Director: Joe Davison, Roy Knyrim
Year: 2025
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Witchcraft; Horror/Comedy
Plot:
Working for a local college, a down-on-his-luck handyman helps one of the students recover a special book buried under their sorority house while doing maintenance repairs and inadvertently unleashes a slew of witches on the campus, forcing them to stop the beings from taking over.
Review:
This was a massively enjoyable and silly genre effort. Among the better elements within here comes from the rather solid setup that allows for a great way to unleash the various beings involved in this setup. The opening bits here detailing the life and hardships of the central janitor, working dead-end jobs for the college despite his specialty and training in academics, allows for a rat way to set up the traditional loser-to-hero redemption arc that takes place here, as it allows him access to find the book buried in the basement of the sorority. With the book removed and everything going to plan as the headmistress takes such an obvious interest in the book and throws him out without much worry due to the apparent lack of a threat he possesses, there’s some great work here to set this one up as a fun character piece.
As that first half manages to bring about the discovery of the book and the purpose behind it, there’s a lot to like as the full extent of the story is revealed. With the interest in the book escalating and the discovery of the powers that lie within mean that more and more are dismayed from getting near it, there’s plenty to like with the ominous nature of seducing the various members of the sorority into becoming part of the coven, the eventual hazing ceremony that serves to use their body as a host for the demonic spirit and possessing the others to follow suit, there’s plenty of old-school Gothic fun here with the ceremony taking place on a traditional sacrificial altar that results in the non-committed figures being viciously killed and the others being possessed into going along with the leaders’ plans.
That all comes together in the final half, where a series of encounters takes place involving the possessed witches trying to free their bodies from their burial ground and getting everything freed to take over the world, while he races to stop them. This kind of high-energy race to get everything stopped as the possessed witches take out the various stragglers they encounter. The finale in the graveyard, where multiple witches are brought back to life, and a series of explosive encounters take place involving him and a special guardian that’s intended to fight off the creatures, offers the kind of cheesy content that’s incredibly silly and over-the-top with how everything plays out in the goofy setpieces on display. Matching the tone and cheesiness of the rest of the film rather nicely, these all come together to give this a lot to like.
There are a few small problems that hold the film down. The main issue here is the seeming lack of intensity that goes on when this one is more focused on the comedy to the point where the horror aspect isn’t all that thrilling. The point here is decidedly comedic with the way the interactions and quips are fired off, especially once the different interactions with the witches are designed to accomplish a lighthearted tone more than anything, but that comes at the cost of making the witches feel like threatening creatures with the way it treats everyone. It’s a bit disconcerting since they don’t have much of a plan or purpose, with the inability to reveal what the plan was for resurrecting them or why they had to be moved to new bodies if the girls are already possessed, but otherwise, these are what keep the film down.
Overview: ****/5
An immensely fun and cheesy genre effort, there’s a lot to like here that manages to hold the film up over a few small, slight issues that do appear in here. Viewers with an appreciation for this kind of genre fare, who are curious about it, or who are fans of the creative crew, will have a lot to like here, while most others out there should heed caution.
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