New movie reviews, DVD reviews, interviews, and all things film.

Follow Me

• The Innkeepers ***1/2
• The Woman in Black ***
• The Grey ***
• Man on a Ledge ***
• Underworld Awakening **
• Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos ***
• Haywire ***
• Beauty and the Beast ****
• Contraband ***
• The Divide *
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy ****
• The Devil Inside **
• The Iron Lady **
• A Separation ***
• Pariah ***1/2
• Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close ***
• The Darkest Hour **
• War Horse **1/2
• In the Land of Blood and Honey **
• The Adventures of Tintin ***1/2
• More

• Adaptation
• Dream House
• Drive
• Frida
• The Magnificent Ambersons
• Malcolm X
• The Mill and the Cross
• The Moment of Truth
• Outrage
• The Piano
• The Thing
• To Kill a Mockingbird
• 2011: The Year's Best DVDs and Blu-Rays
• More

• 2011: The Year's Best Films
• Year's Best DVDs and Blu-Rays
• San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards
• Interview: Steve McQueen and Michael Fassbender
• Interview: Simon Curtis
• Interview: Werner Herzog
• Interview: John Cho
• Interview: Roland Emmerich
• Interview: Stephen Bishop on Moneyball
• Interview: Nick Swardson
• Interview: Lynn Hershman Leeson
• Interview: Lone Scherfig
• Interview: Jesse Eisenberg & Aziz Ansari
• Interview: Wayne Wang
• Interview: Andre Ovredal on 'Trollhunter'
• Interview: Ewan McGregor & Mike Mills
• Interview: Kelly Reichardt (Examiner link)
• The 54th San Francisco International Film Festival - 2011 Coverage
• Interview: Emma Roberts
• Rainn Wilson & James Gunn (Examiner link)
• Interview: Tom McCarthy
• Interview: Abigail Breslin (Examiner link)
• 2010: The Year's Best Films
• 2010: The Year's Best DVDs & Blu-Rays
• Interview: Sofia Coppola
• Interview: George A. Romero
• The Decade's Ten Best Films: 2000-2009
• My Top 100 Films [Updated]
• My Top 60 Directors [Updated]
• Christmas Movies
• Essential Halloween & Horror Movies
• Cult Movies
• Actress Interview Gallery
• More Features and Interviews

• Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas, by Alonso Duralde
• Not Quite a Memoir: Of Films, Books, the World, by Judy Stone
• James Agee: The Library of America Collection, by James Agee
• Just Making Movies, by Ronald L. Davis
• More Books

• Home
• Reviews A-C
• Reviews D-F
• Reviews G-J
• Reviews K-M
• Reviews N-Q
• Reviews R-T
• Reviews U-Z

The online film magazine Combustible Celluloid offers new movie reviews, DVD reviews, film reviews, actor interviews, actress interviews, director interviews, film books and all things cinema related for the thoughtful and passionate. Online for ten years! Over 3000 reviews!

SEARCH MOVIES / CELEB

Season of the Witch (1973)

Rating: 3 Stars (out of 4)

Desperate Housewife

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Season of the Witch on DVD.

George A. Romero was still trying to jettison the "horror director" stigma when he made his third film, Season of the Witch (1973), a kind of combination of a domestic drama and occult tale. Originally called Jack's Wife and/or Hungry Wives, the film doesn't even begin to dabble in the supernatural until past the 60-minute mark. A housewife, Joan Mitchell (Jan White), stuck married to an aggravating lout, gets bored and begins hanging around with one of her daughter's friends, until she eventually becomes a witch and starts getting her revenge. Though Romero's screenplay flows realistically and the talk sounds organic, much of it crosses over into the hippie-era realm and is severely dated. Romero gets good performances from his cast, and he has a good feel for natural rhythms. It's certainly an interesting film, but fans of Romero's Martin (1978) or his zombie films will not find more of the same. Donovan's great title song plays on the soundtrack during a "witchcraft" montage.

DVD Details: Anchor Bay Entertainment has released Season of the Witch as a "lost classic," paired with Romero's even rarer second film, There's Always Vanilla (1971), a curiosity with no horror elements at all. The transfers on both films are below average, and Anchor Bay even provides a disclaimer, apologizing for the low quality. According to some sources, Season of the Witch once ran something like 130 minutes, but the DVD features the 104-minute cut. Extras include the 60-minute television special "The Directors: The Films of George A. Romero," a new featurette about the making of the film, and trailers and credit sequences for the various versions. Side "B" (the Vanilla side) comes with a second featurette, a trailer and a Romero bio.

Starring: Jan White, Raymond Laine, Ann Muffly, Joedda McClain, Bill Thunhurst, Neil Fisher, Esther Lapidus
Written by: George A. Romero
Directed by: George A. Romero
MPAA Rating: R
Running Time: 104 minutes
Date: October 19, 2005