Today's episode of Sounds of Cinema kicked off the month-long Halloween theme with a look at movies about witches and witchcraft. Here is a recap of the films discussed as well as a few additional titles.
Black Death (2010)
Dir. Christopher Smith
A modern take on the witch hunt films of the 1960s and 70s, a young monk leads a group of soldiers to an isolated village that is believed to be protected from the bubonic plague by a pact with the devil. It has the appearance of a silly exploitation film but Black Death has terrific performances and a smart script.
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
Dir. Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez
In 1999 the found footage genre was new. There had been a few precedents like Peeping Tom, Cannibal Holocaust, and The Last Broadcast but these films hadn’t entered the public consciousness yet. The Blair Witch Project was purportedly the found footage of a group of filmmakers who had been investigating a rural myth and the film had a very convincing illusion of realism that was matched by distributor Artisan Entertainment’s very effective (and some would say dishonest) marketing campaign. The movie was among the first to employ the internet for viral marketing and pseudo-documentaries about the myth of the Blair Witch ran on television. Some people who saw the movie in theaters actually believed that it was real, despite the fact that cast members had been on television talk shows to promote the movie.
Black Sunday [aka The Mask of Satan] (1960)
Dir. Mario Bava
The feature debut of Italian filmmaker Mario Bava tells the story of a witch, played by Barbara Steele, who returns from the grave to take over the body of young woman. It’s a familiar story but the movie benefits from striking cinematography and production design and it plays like a mix of the classic gothic horrors of the Universal and Hammer movies but with the style of an art house picture. At the time of its release, the violence and gore of Black Sunday were considered shocking but it was very successful at the box office.
The Craft (1996)
Dir. Andrew Fleming
In the 1990s the goth subculture become trendy and television programs like Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Charmed were quite popular. One of the more memorable films to come out of this trend was 1996’s The Craft, which starred Robin Tunny, Fairuza Balk, Neve Campbell, and Skeet Ulrich. The film tells the story of a high school clique that dabbles in witchcraft and it tapped into teenage culture of the time. The movie uses supernatural power to visualize the challenges of adolescence and there are some interesting parallels between this film and 2012’s Chronicle. The Craft wasn’t much of a box office success but it has become a cult favorite.
Cry of the Banshee (1970)
Dir. Gordon Hessler
In the late 1960s and early 70s, Vincent Price starred in several films adapted from the works of Edgar Allan Poe. Cry of the Banshee is part of this trend and it was based, at least in its title, on one of Poe’s short stories. As the catalogue of Poe’s work was tapped, filmmakers began applying the titles of his work to movies that had little to do with the source material; such is the case with Cry of the Banshee. As he had in Witchfinder General, Price played a corrupt prosecutor who indulged in debauched excesses under the auspices of combating witchcraft.
Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)
Dir. Tommy Lee Wallace
The original Halloween, about a masked killer who stalked babysitters, was a tremendous hit and was followed by a sequel that was grafted onto the events of the first film and told the story of the same characters on the same night. When it came time to do Halloween III, the Michael Myers storyline was jettisoned with the plan of turning the franchise into scary tales that were somehow connected to the Halloween holiday but were not necessarily going to be knife pictures. The audience rejected the new approach and for years Halloween III was regarded with derision. This is too bad because the movie is actually pretty good in its own right and it plays like an episode of The Twilight Zone.
Harry Potter Series (2001 – 2011)
J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books were one of the defining cultural phenomena of a generation and the movie adaptations were consistently good. The film series got off to a rocky start with a couple of titles that were bloated and too conventionally made but later movies took off in creativity and characterization. Since the filmmakers were able to retain most of the same cast throughout the eight films (the last book was split into two parts) viewers were able to watch the characters and the actors who played them grow up and that gave the series some additional impact, especially for those viewers who were approximately Harry Potter’s age (or had kids who were).
Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages (1922)
Dir. Benjamin Christensen
This silent film is a documentary about the history of witches and witchcraft, with special attention to the persecution of supposed witches in the Middle Ages. Haxan mixes the documentary and dramatic forms and it has surreal imagery that is enhanced by the filmmaking techniques of the silent era. It’s a movie that ranges between being funny and frightening and its filmmakers are sympathetic to the victims of witchcraft prosecutions and confrontational toward those who carried them out.
Hocus Pocus (1993)
Dir. Kenny Ortega
In this Disney film, a trio of witches (Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy) return from the grave three centuries after the Salem Witch Trials and attempt to absorb the life out of Salem’s children so that they can have eternal youth. Hocus Pocus is a weird combination of adult and child-friendly material and the more mature bits come as a surprise in a Disney film. It isn’t a great movie but it generally works as a family-friendly Halloween title.
The Lords of Salem (2012)
Dir. Rob Zombie
Leaning heavily on the history of Italian giallo pictures, Rob Zombie created one of the more interesting horror films of recent years with The Lords of Salem. A lot of American horror films invoke the Salem Witch Trials and tell stories of persecuted sorceress returning from the grave for vengeance. One of the things that is interesting about The Lords of Salem is the way it deals with that history. The main character of this film is a recovering drug addict who is chosen by a coven of witches. Her descent into madness and into the realm of the supernatural may be a feminist awakening to her own womanhood or it may be a consumption by evil and the ambiguity with which The Lords of Salem deals with that, as well as its excellent production values, makes this film re-watchable.
Suspiria (1977)
Dir. Dario Argento
Often cited as one of the great horror films of all time, Suspiria is a very intense story of witchcraft and murder. A young American dancer attends a German ballet academy and discovers a coven operating at the school. The movie does not adhere to the narrative filmmaking style that mainstream audiences are accustomed to seeing when they go to the movies and so its appeal tends to be lost on some viewers. The strength of Suspiria is not really in its story but in its cinematic qualities. The film is renowned for its visual style and for its music score by Goblin, which together make this a creepy and surreal viewing experience.
The Witches (1990)
Dir. Nicolas Roeg
Based on the book by Roald Dahl, a young boy discovers a coven of witches masquerading as a child abuse prevention society. Like a lot of fairy tales, The Witches is the story of a young person discovering that there is evil in the world. The contemporary spin on this familiar theme gives the movie some subversive juice and it features some frightening makeup effects.
The Witches of Eastwick (1987)
Dir. George Miller
Based on John Updike’s novel, Cher, Susan Sarandon, and Michelle Pfeiffer play a trio of women who dabble in witchcraft and are seduced by the Devil, played by Jack Nicholson. The movie is more comedy than horror with Nicholson hamming it up as the Prince of Darkness.
Witchfinder General [aka The Conqueror Worm] (1968)
Dir. Michael Reeves
In the late 1960s and early 70s, there was a trend of movies about the witch trials of the Middle Ages such as The Devils, Mark of the Devil, and Cry of the Banshee. In Witchfinder General (which was also titled The Conqueror Worm in reference to a poem by Edgar Allan Poe), Vincent Price played a corrupt prosecutor of witchcraft. With its old Europe setting, Witchfinder General recalled classic gothic horror films but it was also extremely brutal, breaking boundaries in the presentation of sexuality and violence, and it challenged traditional religious authority, which had been the root of the heroic identity a lot of earlier horror protagonists.
The Wicker Man (1973)
Dir. Robin Hardy
Regarded as one of the best British horror films, The Wicker Man tells the tale of a puritanical British police officer who visits an isolated New Age colony in search of a missing girl. The movie is not traditionally scary in the way audiences usually think of a horror film as frightening. Instead, the movie is creepy in the same way as a circus clown and it picks up on the unease of being the outsider. The final sequence is one of the great endings in horror cinema. The Wicker Man was subject to a disastrous 2006 remake starring Nicolas Cage.
The Wizard of Oz (1989)
Dir. Victor Fleming
The Wizard of Oz is important and influential in many ways but perhaps the most widely recognizable facet of this movie was Margaret Hamilton’s role as The Wicked Witch of the West. Hamilton’s performance as the cackling and green skinned bad witch inspired millions of Halloween costumes and shaped how villainous witches would be portrayed in cinema for years to come. It’s no coincidence that the revisionist takes on L. Frank Baum’s stories like Wicked and Oz the Great and Powerful have placed the Wicked Witch at the center of their stories.
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