Runtime: 76 minutes
Directed by: John Llewellyn Moxey
Starring: Patricia Jessel, Dennis Lotis, Christopher Lee, Betta St. John, Venetia Stevenson
From: Vulcan Films
Never trust a man who has a stone head for a water faucet.
As mentioned in my last review, this was watched when it played during Elvira's 40th Anniversary, Very Scary, Very Special, Special on Shudder Saturday night. It was in my queue on the site anyhow; that was because it featured Christopher Lee in a supporting and it being an old movie unfamiliar to me which sounded interesting. After that viewing, my suspicions were correct. BTW, those that are familiar w/ Rob Zombie's Dragula will recognize a bit of audio in this.
The movie opens with a scene set in 1692 Massachusetts (a fictional town named Whitewood) where a woman is burned at the stake for being a witch. Unlike the real life Salem Witch Trials, she actually was a witch and yells out a curse. In 1960, a young college student named Nan goes to Whitewood to research a term paper; her professor in the class is Lee. Things go wrong and Nan's friends have to find out why.
Directed by John Llewellyn Moxey-director of many TV shows/movies including the original The Night Stalker that introduced Kolchak-this is “an atmospheric chiller”, as described by Shudder themselves. The black and white photography is perfect for this sort of spooky tale where a gleefully absurd amount of fog is always seen in the vicinity of the village then in Whitewood itself. Seeing Lee at this time of year is a must for me (it won't be the last time either) but the rest of the cast equates themselves rather well. The creepy music, the pulse-pounding ending, the witchcraft theme... this was a pretty good time overall. Just note that if you watch this on Shudder, the page it is on has an image which is a spoiler! It's not a surprising twist yet I wish streaming sites wouldn't do such things for movies that are less well-known and seen than something like The Sixth Sense, y'know?
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