Customer Reviews

Season of the Witch [VHS]

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Alright, so the acting is often amateurish and it isn't approved by Wiccans and the lot. They can go play with their chalices and swords -- it's a brilliant little movie. Romero looks at sexual frustration, the sexual revolution (California-style), and the relationship of these things to what would become known as "New Age spirituality" with a critical, curious, searching eye, making his most reflective and unusual film. Donovan's song is nicely used, and there are some almost Cassavetes-like moments where the characters push each other into revealing deep-seated frustrations and fears... Also some interesting considerations of the relationship between religious beliefs and sexual needs which, really, just aren't TREATED that often in cinema. The film seems to seriously want to explore everything that Romero thinks might be healthy about witchcraft, without being afraid to also criticize it, as well. I'd almost be willing to call it a feminist film, in that Romero earnestly tries to frame 70's west-coasty let's-pretend/ let's-get-nekkid occultism in the context of VERY REAL female struggles at the time. His cynicism ultimately wins out, however; though the movie remains ultimately a little ambiguous, the last scene seems pretty mocking, to my eyes... In any event -- it is worth watching and thinking about. And yes, Satanism and Wicca are different things, and YES, Romero takes some liberties with his depiction of "The Craft," but Cripes, guys, what, do you just watch THE WICKER MAN over and over and over and over and over and over and over? Lighten up! (And please don't put any curses on me).

Well I think George Romero is a genius (If you don't think so thats good for you). This was romeros 3rd movie,and it seemed to have the same fate as the movie romero made before it and after it. reason #1: Georges' second movie shot in 1969 was first titled "Theres Always Vanilla", it was then re-released as "The Affair", and then once more re-named "At play with the Angels", then, it unfortunatly fell off the face of the earth without a trace. Then in 1972 Romero shot "Jacks wife" the movie bombed at the box office (mainly because people didn't get it or didn't want to try) The production house that financed the film (unknown to Romero)actually usually financed x-rated films. So the film was re-released under its new name "Hungry Wives" and was trying to be sold as "soft porn", poor George was so wizzed (and embarassed) that he called it a loss. The film remained forgotten until 1979 right after "Dawn of the Dead" was released. The new distribution company who bought the rights to it cut about a half hour out of it and re-released it as "Season of the Witch". Hoping that the movie would ride on the coatails of "Dawn". Then Romeros' next film "The Crazies" was originally released as "Code Name:Trixie" in 1973.

As for "Season of the Witch", its really a great movie. Its just that most people just dont want to have to try to figure things out, if the entire plot, all of the questions and answers in it arent presented to people right under their noses, they "don't understand it" or "get bored" with it because they have the attention span of 3rd graders. The plot is very original, the acting isn't bad it reflects the charaters emotional states (Romeros' charecters never act mellow dramatic just very natural)Once again probably the most overlooked stong points of the movie is romeros cinematography and editing, romero has honed a style of camera work and editing that is very prominent in all of his work, its genius but unappreciated. And for all those who whine about the movies "low budget". Ok, the movie was shot in 1972 on 16mm film, yes thats right 16mm film. "NOTLD" was shot on 35mm B&W, "Season of the Witch" was shot on 16mm color, So WHat?? I personally like seeing movies that were shot on 16mm. Just because a film wasn't shot on "state of the art" equipment does that make it a bad movie?? I would of liked it even if it was shot on super 8!

This DVD features the second and third films by the "horror director" George A. Romero. Nevertheless, none of each is really horror oriented. There's Always Vanilla is a romantic drama depicting the 70's atmosphere, whereas Season of the Witch is a housewife portrait. Both of them are difficult to watch, but necessary for die hard Romero fans. The quality of the image and the sound is good on There's Always Vanilla, whereas on Season of the Witch, it's not clean at all. By the way, although the title of the movie is Season of the Witch, it seems to be the Hungry Wives cut (the French DVD release contains more witchcraft scenes and less dialogue). The bonus are interesting, the documentary is cool, and the interview of the director is out of the ordinary.
As a conclusion, this DVD is destined to Romero fans only !

This movie has been a favorite of mine for many many years. Origionaly released under the title of "Jacks Wife" this movie continues to be great after all this time. This movie, though slow to get to the topic, is based on traditional witchcraft (NOT WICCA) but witchcraft as presented in Paul Huson's 70's Book, Mastering Witchcraft. Each ritual in this bok is taken almost word for word from Mastering Witchcraft. I would highly reccomend this movie for those people who are interested in a true classic and not just some modern wicca based nonsense full of special effects and silly fluffy bunny wannabes. If your a Romero fan this is for you.

It may not compare to his zombie trilogy, but it's pretty interesting. The nightmare sequences are particularly well done, and the theme is (or was) timely. Watch it with The Stepford Wives to get a full appreciation.

Quality is about as good as it gets - nice featurette interview with Romero. Watch out, however, this is NOT two discs -- you get one disc with one movie on each side. I was expecting 2 discs, per the notation on this site, and thought Amazon had made a mistake.

George Romero is know to many as the father of the dead trilogy, Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, and Day of the Dead. Season of the Witch is not a gore movie but a charmingly dated period piece detailing a 1970's housewife's frustrations as she becomes less involved in her families lives, (her only child is ready to leave for college and her husband is much less concerned about his marriage as he is about his career) . The 1950's ideal family with the stay at home mom finally faded into American folklore by the early 1970's, replaced by daycare and double income households. Witch illustrates this cultural shift poeticly through a bored housewife who no longer wants to be objectified as a "general caretaker" and wishes to change her life through "magic". This story is solid and goes into some strange places. If the movie was ever to be remade, as so many of Romero's films have, I would hope the setting would remain 1970-72, it truly is what makes this film special. As a bonus this disc also offers There's Always Vanilla, a lost Romero film, for some, something that should not have been found, for others a unique insight on the early work of one of America's Greatest Directors.

I love Romero films, and I've been a fan of "Season of the Witch" for years. I already had this on VHS but decided to buy the DVD recently...and I wish I had long before now! This is just wonderful. There are at least an additional 15 minutes added on to this film which adds much more depth to the characters.

This is a double sided disk with lots of extras. In addition to the two films, there is a brief interview with Romero about his "lost films" (this and "There's Always Vanilla."), an hour long feature about the films of Romero...and I was MOST delighted to see an interview with the lovely Jan White (Joan)! I have always wondered what ever happened to this actress, and it was great to see her! Not to mention the trivia about the film itself.

The film quality was not superb, but then I don't think it ever was. Those complaining about this should keep that in mind.

You won't find the commentary version of the movies as I've seen in other Anchor Bay Romero DVDs ("Martin," "The Crazies," and "Knightriders" for example) but the great extra features more than make up for this fact.

I don't have much to say about "There's Always Vanilla"... it wasn't too bad, but as in the case of several Romero films, was very interesting from the standpoint of seeing images of Pittsburgh from 30+ years ago. As someone who grew up in that area, it was kind of fun.

As far as "Season of the Witch"...you either love it or you don't. If you do, and you haven't gotten the DVD yet buy it now!

I haven't seen Season of the Witch or this DVD version of There's always Vanilla. I do have a VHS of TAV and it's one of my favorite movies. It's hard to say why I like it but it is a very interesting experience. No other movie I've seen sums up the late 60s early 70s like TAV. The bad picture quality really adds to the feeling of the times and its like opening up a time capsule. The story line is a very real example of what the sexual revolution did to people's relationships. Free sex, abortions, illegitimate children, it's all here. I actually empathize with the characters. The main character seems unable to decide what he wants to do with his life and is afraid to commit to anything. I feel sorry for our female lead who sort of gets used by the guy. Ultimately this is a story that is very common both yesterday and today, but the existentialist philosophy of the 60s/70s adds to the drama.
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Ok I have seen Season of the witch now. Some parts were cool but I got bored towards the end. Worth watching though for the B movie/Romero fan.

This one goes way back to when he used to direct, write, shoot, and edit the films. It certainly has its flaws and drags in places, but this is from the time when he was making some of the most original, entertaining movies around. It's fairly certain you'll never see another film quite like this -- although his own MARTIN has much of the same feel. Rather introspective. Be warned, the budget constraints can be felt when viewing this film. On the other hand, Romero consistently proved during this period that large budgets do not make the movie. Oh yeah... it has a very effective climax, as well. SEASON doesn't have the same visceral shocks of MARTIN, but I'd say go watch the latter film first. If you like it, chances are good you'll really enjoy this one as well.