No.160 : The Witches (1966)

The Witches at the IMDb

After our last offering of The Witch we now meet the plural offering in the shape of this 1966 Hammer frightener. Where as The Witch was set in 1620 this has a contemporary setting - so which witch is best? The other one!

This effort starts well and there was a really good film to be had. Sadly the big denouement lets this one down with it being more ridiculous than anything else.

The film stars Joan Fontaine, who won the Oscar in 1941 for ‘Suspicion’. She must have been on her uppers 25 years later as this British production will be a footnote to her illustrious CV at best.

The film opens in Africa where Fontaine’s ‘Joan Mayfield’ is working as a missionary teacher. Her classes haven’t gone down well as the natives are in revolt and she’s packing up. Her two terrified helpers, including Rudolph Walker off ‘Eastenders’, dive out the window as the local witch doctor is at the door. Joan takes a faint when a massive tribal head, which looks like surplus stock from ‘It’s a Knockout’ bursts in.

Joan wakes up back in England and has an interview with a vicar for a new job, teaching in the small village of Heddaby. She freaks out when recounting her African experiences but gets the gig anyway.

She arrives in the idyllic village to become headmistress in the school and is met by ‘Oooh Betty’ actress Michelle Dotice. She settles in but learns the vicar isn’t really a vicar as he  failed the exam - and that the town’s church was destroyed in unspecified circumstances 200 years ago. These minor issues don’t set off any alarm bells and she makes a friend in the fake vicar’s sister, Stephanie.

She starts to tutor a boy called Ronnie, who sports a Mr Logic haircut, and tries to adopt a black cat that follows her around. Ronnie’s studies go well but he’s distracted by a well developed 14 year Linda (the actress being 19 at the time) and soon falls ill. Joan finds a doll with pins in it and wonders if the boy is under a spell? Stephanie cautions against removing the pins however as that would show she actually believed in witchcraft.

After some more meddling Joan opens the door to find the massive voodoo head coming from her and promptly faints. She wakes up, seemingly a year later in the care of Rigsby off ‘Rising Damp’. Is Joan really nuts or is there a coven of witches in the village who got rid of the boy as he had designs on the girl, and they need a virgin for their unholy sacrifice? Second one sounds the more exciting option, but it’s totally not!

The first hour of this film is really good. It’s well paced and there are a lot of pointers that things aren’t what they seem. I always like scenes were everyone, apart from the hero, is in on a nefarious plan and Joan did well bumbling about in her twin set.

Things fall apart however as soon as Rigsby appears. There is never really any doubt that Joan’s suspicions are correct and, given the title, the viewer is in little doubt either. The film does however go down a mental path, with the lead witch’s identity being no surprise whatsoever. The preparing of the girl for the sacrifice was done so much better in ‘The Wicker Man’ with there being no sense of danger here at all. ‘The satanic rite’ and ‘orgy’ were laughable and looked more like a failed audition for the ‘Thriller’ video.

The salvation and resolution were handled cack handedly, with the last two minutes looking tacked on to convince the thickies in the audience that this was indeed a happy ending.

One to avoid or at least to excuse yourself from after an hour.

THE Tag line : The Worst Witch  53%

No.123 : The Shout (1978)

The Shout at the IMDb

Up next is this hard to fathom British horror from 1978. It’s a bit confusing and unclear but it does have a couple of good points, both of which belong to Susannah York.

The film opens with a cricket match in the grounds of a psychiatric hospital. Doctor Tim Curry is in the scorer’s cabin and he’s soon joined by Alan Bates. It’s not clear if Bates is a patient or on the staff but the two are soon bored by the match and he offers to tell Tim a story to pass the time.

We dissolve to the desolate landscape of Devon where husband and wife team John Hurt and Susannah meet a new friend in the shape of Crossley, played by Alan Bates. We’re not clear now and indeed never are if Bates is playing two characters or whether the events that are to follow see Bates committed.

He tells the couple about witchcraft and ‘the shout’ which is basically some yelling that can kill. He explains how a woman can be enchanted by someone who possesses something from her. The pair are sceptical but it’s not long before Crossley starts to get under their skins.

Hurt soon realises that the enigmatic stranger has his wife in his sights and even worse Susannah’s up for it! We see that Crossley possesses a buckle that she lost from her shoe and we have to wonder if his tales are true and whether the shout exists also.

With dead sheep and lightning bolts in the mix we have to try and understand the non-linear, and frankly baffling, narrative in the hope that a cohesive story becomes clear and that we’ve not wasted 90 minutes of our time. Oh well there is some nakedness to make it not a total waste of time.

I thought I was either a bit drunk or too slow on the uptake to figure this out but having read a few reviews I can see that I am not alone in my bemusement. I get the idea that, with the whole thing set around an asylum, everything we see is subject to interpretation and that we may be witnessing the ramblings of a mad man.

When I watch a film I expect there to be a story that I can follow with logical progression and a worthwhile pay off. If I want a load of random scenes with a message of ‘work it out for yourself’ I’d go and watch that crappy Russian film with time travel set on an industrial estate that made no sense either. Fair play the three principles are all watchable and the lovely Susannah gives her all for her craft which is much appreciated.

Overall however the film is a frustrating mishmash that’s all over the place with nothing to offer apart from the realisation that you’ve spent 90 minutes just for a look at Alan Bates’ fillings.

THE Tag Line ‘The Shite’  35%