The Meanest Witch in any direction
Nathan Christian | Pitcairn, PA USA | 11/18/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I saw this as a rental years ago, and it has haunted me ever since. Packed with gore and a forboding atmosphere, this movie was one 80's slasher pic that was cool and scary at the same time. This witch is mostly out of sight most of the movie, but for her blackened, claw like hand that suddenly appears throughout to do it's violent deeds. The girl getting impaled though her head was the scariest part. Her body flopped as the spike went in while her family screamed on the floor beneath her. Now THAT was scary!"
OBSCURE CULT FIND!
Skeet9 | 01/24/2010
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I just saw this for the first time yesterday on TCM Underground. I've been a horror fan since I was a child. I thought that I'd seen almost every horror movie made. Not so! This is a wild fun film in spite of its' low budget. The reason I never saw this on tv before is probably because it has some "taboo" elements. A dead young boy hanging upside-down is a no-no, as is the mentally-impaired groundskeeper and some suggestions of necrophilia.
I'm not a big fan of those taboos or lots of gore, but in this film they make it work. The handsome young priest is energentically relentless in his efforts to save the family, and the odd older woman who lives in the cottage is an excellent combination of creepy and campy!
Again, I can't believe this film was made 25 years ago and I never came across it. There's a couple of familiar middle-aged guys that horror & B-movie fans will have seen before, but the rest of the cast are fresh faces, which helps the viewer get lost in the movie with not too many "oh, there's what's-his-name" moments.
I hope this film is a bit clearer visually on dvd, but the print I saw had no major flaws. A good film to watch alone in the dark or with friends who have similar tastes - or lack of taste?"
Non-typical 80's HORROR! satisfaction
Michael E. Mitchell | Minocqua, WI USA | 04/01/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Easy to see this was done in the 80's...BUT there are very few of that era's cliche's evident. Passable acting(with a more-positive exception of the great job Finlander boy Albert Salmi does, though it is a dollar-store Charles Bronson cop character impersonation!) and very, very quick pacing. It hardly ever gets dull. Excellent slaughter scenarios(though not quite up to the gruesome par of the Italians) are quite satisfying and novel, and the story is rather a nice take on a witch's curse legend. And yes, the witch really DOES look cool, and the film-makers are wise to keep her mostly obscure....except for her wicked talons which keep showing up to cause trouble for the hapless victims. ONE fault with the film is the nigh-unbearable practice of having characters running about calling for missing characters by name...again and again....and again...and, well, YOU get the picture. But many films are guilty of this! An excellent find; true Horror fans, of any era, can't go wrong. Nothing insulting or condescending about this; it seems these film-makers really WANTED to make a Horror movie, and not just some money-making dreck!"