture quality. I couldn't really enjoy my viewing of "The Witchmaker", but most likely that was due to the questionable quality of the VHS-rip rather than the actual movie. I found myself staring at a black screen most of the time, yet in between all the vagueness it was obvious that this movie is worthwhile enough to deserve a decent DVD edition. Unfortunately that still doesn't mean it's a great film. "The Witchmaker" is merely a hodgepodge of good conceptual ideas, outstanding locations & scenery, ominous atmospheres and genuinely spooky images, but sadly the script is massively incoherent and several of the plot's details aren't elaborated to the fullest. The main trump is undoubtedly the grisly swamp setting! I used to think the British countryside had a monopoly on forming the ideal setting for stories about witchcraft and devil-worshiping ("Blood on Satan's Claw" and "The Witchfinder General" are two prime examples), but that was before I saw the same story set in the Louisianan bayou region! The area looks as good as impenetrable and feels genuinely inescapable and isolated. At a certain point in the story, the remaining survivor characters desperately want to get out the swamp and who could blame them but it simply isn't possibly because their cabin is only reachable by boat and the boatman one passes by per week. Even in remote rural Britain they didn't have that problem! Several beautiful young girls have been murdered in the Bayou over the last few years, and the macabre modus operandi leads to suspect there's a coven witches active in the area. The corpses are hung upside down from a tree and there are eerie symbols painted on their naked bodies. The murders are indeed the work of a dude named Luther the Berserk, a master of Sabbath, who needs the women's blood for his occult rituals. Alvy Moore plays paranormal detective Ralph Hayes who travels to the area to research the murders. One of the expedition members tagging along is the indescribably beautiful Thordis Brandt and her character is the granddaughter of an actual witch! Hayes dragged her aboard because she's more sensitive to paranormal activity, but Luther also notices her talents and promptly sets up a plan to recruit her as his own witch. Okay, we have a splendid setting, a plot with the utmost potential AND a number of disturbing moments (I swear, the sights of those naked and smeared girls' bodies are positively unnerving), so what's the problem? I'm really not sure, but fact is that "The Witchmaker" doesn't quite live up to its own potential. The suspense building is too often undercut by seemingly endless psychologist conversations and occult gibberish. The film is just too talkative and, like another reviewer stated already, the characters drink way too much coffee, which is probably the reason why they keep talking and talking and talking! The first twenty minutes (up until Brandt's semi-topless run through the swamp) as well the finale are pure fascinating horror stuff, but it's difficult to stay focused throughout the tedious and uneventful middle section. Nonetheless, "The Witchmaker" is a very interesting American witchcraft/Satanist movie and honestly deserves to be slightly more known among genre fanatics.
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5.0/10
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