Tuesday, December 4, 2018

THE LEGEND OF WITCH HOLLOW (1969) ** ½


A young girl is killed, strung up, marked with weird symbols (in blood, of course), and drained of her blood in the swamp.  She’s just one of eight girls who’ve been killed over the past two years.  Anthony Eisley is a journalist who follows a team of psychics into the swamp to see if they can find the killer.  The culprit is Luther the Berserk (John Lodge), who is in league with a witch (Warrene Ott) who’s plotting to make herself young again.  They also want to control the body of the beautiful young “sensitive” psychic (Thordis Brandt) and force her to pledge allegiance to their dark lord.

The Legend of Witch Hollow is amusing in that it shows so much skin, but never quite pushes the envelope into out and out nudity.  I have never seen so many bare backs, cleavage, and legs, and no actual nipples, bushes, or butt cracks.  It even resorts to using some Austin Powers-type of tricks to cover the nudity, which is simultaneously funny and frustrating.  
Some parts might remind you of Jess Franco making an Al Adamson movie (or vice versa), but other parts have their own unique charm about them.  There’s some genuine atmosphere here, like when Luther calls upon the witch, the scene where the professor holds a seance, and the various midnight strolls by girls wearing flimsy lingerie as walk through the misty moonlit swamp.  I also like the unintentionally funny running gag of the professor being forced to bury the bodies of his dead students.  

It sits on its hands a bit too long in the middle section, but occasionally it springs to life.  The finale is particularly memorable.  It’s the only movie I can think of that ends with a raucous Satanist feast, whipping, blood drinking, a sorcerer shooting fireballs from his fingertips, a chase through a swamp, and a naked woman drowning in quicksand.  The thrills in the rest of the picture are much too fitful and intermittent to qualify this as “good”.  On the other hand, I’m certainly glad I saw it, even if it didn’t exactly cast a spell on me.  

Producers Alvy Moore and L.Q. Jones later made A Boy and His Dog together.

AKA:  The Witchmaker.  AKA:  The Naked Witch.  AKA:  Witchkill.

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