Director: Donald Farmer
Year: 2023
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
Looking for a new topic for her show, the hostess of a paranormal TV show is recruited to help a group of friends who have accidentally summoned a centuries-old witch looking to unleash a demonic army of creatures on humanity and must hurry to stop her before her plans come true.
Review:
There’s quite a lot to like with the cheesy slice of exploitation throwback genre fare. A lot of that comes from the central setup involving a great source to offer up this type of material. The initial backstory of the witch including the recreation of her initial encounter with the witchfinder that captured her and condemned her soul to the underworld only to be resurrected again in the modern day offers up the type of cheesy and silly setup necessary here. Given that her amorous antics are so centerstage that they include full-on nude interactions with others to seduce or arouse them in addition to taking control of her victims so that there’s no resistance to her charms even when shown in a demonic state as she attempts to continue on her quest to complete the resurrection spell she was undergoing before getting stopped, this works quite nicely overall.
With this established, the films’ reliance on cheap and cheesy genre features and confrontations makes for some likable genre fare. With the opening of her capture and eventual resurrection in the house due to the Ouija Board counter that allows her to bring the other friends under her control through several strong seduction sequences, these are filled with cheesy goodness. Once she gets loose and is able to let her helpers attack those around the one who got free, the means of introducing the TV show hostess and letting them get together for the big showdown gets quite fun with the type of goofy spectacle displayed. Beyond these scenes, other interactions here with the demonic creatures including the witch fornicating with a demon puppet or a TV show segment of a priest interacting with vampiric nuns offer the kind of silly conceptual imagery that is quite effective at indulging in the concepts portrayed throughout here, and combined with the copious nudity featured here all provide the film with a lot to like.
There really isn’t much to bring this down. The main factor against this one is the cheap and cheesy tone and atmosphere that might not be worthwhile for most out there. The guerilla-style production style here of filming everything close-up on-location, with flimsy effects, anachronistic anatomical exploits, and a goofy presentation of everything that’s going on around the film that is all featured heavily and prominently here tends to bring about this type of attitude to the point that some might not be that invested in it should be pretty obvious depending on the talent and origins of those involved with this but those who aren’t aware can very easily fall afoul of this one due to these issues even if they’re not overly detrimental in the slightest.
Overview: ****/5
A highly enjoyable and generally enjoyable Exploitation-style throwback effort, this one manages to really only feature just enough minor flaws that don’t really prove detrimental in the right circumstances. Those who enjoy this kind of Exploitation genre fare, are fans of this indie style of filmmaking or are fans of the creative crew will have a lot to enjoy while only those turned off by those features or the negatives present should heed caution.
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