Witchcraft IV: The Virgin Heart

Watched November 17, 2024

1992

Starring: Charles Solomon Jr., Julie Strain

Director: James Merendino

I've seen Witchcraft III and I wrote in 2012 that I wouldn't watch anymore of these, but I guess I forgot 12 years later and gave Witchcraft IV a chance. But I continue to regret my decisions, I just want some  real witch and warlock movies please. 

A couple is driving into the dark woods. They pass a random phone booth. They park and make out but Nora (Diane Fowler) doesn't want to make out. Nora walks away from the Pete (Orien Richman) but he hits his head. She comes back but now he's passed out. She drives to the phone booth but dials a wrong number. A guy shows up and puts Nora in his trunk. Pete is arrested for his girlfriend's disappearance. Nora is taken to a mysterious location and her heart is ripped out in a ritual.

 

Will (Charles Solomon Jr.) is a lawyer, he gets a call from Pete's sister to help her brother. Will is a reluctant warlock. He meets the stripper Belladonna (Julie Strain) while trying to find out what happened to Nora to clear Pete's name. Belladonna is under the control of Santera (Clive Pearson) who rapes her! Will is hiding and doesn't use his power to help Belladonna. Will keeps checking in with the sister, they go on a date but she freaks out when he tries to kiss her. Instead he goes and has elevator sex with Belladonna. The sister had the parents killed. Detective noir vibes but....

How much should you explain your previous concepts in a sequel? This movie doesn't explain anything. And the witchcraft element is practically non-existent. I guess it's the same actor but these series don't seem to be ones that people really follow while they are coming out. The main appeal seems to be horror adjacent female nudity, which is fine but not enough to hold the story together. 

Curse of the Devil

Watched April 13, 2015

1973
Starring: Paul Naschy, Fabiola Falcon, Mariano Vidal Medina, Martiza Olivares

The VHS tape we watched broke about halfway through so I though that curse of the devil is pretty strong. It made a crazy noise in the VCR and it just wouldn't continue, I've never had a tape do what this one did. Luckily this movie is available in its entirety on Youtube and it's a much better version than the copy that broke.

It begins in Medieval times where two knights are having a duel. Some witches are watching them fight. One of the knights is killed, and the main witch swears vengeance for his death. That night the coven of witches perform a ritual and drain the blood of one of the men into a cup. They are interrupted and killed before they can finish the rite, but before the main witch dies she mutters a curse. 

Jump to the mid 1800's, (that's my guess anyway). A new generation of witches who are descendents of the original and have the same vendetta. They have another ceremony and transfer the curse of the werewolf to Waldemar (Paul Naschy) a local nobleman, who happens to be a descendent of the original knight. The witches transfer the curse by indoctrinating a local woman, she is then abandoned on the street. Waldemar finds the woman and takes her into his palace. He then sleeps with her and she uses the special wolf skull to give him the werewolf curse. Coincidentally there is a crazy man that has been killing random people and it's made everyone be on high alert.

A Professor and his family come to visit from Budapest. Valdemar starts courting the oldest daughter Kinga (Fabiola Falcon) and they jump in the sack right away.  Kinga's younger sister Maria (Martiza Olivares) tries to seduce Waldemar but he instead turns into a werewolf and kills her. The Pofessor's family and local law enforcement want to catch the killer. Kinga is given advice from Waldemar's housekeeper that he is now a werewolf and they only way to kill him is with a dagger to the heart. A mob gathers chasing Waldemar around, but Kinga gets to him first and manages to stab in his the heart. The curse of the werewolf is over, but then we find out that Kinga was pregnant with Waldemar's baby. Jump to the future and she has a half werewolf son.
 
I would give Witches and Werewolves as an alternate title to this movie, the devil doesn't make an appearance. Originally in Spanish, it's dubbed in English but it works fine. It's slow and strange in the classic low budge '70s way. The blood is a bright, creamy red. But there are some great werewolf kill scenes and the werewolf costume is pretty fun.

The Craft

Watched January 5, 2014

1996
Starring: Robin Tunney, Fairuza Balk, Rachel True, Neve Campbell

After a suicide attempt, Sarah (Robin Tunney) moves with her dad and step-mom to LA. On her first day at her new Catholic high school, she meets Chris (Skeet Ulrich) one of the popular guys and she quickly develops a crush on him even though he's a sleazebag. She also meets trio of weird goth girls, Nancy (Fairuza Balk), Bonnie (Neve Campbell) and Rochelle (Rachel True). These girls are already practicing witches, but they need a fourth to make some of their spells really work. They try to attract Sarah after Bonnie sees her balance a pencil on the tip in French class. Nancy makes fun of Sarah as a way to makes friends with her, which is a terrible place to start. Sarah goes on a date with Chris, they only kiss, but the next day Chris tells everyone they had sex. Sarah is pissed at Chris and he is a jerk when she confronts him about it. We then jump cut to Sarah being good friends with Nancy, Bonnie and Rochelle, there seems to be a scene missing, but just go along for the ride. 

The trio introduce Sarah to their witchy ways, she is intrigued as she has been able to do little bits of magic her whole life. They keep trying out different spells as they all want different things to happen. Sarah still has a crush on Chris even though he's terrible, so she makes a love spell to make him obsessed with her. Bonnie's back in covered in scars from a fire when she was a kid and she wishes them away. Rochelle is on the swim team with racist Laura (Christine Taylor) and she just wants Laura to be kind to her. Nancy doesn't really reveal her desire, but we'll find out later what she wanted, mostly power though. 

The spell works on Chris, he becomes Sarah's puppy and he follows her everywhere. Bonnie's scars go away so she can wear low cut, sleeveless tops, even though the scars were mostly on her back in the first place. Laura continues to be terrible to Rochelle, so Laura's hair starts coming out in clumps. Nancy lives in a trailer with her mom and the mom's boyfriend who is abusive. One night the boyfriend is about the hit Nancy's mom when Nancy freaks out, causing the lights to go out, then the boyfriend has a heart attack. 

All the girls feel really confident in their new powers, except Sarah starts to get a little scared about what they're doing. They have another ceremony on the beach where Nancy summons the power of Manon and she walks on water. Sarah goes on another date with Chris, but is sick of him be obsessed with her so she tries to break if off. He then attempts to rape her but she escapes. Nancy is pissed about what Chris did and wants to get revenge. She also has some vague romantic history with him so some of her motive is personal. Nancy uses a spell to make herself look like Sarah, Chris buys it and they start making out. Sarah, Rochelle and Bonnie bust into the room where Chris and Nancy are humping on a bed, I'm not sure if we're supposed to assume they had sex as they both still have their clothes on. The spell breaks and Chris is horrified to find that he was making out with Nancy, she gets pissed and uses her powers to push him out the window. He falls down to the first floor and is killed. Sarah is really scared now and she tries to make a binding spell to stop Nancy from using her powers. The girls now descend on Sarah and throw tons of horrifying spells at her, Sarah is so scared she can't use her powers to fight back. She finally finds her strength and fights back, and binds Nancy from using evil powers. It ends with Bonnie and Rochelle apologizing to Sarah for trying to kill her but they ask if she still has any powers because they don't. Sarah makes a bunch of lighting hit a tree branch in front of them, showing she was the one with real powers. Nancy is left in a mental institution.

As a girl growing up in the '90s, I remember this movie coming out.  My best friend was pretty into Wicca, so we fit the bill perfectly for the target audience. I didn't actually see this movie until later possibly because it was rated R, but at the same time I was watching all sorts of other horror movies so who knows. Anyway we had been talking about watching it again for awhile. I still really like it, teen witch outcasts are people I can relate to. The special effects still hold up really well, even though Robin Tunney's wig is not the best.  A big standout for me was how strange Fairuza Balk's mouth seems, she just talks using all of it and it's big; her nutso performance as Nancy is great. It's often hard to find a good witch movie and I really enjoy this one a lot since it's mostly slumber parties and spells.

Witchcraft III: The Kiss of Death

Watched January 16, 2012

1991 (direct to video and it shows)

Starring: Charles Solomon, Lisa Toothman, William J. Baker, and Leana Hall

I haven't see any of the previous Witchcraft movies and now that I've watched one I'm not planning on seeing any of the 10 that came after.  

William Spanner (Charles Solomon) is a lawyer working trying to prove the innocence of a kid who slept with an older woman who later turned up dead. He is dating Charlotte (Lisa Toothman) a large breasted fashion designer who just sold 50 pieces to Nordstrom!  Enter Louis (Domonic Luciana) a good looking dude (or demon?) who seduces women to steal their soul/essence and then brings it home to his lover Roxy (Leana Hall.)

William Spanner comes home and begins making out with Charlotte but he notices that she is wearing a necklace of a pentagram that belonged to his deceased mother.  He freaks out that she found it and put it on because it reminds him of his witchy heritage. William randomly meets Louis at a bar where they both try to pick up the same woman.  Louis walks this woman home and sucks out her soul.  Later as William and Louis become better friends,  Louis tries to seduce Charlotte and it almost works but William runs in just as they are kissing.

Meanwhile working on his case, William meets Reverend Jondular (William J. Baker) who mostly seems like a witch doctor.  Reverend Jondular feels some special presence in William and tries to convince him to embrace it. 

William has a freaky dream where Charlotte is having sex with Louis in the shower and he knows that Louis is a bad guy. William tries to protect Charlotte by hiding her away but Louis really wants her for some reason. At some point Reverend Jondular dies and leaves William his magic staff. William uses the magic staff to beat the crap out of Louis, as it's the only thing that will defeat him.  After beating up Louis and burying his body, they think that they've won, but Louis pops out of his grave. William breaks the staff in half and stabs Louis through the heart, finally destroying the demon.

The best part, in my opinion, is when Charlotte first meets Louis she is having a fashion shoot at her house. When the models wearing her clothes are shown they are wearing some of the ugliest outfits I've ever seen. All they are is piles of lace and ruffles, and I'm surprised that anyone bought anything she designed.

The special effects are pretty good for the early '90's but for a movie entitled witchcraft there is very little magic happening. William doesn't do any spells he just manages to use the staff that was given to him.  Maybe this is a sequel that involves seeing the previous movies because I was somewhat confused on what the deal with Louis was. Also William has a hilarious California/ surfer Nic Cage accent that really ruins his credibility as a lawyer.