I love witchcraft films, and this one is a very classy affair. It's central play is "masculine" logic vs. "feminine" intuition (and magic). It's a great (if bleak) look into 60s flavored sexism and gender essentialism. Almost immediately, Janet Blair's character, Tansy, is having her experiences discounted by her husband. An example of supposed "logic" explaining away the experiences, concerns, and grievances of women and the many marginalized. A reification of power, here domestic, but with obvious larger (and troubling) echoes. And into the fire all of her totems go. But then the play swings the other way...

To this movie's tremendous credit, not only does Tansy turn out to be right, but in the final, climactic scene, it isn't…

“Ladies and gentlemen, the motion picture you are about to see contains an evil spell, as used by practitioners of witchcraft for centuries. Even today, in many parts of the world, people practiced black magic and witchcraft. Charms, amulets, voodoo candles, grave dirt, and locks of hair are believed to ward off evil spirits and spells. You may doubt the effectiveness of these spells, but through every civilization, people have believed in witches. Could they all be wrong? I don't think so. For I have see its power, proved too many times. I am now about to dispel all evil spirits that may radiate from the screen during this performance!”

As soon as the US opening narration finished I knew…

HoopTober 12
extra credit film #1 - this is also titled “Burn Witch Burn”

The film is a psychological thriller, perhaps seen in its day in the horror genre because it involves witchcraft. The story is engaging & suspenseful, & holds up well. It was inching towards 5 stars, but then I didn’t love the end. It was acceptable, tho.

So many of the films I’ve watched this halloweentime would not have a plot at all, if the husband listened to his wife, & considered what she was saying instead of gaslighting her (including this one)!

The cinematography, camera angles, & editing stood out as contributing to making this story even more engaging. I thought the film was well cast & scored, & appreciated the ballyhoo…

Great POV shots in this film, especially gauze-filtered shots through the eyes of Janet Blair, as a practicing witch who loves her husband, a psychology professor at an English college who is in the running for the position of faculty chair of the department. The idea that women immersed in the occult are essentially pulling the strings that allow their husbands to advance in their careers offers a lot of fertile ground for analysis, but the film itself reaches some really tense moments on the basis of sticking to its story as big issues float about it. It's a relationship film about an academic who is as immersed in his faith in logical reality as is his wife in her…

1st Sidney Hayers (followed by Circus of Horrors)

Hello everyone! I was lucky enough to get the opportunity recently to review two new home video releases for The Geek Show, a wonderful website that counts a number of my friends on here amongst its contributors. By sheer coincidence, I managed to choose two releases that came out on the same day, so please enjoy my first two official write-ups on something other than LB! The first is a review of Radiance's new boxset of three films by Jean-Pierre Mocky (of which Agent Trouble is my favourite and definitely something you should look out for) and the second was this classic of British horror cinema! It's been nearly a decade since…

(That poster is amazing.)

The most terrifying moment in this film is when a student accuses Norman of sexual assault/harassment, and he confronts her. The dean is watching; everyone is watching. She's on trial, not him. Not once does anyone defend her. (That she is lying and compelled by witchcraft only makes it more odious; she is completely without agency and being berated and scorned by a man who has power over her.) It's a nasty scene that is even more vile with the day's headlines. This moment is not a scene only possible in the past; women are still silenced in this way.

Witches are often depicted as people (usually women) hiding in our midst. Anyone (any woman) can…

I really dug this weird take on witchcraft. It’s based on author Fritz Leiber’s 1942 novel Conjure Wife and adapted for the screen in part by I am Legend author Richard Matheson. Night of the Eagle (known as Burn Witch, Burn in the United States) is a faithful adaptation of the source with good pace and crisp dialogue. 

The action centers on professor Norman Taylor (Peter Wyngarde), a very successful psychology lecturer who specializes in the analysis of superstitions. Meanwhile his wife Tansy (Janet Blair) is a witch who’s been casting spells to advance his career. When she tells him that she’s a witch and what she’s been doing he refuses to accept it and flies into a rage, destroying…

Night of the Eagle excels as an exercise in eerie atmospherics and escalating, fever-pitched tension. For a film that plays out like an overlong “Twilight Zone” episode (fittingly scripted by Richard Matheson and Charles Beaumont), there’s no real bloat here. Instead, taut storytelling yields a satisfying vehicle of suspense and dread. Night of the Eagle takes one of the oldest and most hackneyed of horror tropes—a rational man of science comes face to face with the supernatural, and blinks—and fleshes it out to good effect through an exploration of academic life’s darker undercurrents, from the petty jealousies and competitive malice of colleagues and associates to disturbing fetishization in student-teacher relationships. Strong performances from Janet Blair, Peter Wyngarde, and Margaret Johnston…