The Love Witch

Even more than time travel and teleportation, I think what we would most like to be true are love potions. Imagine, using magic to make someone have the hots for us. Of course, it's basically a greedy supposition, not much fun for the person being enchanted.

Case in point--The Love Witch, a 2016 film by Anna Biller. In this film, a woman who studies witchcraft, who was left by her husband (who dies mysteriously) and enchants her lovers who eventually die of some horrible mishap.

Here is the most mysterious thing about The Love Witch--it has a 96% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes. People, this is not a good movie. It has terrible acting and terrible direction. Most of the good reviews cite that is a retro tribute to old-style Gothic horror films, such as what Mario Bava or Dario Argento made, but those weren't good movies. They have become cult favorites because they were so lurid and disturbing. The Love Witch has some nudity, but most of the women cover their breasts with their hair extensions, so it isn't even good soft-core porn.

Samantha Robinson, who appears to have no other credits, is quite beautiful, but gives a performance not made of wood but of stone. The only performance that I liked was Jeffrey Vincent Parise, as Robinson's first victim. The other members of the cast range from amateurish to competent.

Biller's thesis seems to be that the whole condemnation of witches is men's fear of powerful women. This is not a new idea (most of the women killed in Salem were land-owners) and she undermines it by making her villain a witch. She shows a kind of sex ritual, which I'm sure serious Wiccans would roll their eyes at, and her art direction (she also designed the costumes) has Robinson's room full of paintings of nude women, including one ripping the heart out of a man. This film doesn't forward the cause of witches in any way shape or form.

Maybe the critics who gave this film positive reviews were under a spell.