Plot
Sexually repressed virgin student Leslie is visiting an island off the coast of Massachusetts along with her photographer boyfriend Gary. They're researching a derelict hotel the locals believe to be haunted by a witch.
While Leslie and Gary work on their project, a family comes to the island to inspect the hotel: greedy matriarch Rose Brooks, her husband Freddie, young son Tommy, and pregnant stepdaughter Jane. They are visiting the place because Rose plans to buy the hotel and turn it into a private club. They're accompanied by the lustful Linda Sullivan, a young architect hired to provide an estimate for the renovations, and real estate agent Jerry Giordano.
After a storm leaves the guests unable to leave the island, they are attacked and murdered one by one by the Lady in Black, an evil witch who was once a famous movie star and is now carrying out a gruesome demonic ritual that involves four elements: greed, lust, a pregnant woman, and the defiling of a virgin. Rose is burned alive, while Linda and Jerry are captured while having sex, then tortured and crucified. Freddie and Gary are killed too, after Leslie is raped by a demon during a satanic ceremony. Ultimately, Jane becomes possessed by the witch and confronts Leslie and Tommy. She begins to choke her little brother, causing him to drop the tape recorder Jane had given him as a gift. The recorder plays a message Tommy had created for his sister, expressing his love for her. This succeeds in temporarily breaking the witch's hold on Jane, who throws herself out of a window to her death in order to prevent the witch from regaining control. Leslie, the only survivor along with Tommy, wakes up in a hospital bed, where she is horrified to learn that she was impregnated during the ceremony.
Production
The financial success of Ghosthouse (1988), which was titled La casa 3 – Ghosthouse in Italy, led to producer Aristide Massaccesi and distributor Achille Manzotti to develop an in-name only sequel. The director of the initial film, Umberto Lenzi, suggested a story for a sequel which he described as being similar to Psycho (1960), but felt that the producers had no interest in it. The film's screenplay and story is credited to Daniele Stroppa, but Claudio Lattanzi stated that he also worked on the story at Stroppa's location, as he was going to direct it.
Lattanzi urged producer Massaccessi to hire actress Bette Davis for the role of the witch in the film, but later cast Hildegard Knef in the role. Other cast members include David Hasselhoff, who was popular in Italy due to his series Knight Rider and, under Lattanzi's suggestion, Leslie Cumming, who had previously been in Killing Birds (1988). Early on, Lattanzi left the production and was replaced with Luigi Cozzi, who left the film two weeks into pre-production, finding the story "too predictable and banal".
Cozzi was in turn replaced with Fabrizio Laurenti, who had previously debuted with his 30-minute vampire film titled The Immigrant (1986). Massaccesi said he liked The Immigrant enormously, but noticed on set that Laurenti had difficulties working with an international cast, including Blair and Hasselhoff. Massaccesi agreed to finance Laurenti's next film, despite feeling the director "still [had] a long way to go".
Filming for Witchery commenced on March 16, 1988, in Scituate and Cohasset, Massachusetts. The film's score by Carlo Maria Cordio was taken from Killing Birds and was used again later in La Casa 5 (1990).
Release
Witchery was released as early as 1 December 1988 in West Germany, under the title Hexenbrut. This was followed by a theatrical release in Japan on 1 July 1989 and a home video release in the United States on 6 July before being released theatrically in Italy on 6 August, where it was distributed by Aristi Associati/Gruppo Berna. Film historian Roberto Curti noted that the film did very well financially in Italy, becoming the 60th highest-grossing film of the year with 1,283,194,000 Italian lire. This placed the film below James Cameron's The Abyss that year.
Following Witchery, Laurenti made another film for Massaccesi titled The Crawlers (1991).
Hildegard Frieda Albertine Knef was a German actress, singer, and writer. She was billed in some English-language films as Hildegard Neff or Hildegarde Neff.
Aristide Massaccesi, known professionally as Joe D'Amato, was an Italian film director, producer, cinematographer, and screenwriter who worked in many genres but is best known for his horror, erotic and adult films.
Catherine Hickland is an American film, stage, and television actress, as well as a singer, author and cosmetics-company CEO and hypnotist. She began her career in television in 1978, appearing in guest roles on several series before being cast in a recurring role on Texas from 1980 to 1981. She also had supporting roles in the comedy film The Last Married Couple in America (1980), and the horror films Ghost Town (1988) and Witchery (1988).
George Eastman is an Italian actor and screenwriter well known for his frequent collaborations with notorious director Joe D'Amato. He is most famous for his role as the insane, cannibalistic serial killer Klaus Wortmann in the gory 1980 horror film Antropophagus. He also played a similar role in its 1981 follow-up, Absurd. Both films were directed by D'Amato and written by Eastman.
Umberto Lenzi was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and novelist.
Claudio Fragasso is a film director and screenwriter. Fragasso first attempted to make art films in the early 1970s, then became a screenwriter in the Italian film industry in the mid-1970s. Fragasso met director Bruno Mattei, which led to a ten-year partnership from 1980 to 1990 during which the two worked together closely on films, with Fragasso's contributions often going uncredited. Fragasso's wife Rossella Drudi was also a screenwriter and collaborated with him on a number of projects. Fragasso would later go on to write and direct his own films in the 1980s, including Monster Dog with rock musician Alice Cooper and After Death. Fragasso directed Troll 2 in 1989, which was later the topic of Best Worst Movie, a documentary film that discussed Troll 2's fandom.
Ghosthouse is a 1988 Italian horror film written and directed by Umberto Lenzi. It co-starred Lara Wendel and Donald O'Brien. The plot focuses on a deserted house where the visions of a ghostly girl and her haunted doll wreak havoc on those who enter it.
Beyond Darkness is an Italian horror film written and directed by Claudio Fragasso.
La Casa is the name given to a collection of mostly unrelated horror films which were retitled and marketed in Italy as one single series. They include movies from both the Evil Dead film series and the House film series.
Witchcraft has a wide range of meanings in anthropological, folkloric, mythological, and religious contexts.
Franco Ferrini is an Italian screenwriter. His works often fall into the genres of horror or thriller. He was one of the interviewees represented in the book Spaghetti Nightmares.
Killing Birds is a 1988 Italian horror film starring Lara Wendel and Robert Vaughn. The film is set in Louisiana where Fred Brown returns from the Vietnam war to find his wife in bed with her lover and slaughters the whole family sparing the newborn son. After the massacre, he is attacked by and blinded by a falcon. Twenty years later a group of students led by Steve and Anne meet Brown, and begin their search for a nearly extinct breed of woodpecker and come across grisly occurrences including boys being killed by vengeful zombies.
Beyond the Darkness is a 1979 Italian exploitation horror film directed by Joe D'Amato. It follows Francesco Koch, an orphaned taxidermist who inherits a house in the woods where he lives with his housekeeper Iris, who is determined to become the new owner. After Iris kills his girlfriend Anna with a voodoo curse, Francesco steals her corpse from the local cemetery. He then commits murders connected to his enduring passion for her. A local undertaker investigates and meets Teodora, Anna's twin sister.
Death Smiles on a Murderer is a 1973 Italian horror film directed by Joe D'Amato and starring Ewa Aulin, Klaus Kinski and Luciano Rossi.
Phantom of Death (Italian: Un delitto poco comune, lit. 'An Uncommon Crime' is a 1988 Italian giallo film directed by Ruggero Deodato. It starred Michael York, Donald Pleasence and Edwige Fenech.
Etoile is a 1989 film starring Jennifer Connelly and Gary McCleery.
La Casa del Buon Ritorno is a 1986 Italian giallo written and directed by Beppe Cino. It is also known as The House of the Blue Shadows. The film was theatrically released in Germany as Das Haus der Blauen Schatten.
Wanja Mary Sellers is an Italian actress and director, known for her performances in Italian horror films.
Specters is a 1987 Italian horror film directed by Marcello Avallone and starring Donald Pleasence.
Witch Story is a 1989 Italian horror film directed by Alessandro Capone.
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