Season of the Witch (1973 film)

Last updated
Season of the Witch
Hungry-Wives-poster.jpg
Promotional poster under the name Hungry Wives
Directed by George A. Romero [1]
Written byGeorge A. Romero [1]
Produced byNancy M. Romero [2]
Starring
  • Jan White
  • Raymond Laine
  • Joedda McClain
  • Bill Thunhurst
  • Ann Muffly
CinematographyGeorge A. Romero [1]
Edited byGeorge A. Romero [1]
Music by Steve Gorn [2]
Production
company
The Latent Image [2]
Distributed by Jack H. Harris Enterprises [2]
Release date
  • February 14, 1973 (1973-02-14)
Running time
89 minutes [3]
CountryUnited States [2]
LanguageEnglish [2]

Season of the Witch (originally released as Hungry Wives) is a 1973 American drama film [4] written and directed by George A. Romero, and starring Jan White, Raymond Laine, and Anne Muffly. The film follows a housewife in suburban Pittsburgh who becomes involved in witchcraft after meeting a local witch.

Contents

Described by Romero himself as a "feminist film," [5] Season of the Witch was originally made under the title Jack's Wife, with a small crew, giving Romero the duties of an editor, cinematographer and screenwriter. The film's distributor cut major parts of the film and changed its title to Hungry Wives, marketing it as a softcore pornography film. The film failed to find an audience on its initial release and was re-released years later under the title Season of the Witch.

Plot

Joan Mitchell is the 39-year-old wife of a businessman, Jack. They live in suburban Pittsburgh with their 19-year-old daughter Nikki, a college student. Joan is attractive, but unhappy and discontented with her housewife role. Jack is successful, but busy, domineering, and occasionally violent, embarking on long business trips every week. Joan has been seeing a psychotherapist because of her recurring dreams about her husband controlling her. He makes repeated references to needing to "kick some ass"—a colleague's, his own child's, his wife's. Eventually, he strikes Joan in the face.

Joan and her friends learn about a new woman in the neighborhood named Marion Hamilton who is rumored to practice witchcraft. Prompted by curiosity, Joan and one of her friends, Shirley, drive over to Marion's house one night for a Tarot reading. It turns out that Marion is the leader of a local secret witches' coven.

Joan and Shirley drive home to Joan's house, where they meet Gregg, a student teacher at Nikki's college (with whom Nikki has a very casual sexual relationship). The four drink and talk. Gregg shows an interest in Joan, who rebuffs him. Joan throws Gregg out of her house after he cruelly tricks Shirley into believing that she has smoked pot. After taking Shirley home, Joan returns home to hear Nikki and Gregg having sex. Turned on, she quietly goes to her bedroom and begins touching herself until Nikki walks in on her.

The next day, a furious Nikki leaves without telling anybody where she is going, and soon afterward Jack leaves for yet another one-week business trip, with Joan feeling more lonely than ever. Joan buys a book about witchcraft. She conjures a spell to make Gregg attracted to her, and soon they are engaged in an affair. She also has increasingly terrifying nightmares, in which she is attacked by an intruder wearing a Satanic mask. As she explores witchcraft further, practicing rituals and researching spells, Joan's world continues to change. The police tell Joan they have found Nikki in Buffalo, New York and that she will be coming home in three or four days. After one last sexual encounter with Gregg, Joan tells him she does not want to see him again.

After another terrifying nightmare involving the masked intruder, Joan shoots and kills her husband, who has unexpectedly returned home early from his trip. Whether this event is accidental or intentional is not revealed. Joan is initiated into Marion's coven in an elaborate and campy ritual. The language used by the women makes reference to treasuring each coven member as part of the sisterhood. Cleared of her husband's death, which was ruled an accident, Joan attends a party with her friends. Prompted by a compliment on her beautiful and youthful appearance, she quietly reveals that she is a witch. She smiles wryly when people around her refer to as "Mrs. Mitchell", or simply "Jack's wife".

Cast

Production

The film originally began production under the title of Jack's Wife. [6] Romero got the idea for the film after reading about witchcraft for a different project. [7] While working with public television in Pittsburgh, Romero became aware of the Feminist movement, which also influenced his script. [7]

The film was shot with a small crew in 1972 on 16mm film in the North Hills suburbs and Pittsburgh. [2] [8] It suffered from production problems when the original budget of $250,000 was lowered to $100,000. [8] [9] Romero was pressured by the distributor to make two sex scenes between the characters of Joan and Gregg pornographic, but refused. [10]

Style

In 1973, Romero described the film as "not really" being a horror film, but as a film that deals with the occult peripherally. [11]

Release

Romero had trouble finding distributors for the film. In 1973, Romero described that distributors were finding the film "too wordy". [11] The film was distributed by Jack H. Harris and re-titled Hungry Wives! on its initial release in 1973, [2] [8] with screenings beginning on February 14. [lower-alpha 1] Several cuts were made to the film, reducing its original runtime of 130 minutes to 89. [15] The film was promoted as a softcore pornography film and failed to find an audience on its initial release. [8] After the success of Romero's Dawn of the Dead in 1978, the film was re-released under the title Season of the Witch. [8]

Home media

Both the original film negative and Romero's original cut of the film are lost. [8] Parts of Romero's original version have been found and re-edited into a home video version of the film which currently runs 104 minutes. [16] Anchor Bay released the film under its Season of the Witch title in 2005 on DVD at its partly-restored 104 minute running time. [17] The DVD contains featurettes on the film, other works of Romero and promotional material and Romero's earlier film There's Always Vanilla . [17]

In November 2017, the film was released in a restored version by Arrow Films on Blu-ray in a multi-disc set entitled Between Night and Dawn, which also contains the Romero films There's Always Vanilla and The Crazies . [18]

Reception

In 1980, Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote a negative review for Hungry Wives!, stating that the film "has the seedy look of a porn film but without any pornographic action. Everything in it, from the actors to the props, looks borrowed and badly used." [19] Kim Newman (the Monthly Film Bulletin) compared to the film to Romero's Martin , stating that the latter "managed to exploit the hybrid of tatty realism and vampire lore quite fruitfully, but Jack's Wife is fatally unsure of its approach." [20] Newman noted that the acting varies from the "nicely underplayed (Jan White, Virginia Greenwald) through the desperately hammy (Anne Muffly) to the dangerously laid-back (Ray Laine)." [20] The review concluded that "there is enough evidence here of Romero's quirky talent to maintain interest throughout" [20]

In a review of the Season Of The Witch home video, The A.V. Club compared the film to Romero's Night of the Living Dead stating that the film "looks significantly less impressive [...] Where Night Of The Living Dead sandwiched some undistinguished, talky bits featuring actors of widely varying skill between the zombie horror, Season Of The Witch is nearly all undistinguished talky bits featuring actors of widely varying skill. Frankly, it’s kind of a slog." [21] Slant Magazine gave the film a four out of five star rating, calling the film Romero's Belle du Jour . [22] Online film database Allmovie gave a mixed review for the film noting poor production quality, "wildly uneven acting", and that the film is "burdened both by its directness and its talkiness". [23] The review went on to note that "this is as effective a film as the director has made, in many respects years ahead of its time, assuming a position more extreme than The Stepford Wives or even, for the most part, Thelma and Louise ." [23] TV Guide gave the film one star out of four, referring to the film as "One of the most problematic entries in George Romero's filmography", noting cheap production and poor acting. [24]

Scholar Bernice Murphy referred to the film as "cheaply made and jarringly edited," and noted it as an effort for Romero to distance himself from the supernatural horror themes he had become known for. [25]

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 70% rating, based on 10 reviews, with an average rating of 6.3/10. [26]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Various newspaper sources show the film opened on February 14, 1973. [12] [13] [14]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Book of Shadows</span> Type of book or text found in Neopagan religions

A Book of Shadows is a book containing religious text and instructions for magical rituals found within the Neopagan religion of Wicca. Since its conception, it has made its way into many pagan practices and paths. The most famous Book of Shadows was created by the pioneering Wiccan Gerald Gardner sometime in the late 1940s or early 1950s, and which he utilised first in his Bricket Wood coven and then in other covens which he founded in following decades. The Book of Shadows is also used by other Wiccan traditions, such as Alexandrian Wicca and Mohsianism, and with the rise of books teaching people how to begin following non-initiatory Wicca in the 1970s onward, the idea of the Book of Shadows was then further propagated amongst solitary practitioners unconnected to earlier, initiatory traditions.

<i>Halloween III: Season of the Witch</i> 1982 film by Tommy Lee Wallace

Halloween III: Season of the Witch is a 1982 American science fiction horror film and the third installment in the Halloween film series. It is the first film to be written and directed by Tommy Lee Wallace. John Carpenter and Debra Hill, the creators of Halloween and Halloween II, return as producers. Halloween III is the only entry in the series that does not feature the series antagonist, Michael Myers. After the film's disappointing reception and box office performance, Michael Myers was brought back six years later in Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frances Conroy</span> American actress

Frances Hardman Conroy is an American actress. She is best known for playing Ruth Fisher on the television series Six Feet Under (2001–2005), for which she won a Golden Globe and three Screen Actors Guild Awards, and received four Primetime Emmy Awards nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. She is also known for playing the older version of Moira O'Hara in season one of the television anthology series American Horror Story, which garnered Conroy her first Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress on Television nomination, and as well a Primetime Emmy Awards nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie. Conroy subsequently portrayed The Angel of Death, Myrtle Snow, Gloria Mott, Mama Polk, Bebe Babbitt, and Belle Noir on seven further seasons of the show: Asylum, Coven, Freak Show, Roanoke, Cult, Apocalypse, and Double Feature, respectively. Conroy is the fourth actor who has appeared in most seasons of the show. For her performances in Coven & Double Feature, she was nominated again for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie.

<i>The City of the Dead</i> (film) 1960 film

The City of the Dead is a 1960 supernatural horror film directed by John Llewellyn Moxey and starring Christopher Lee, Venetia Stevenson, Betta St. John, Patricia Jessel and Valentine Dyall. The film marks the directorial debut of Moxey. It was produced in the United Kingdom but set in America, and the British actors were required to speak with North American accents throughout.

Maxine Sanders is a key figure in the development of modern pagan witchcraft and Wicca and, along with her late husband, Alex Sanders, the co-founder of Alexandrian Wicca.

<i>The Witches of Eastwick</i> (film) 1987 film by George Miller

The Witches of Eastwick is a 1987 American supernatural comedy film directed by George Miller and starring Jack Nicholson as Daryl Van Horne, alongside Cher, Michelle Pfeiffer and Susan Sarandon as the titular witches. The film is based on John Updike's 1984 novel of the same name.

<i>Witchcraft II: The Temptress</i> 1990 film directed by Mark Woods

Witchcraft II: The Temptress is a 1990 American horror film directed by Mark Woods and starring Charles Solomon, Delia Sheppard, David Homb, Mia M. Ruiz, Jay Richardson, Cheryl Janecky, Mary Shelley, and Frank Woods. The screenplay was written by Jim Hanson and Sal Manna. The film is a sequel to the 1988 direct-to-video film Witchcraft, and the second film in the Witchcraft series. It is followed by Witchcraft III: The Kiss of Death.

<i>The Witches</i> (1966 film) 1966 British film by Cyril Frankel

The Witches is a 1966 British horror film directed by Cyril Frankel and starring Joan Fontaine, Alec McCowen, Kay Walsh, Ann Bell, Ingrid Boulting and Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies. Made by Hammer Films, it was adapted by Nigel Kneale from the 1960 novel The Devil's Own by Norah Lofts.

The history of Wicca documents the rise of the Neopagan religion of Wicca and related witchcraft-based Neopagan religions. Wicca originated in the early 20th century, when it developed amongst secretive covens in England who were basing their religious beliefs and practices upon what they read of the historical witch-cult in the works of such writers as Margaret Murray. It also is based on the beliefs from the magic that Gerald Gardner saw when he was in India. It was subsequently founded in the 1950s by Gardner, who claimed to have been initiated into the Craft – as Wicca is often known – by the New Forest coven in 1939. Gardner's form of Wicca, the Gardnerian tradition, was spread by both him and his followers like the High Priestesses Doreen Valiente, Patricia Crowther and Eleanor Bone into other parts of the British Isles, and also into other, predominantly English-speaking, countries across the world. In the 1960s, new figures arose in Britain who popularized their own forms of the religion, including Robert Cochrane, Sybil Leek and Alex Sanders, and organizations began to be formed to propagate it, such as the Witchcraft Research Association. It was during this decade that the faith was transported to the United States, where it was further adapted into new traditions such as Feri, 1734 and Dianic Wicca in the ensuing decades, and where organizations such as the Covenant of the Goddess were formed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cultural depictions of the Salem witch trials</span>

Cultural depictions of the Salem witch trials abound in art, literature and popular media in the United States, from the early 19th century to the present day. The literary and dramatic depictions are discussed in Marion Gibson's Witchcraft Myths in American Culture and see also Bernard Rosenthal's Salem Story: Reading the Witch Trials of 1692

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Witch-cult hypothesis</span> Discredited theory about witchcraft trials

The witch-cult hypothesis is a discredited theory that the witch trials of the Early Modern period were an attempt to suppress a pagan religion that had survived the Christianization of Europe. According to its proponents, accused witches were actually followers of this alleged religion. They argue that the supposed 'witch cult' revolved around worshiping a Horned God of fertility and the underworld, whose Christian persecutors identified with the Devil, and whose followers held nocturnal rites at the witches' Sabbath.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gabourey Sidibe</span> American actress

Gabourey “Gabby” Sidibe is an American actress. She made her acting debut in the 2009 film Precious, a role that earned her the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead, in addition to nominations for the Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Actress. Her other film roles include Tower Heist (2011), White Bird in a Blizzard (2014), Grimsby (2016), and Antebellum (2020).

<i>A Community of Witches</i> Book by Helen A. Berger

A Community of Witches: Contemporary Neo-Paganism and Witchcraft in the United States is a sociological study of the Wiccan and wider Pagan community in the Northeastern United States. It was written by American sociologist Helen A. Berger of the West Chester University of Pennsylvania and first published in 1999 by the University of South Carolina Press. It was released as a part of a series of academic books entitled Studies in Comparative Religion, edited by Frederick M. Denny, a religious studies scholar at the University of Chicago.

<i>Never Again the Burning Times</i>

Never Again the Burning Times: Paganism Revisited is an anthropological study of the Wiccan and wider Pagan community in the United States. It was written by the American anthropologist Loretta Orion and published by Waveland Press in 1995.

<i>Living Witchcraft</i>

Living Witchcraft: A Contemporary American Coven is a sociological study of an American coven of Wiccans who operated in Atlanta, Georgia during the early 1990s. It was co-written by the sociologist Allen Scarboro, psychologist Nancy Campbell and literary critic Shirley Stave and first published by Praeger in 1994. Although largely sociological, the study was interdisciplinary, and included both insider and outsider perspectives into the coven; Stave was an initiate and a practicing Wiccan while Scarboro and Campbell remained non-initiates throughout the course of their research.

<i>American Horror Story: Coven</i> Third season of the television series

The third season of the American horror anthology television series American Horror Story, subtitled Coven, is set in 2013 New Orleans and follows a coven of witches descended from Salem as they fight for survival and features flashbacks to the Salem witch trials in 1692, as well as the 1830s, 1910s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1990s. The ensemble cast includes Sarah Paulson, Taissa Farmiga, Frances Conroy, Emma Roberts, Lily Rabe, Evan Peters, Denis O'Hare, Kathy Bates and Jessica Lange, with all returning from previous seasons, except Roberts and Bates. The season marks the first to not feature cast mainstays Dylan McDermott and Zachary Quinto.

Bitchcraft (<i>American Horror Story</i>) 1st episode of the 3rd season of American Horror Story

"Bitchcraft" is the premiere episode of the third season of the anthology television series American Horror Story, which premiered on October 9, 2013, on the cable network FX. The episode title is a portmanteau of the words bitch and witchcraft.

"The Sacred Taking" is the eighth episode of the third season of the anthology television series American Horror Story, which premiered on December 4, 2013, on the cable network FX. The episode was written by Ryan Murphy and directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon.

"The Magical Delights of Stevie Nicks" is the tenth episode of the third season of the anthology television series American Horror Story, which premiered on January 8, 2014, on the cable network FX. The episode was written by James Wong and directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon. In this episode, Fiona tries to out the next Supreme with a visit by Stevie Nicks and Madison tries to eliminate her competition for the Supremacy. This episode marks Nicks' acting debut. She agreed to do the show based on her love of Glee, another show from the same creative team. Angela Bassett, Danny Huston and Patti LuPone guest star as Marie Laveau, the Axeman, and Joan Ramsey, respectively. This episode is rated TV-MA (LV).

Witchcraft is a horror film series, that as of March 2018, has 16 direct to video installments, making it one of the horror genre's longest-running interconnected series. It began in 1988, and most films focus, at least partially, on the character of William Spanner, who is a powerful warlock who fights for good despite having an evil lineage.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Muir 2002, p. 121.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Hungry Wives". American Film Institute . Retrieved September 3, 2014.
  3. ↑ Muir 2015, p. 250.
  4. ↑ Redfern & Steiger 2014, p. 260.
  5. ↑ Mayo 2013, p. 313.
  6. ↑ "Hungry Wives". British Film Institute . Archived from the original on September 4, 2014. Retrieved September 3, 2014.
  7. 1 2 Williams 2015, pp. 52–5.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Williams 2015, p. 52.
  9. ↑ Quarles 2001, p. 75.
  10. ↑ Williams 2015, p. 27.
  11. 1 2 Williams 2015, p. 37.
  12. ↑ "Park Cinema advertisement". Abilene Reporter-News. Abilene, Texas. February 11, 1973. p. 107 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ↑ "At the Theaters". Daily Press . Newport News, Virginia. February 11, 1973. p. 63 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ↑ "Tonite! Drive-In Theatres". The Journal Herald. Dayton, Ohio. February 14, 1973. p. 43 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ↑ Williams 2011, p. 250.
  16. ↑ Williams 2015, p. 53.
  17. 1 2 "Season of the Witch - 1973 - Releases". Allmovie . All Media Guide . Retrieved September 3, 2014.
  18. ↑ "George A. Romero: Between Night and Dawn Blu-ray". Blu-ray.com. Retrieved December 4, 2017.
  19. ↑ Canby, Vincent (December 12, 1980). "Hungry Wives (1973) THALIA TWIN BILL". The New York Times . Retrieved September 3, 2014.
  20. 1 2 3 Newman, Kim (1982). "Season of the Witch". The Monthly Film Bulletin . Vol. 49, no. 576. London: British Film Institute. pp. 298–299.
  21. ↑ Phipps, Keith (April 26, 2012). "George Romero's '70s feature Season Of The Witch might feature witches, and might not". The A.V. Club . Retrieved September 3, 2014.
  22. ↑ Henderson, Eric (November 3, 2005). "Season of the Witch". Slant Magazine . Retrieved September 3, 2014.
  23. 1 2 Phipps, Keith. "Season of the Witch - Review". Allmovie. All Media Guide. Retrieved September 3, 2014.
  24. ↑ "Hungry Wives Review". TV Guide . Archived from the original on September 4, 2014. Retrieved September 3, 2014.
  25. ↑ Murphy 2009, pp. 57–58.
  26. ↑ "SEASON OF THE WITCH". Rotten Tomatoes . Retrieved January 21, 2023.

Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.