- Directed by: Anna Biller
- Written by: Anna Biller
- Stars: Samantha Robinson, Jeffrey Vincent Parise, Laura Waddell
- Run Time: 2 Hours
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4DoZlT7KSE
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
It’s set in a strange kind of 60s reality, with modern cars, computers, and a world where witches and magic are real, and everyone accepts that. The visuals, costuming, and lighting were all spot on for the vibe. It was slow-moving, though, and a bit too long for our taste. We’d call it pretty good, not great.
Spoilery Synopsis
We open on Elaine, who narrates to say she’s starting a new life out here in the country, where no one knows her. Credits roll. It’s all very colorful and retro-looking. We flashback to Jerry, who we watch die of poisoning. “I had a nervous breakdown after he left me.” She talks about being abused as we get flashes of his dead body.
A policeman pulls her over; Officer Griff just wants to warn her about a bad taillight. She pulls up to a huge house and unloads a bunch of suitcases. Trish introduces herself and helps with the luggage. She’s got the key to the mansion and lets them in. The room is insanely colorful and garish, “It’s just to my taste,” Elaine says.
The two go out to a very fancy tea room. Elaine explains that she’s been studying parapsychology, and she understands men better than she used to. She talks about Jerry, who left her, and about the cultists who taught her magic. Trish says Elaine sounds like she’s been brainwashed by the patriarchy. Richard, Trish’s husband, walks in and says hello.
At home later, Elaine mixes up some herbs in a pouch and makes a potion out of it from her spell book. She asks the goddess to send her a man to love her. She makes candles and takes them with the pouches to a local Wiccan store, run by Wendy, for consignment.
In the park, she meets Wayne, and she’s very forward with him. He wants to make out, but first, she pulls out a flask and has him try some. It’s her love potion. They go to his house, and she cooks him dinner. He teaches English literature. Halfway through dinner, the potion kicks in; she tells him it had hallucinogenic herbs in it. This leads to psychedelic sex.
In the morning, he complains that he feels strange. He says his whole world has changed as she listens quietly and in a very detached manner. The love potion worked really well. She goes to the next room and starts crying, wondering where she went. She calls him a big baby; she’s got no respect for him. Elaine goes to the bathroom, and we see that she wears a wig, but her eyeshadow never seems to run or fade. She makes Wayne breakfast and admires her “hair.”
A bit later, she finds Wayne dead in bed, killed by too much love. She works on another potion before burying him in the garden.
Trish mentions that she’s going out of town, leaving Richard at home alone.
Elaine goes to the club to talk to her old friend Barbara about her most recent romance, and she downplays everything. They sit with Gahan, the leader of the coven, who says that love spells never work out the way you expect. Someone yells, “Witches go home!” Moon and Star show up, twins who are here to learn dancing and sex magic. We get a lecture about female sexuality and the way men enslaved women.
We get a flashback to Elaine’s initiation into the group. Gahan makes her discuss perfect love and then there’s a ritual.
At the police station, Officer Griff has been promoted to detective, and he’s got eyes on all the policewomen there. Shelly comes in, she’s called about Wayne going missing. She saw him drive off with Elaine, and he hasn’t been seen since. The police go to Wayne’s house, and it’s just like Elaine left it, with rotting food and everything. They soon find where she buried the body.
That night, Richard has a date with Elaine, who makes him dinner. She makes him… a drink. She does a sexy dance for him, and he’s all in on cheating on his wife.
Griff goes to see Professor King, an expert on the occult. He shows him the potion that Elaine buried with Wayne. King talks all about human sacrifices and blood powers, and yes, they still do this stuff today. There are black and white witches, and they’re all over the country.
We cut to Gahan, Barbara, and Elaine, along with the rest of the coven, out in the woods doing a ritual. Gahan tells Elaine that he knows what she’s been up to. She mentions that she broke it off with Richard, who got too obsessed with her.
We cut to Richard, who hasn’t shaved in a week and is drinking heavily. Trish wonders what’s wrong. He cries and obsesses some more.
Griff goes to Wendy’s shop with the witch bottle, and she points the way to Elaine. He comes to Elaine to talk about Wayne. She freely admits that she’s a witch, but there’s no law against that. She’s seen him in the cards– he’s the man she’s going to marry.
He invites her out riding horses the next day, and they ride to an old-timey carnival, like a Renaissance fair. We recognize Gahan and Barbara on the stage; their being here is no accident. We get a musical number about marriage and “pretend love.”
Elaine and Griff change clothes for a “mock wedding,” which is over really quickly. We heard Griff narrating that he’s not really in love, but she clearly is. They have opposite thoughts.
Detective Steve tells Griff that he thinks Elaine murdered Wayne. He knows all about Jerry from back in the other town. There’s a whole trail of poisonings behind her. Steve is convinced, but Griff isn’t listening.
Across town, Trish finds that Richard has committed suicide. She goes to tea with Elaine again, and she tells her what happened. Trish has no idea who Richard was having an affair with. When Elaine talks about her new boyfriend,
When Elaine leaves her ring with Trish, Trish stops by the house to return it and looks at all the witchy stuff she’s got there. She stops and tries on some of Elaine’s makeup and her wig, and soon she looks very different. She also finds a photo of Richard there and quickly puts two and two together. Elaine comes, and Trish attacks her before running off.
Gahan and Barbara do another ritual, this time to hook up Elaine and Griff permanently. Griff’s at the club, and he hears everyone talking about the town witches. Elaine shows up, and knows from DNA that she killed Wayne. She points out that Wayne died from heart failure, and Richard killed himself; she didn’t kill either of them. He says he doesn’t love her, but she’s not dissuaded.
Griff gets ready to arrest Elaine, but suddenly, the bar patrons start chanting “Burn the witch” and attack her. Later, at her place, she promises that everything will be OK as she hands him a drink– he dumps it and resists her influence. He lies back in bed, and she stabs him to death with a dagger, imagining him saying that he wants to marry her. As we flash back to their Renaissance fair “wedding,” she sits there with her knife.
Brian’s Commentary
The crazy camera angles, colorful sets, and costumes reminded me of the old “Batman” TV series for some reason. Everything here looks colorful and beautiful, and the retro-emulation of old 60s movies is impeccable. On the other hand, all the characters talk in a weird, stilted manner that seems very much like either a comic book or a bad porno. For a long while, we weren’t sure which way this was going to go.
There are modern cars and computers in the background of some scenes, so it’s not necessarily set in the 60s, but it really tries hard to look like it. We were more than halfway through the film before we realized Richard and Officer Griff weren’t the same character; they look a lot alike.
This looks amazing, and they’ve really caught the aesthetic of old movies. The acting is weird, but it’s obviously intentional. It’s really good, although maybe a half-hour too long.
Kevin’s Commentary
The visuals were spot on, with retro shots, color schemes, and colorful lighting. However, it was weird that it was only selectively retro. And set in a world where witches and magic are real, and everyone just accepts it. While it’s interesting, this was so slow-moving and slow-paced that I felt like it could have been watched at 1.25x speed, and I wouldn’t have missed anything. I’d just rate it as okay overall.