Director: Dorothy Booraem
Year: 2010
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: Awaken the Witch
Genre: Witchcraft
Plot:
Living in a small town, a woman trying to figure out what she wants in life manages to incur the wrath of a witch’s curse when she and her friends unwillingly perform a special action that unleashes the curse on her hometown, and must force others to come together to stop it.
Review:
Overall, this wasn’t that bad of an indie genre effort. Among the better elements of this one comes from the gradual build-up and reveal of the curse coming to pass over her and her friends, which gives it its main selling point. The local urban legend that talks about the history of the witch in the area and how the chains left in the forest are incorporated into the myth about how she operates gives this a nice localized touch that sounds believable enough that slowly becomes apparent the more the group wanders around the woods on their mission. By the time everything comes together and starts to impact her and her friends, this starts to get a bit more enjoyable with the series of interactions that take place involving the revelation about the different types of curses that are featured here or the need to prevent her friends from falling into the trap of her curses sets everything in motion for the big confrontation at the end. With all of the different factors involved in the curse coming together and providing this with the kind of evocatively Gothic-infused imagery attempting to stop the witch’s curse from spreading to the community, there are some likable factors to be had here.
There are some issues with this one that hold it back. The main drawback with the film is the egregiously exaggerated and overlong running time that has way too much excess padding for what it really needs. The film is filled with excessive scenes that go nowhere, which is mostly based around the insipid teen romance drama about her trying to get her life on track, going to different classes, meeting with counselors to figure out her life-goals, or trying to wrangle her horn-dog boyfriend from sleeping with everyone else around him simply for not spending time with her. None of these storylines is interesting or enjoyable in any way, as they merely exist to keep the running time going along with the teen drama, keeping the witch being released until late in the film, as it’s nearly an hour before it becomes obvious that something has been released. Combined with the low-budget limitations on display here, these are what manage to hold this one down.
Overview: **.5/5
A rather enjoyable if somewhat flawed indie genre effort, there’s a lot to like here that manages to bring together some enjoyable features to offset the few flaws that bring it down. Those with an appreciation for this kind of indie fare or who don’t mind the negative points will have a lot to like here, while most others out there should heed caution.
Comments
Post a Comment