Runtime: 82 minutes
Directed by: Bert I. Gordon
Starring: Pamela Franklin, Lee Purcell, Michael Ontkean, Harvey Jason, ORSON WELLES
From: Compass/Zenith International
Happy 100th birthday, Bert I. Gordon. I did not watch this yesterday on his 100th birthday because I’m a huge fan-truth be told, before Necromancy the only picture of his I had seen was Food of the Gods. To be honest, many probably did not know he was still alive-which was me until recently. As it’s still a big deal when someone reaches the century mark, it was nice to note such an achievement. Instead of his bread & butter of films involving projection effects that make people either huge or tiny, I went with something easily found on YouTube & deals with witches. Plus, it was the only Gordon movie featuring ORSON WELLES.
It does start off on a sobering note; after all, it’s about a woman who suffered a stillbirth. Her husband (the dude who played Harry S. Truman in Twin Peaks!) takes a job at a toy factory in middle of nowhere California (no, not the Silver Shamrock corporation; the two movies do share more than one similarity) run by Welles. There are indeed witches along with attempts at necromancy, someone who resembles Gene Wilder-to steal a line from a mutual-visions, tarot cards, an exploding car, a grimoire, and more. The town’s name is Lilith, which is not a subtle clue that the movie is still happy to explain to you.
The movie doesn’t always make a lot of sense and I don’t think it was just because of the occasional jarring editing that I presume was done to give it a dream-like quality. It was long before David Lynch that Michael Ontkean acted in something w/ a surreal flavor, although needless to say Lynch did it far better. Yet despite all its flaws and moments never explained, there are still some memorable moments so I’ll say that this was average overall. Even if it was a phoned-in performance, Welles in his small role wasn’t bad; the actual best performance came from Franklin. There are some other familiar faces: Lee Purcell, Sue Bernard (of Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! fame) and Harvey Jason-Wilder’s doppelganger and soon after meeting on set, the real life husband of Franklin… they are still married to this day.
It is funny that-based on hearsay-this movie can be compared to a recent theatrical release--I’ll remain vague and move on. It’s not horrible, which could very well have been in the cards for someone who was stepping out of his wheelhouse here; instead it’s an interesting curio which I know will really entertain some. To clarify what I saw, for reasons unknown to me Gordon released this movie again a decade later under the title The Witching, which was shorter yet included some new footage of naked people (including Brinke Stevens) as I know that’d make it “more hip” for the time. I actually found that version in the bowels of the Internet although of course the original Necromancy cut is the one I just reviewed here.
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