Director: Victoria U. Bell
Year: 2023
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Witchcraft
Plot:
Trying to get ahead in her career, a woman tries to acclimate herself to the demands of the new job she finds herself in, but the more she finds herself in this situation the more a family curse involving a witch’s legacy lording over her causes her life to unravel and forces her to stop it.
Review:
This was an incredibly fun and enjoyable genre effort. One of the finer points with the film is the stellar background here which brings about the highly inventive setup of the witch and the backstory that goes into play here. With the initial background involving the special witch and the creation which all ties into the particular setup involving the domineering familial curse lingering over her where she has the opportunity to focus on her career so that the implications won’t affect her. With the visions and dreams on display involving the previous family members who became involved with the curse and what will happen to her if she follows the guidelines of the particular curse while not letting her work life get interrupted by the idea all give the film a great overall starting setup.
Once this gets brought into play, there’s quite a lot to enjoy here with the curse coming to fruition in the form of the strange woman who starts to integrate herself into the friend group. After getting the reveal of this early on with the attack on the sleazy friend, the idea of the witch coming to take her out as she tries to continue her burgeoning relationship with her bosses that has been propelling things along rather nicely around these other storylines. With the more she hangs around them and the figure’s presence becomes far more frequent, the horrific visions and taunts of the witch become that much more prominent with the curse trying to bring out her true legacy like the other members of her family as that turns into the highly enjoyable and effective finale. Fully aware of the witch’s plans and how that’s going to play out as the incidents start to become more violent, this all comes together into a brutal and somewhat shocking resolution with quite a lot to like here.
There isn’t much holding this one back but it does have some slight drawbacks. Among its few flaws is the decided lack of actual witchcraft here as this is brought up only rarely in the first half of the film. It has a massive effect throughout the film influencing a lot of what transpires here, from her actions and treatment of others, but that doesn’t translate to actual scenes with the figure on display. Only a few scenes feature the witch until the end as the majority of the film instead focuses on a questionable romance angle between her and a married man that’s never believable and highlights the other issue here in a scattered plot that whips around quite frequently to the point it’s possible to lose track of what’s happening. Overall, these are the factors that bring the film down as a whole.
Overview: ***.5/5
An overall enjoyable and effective if somewhat slightly flawed feature, there’s a lot to like here to hold this up for the most part as those few flaws do manage to keep everything down just enough. Viewers who are intrigued by this style or not bothered by the flaws will enjoy this a lot while only those turned off by these factors should heed caution.
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