Witchcraft

Buried alive 300 years prior, a witch returns to wreak vengeance after land developers disturb her grave.

Witchcraft is an unremarkable horror film that squanders a descent premise on a mediocre cast and timid script.

With its English cast and locales, this almost feels like a Hammer film. Almost. Although, director Don Sharp’s previous film was Hammer’s The Kiss of the Vampire, that outing seems positively X-rated next to this timid offering. Here the resurrected witch, played by Yvette Rees, kills through elaborate manipulation, so instead of the bloody fun of Hammer, we have cars driven off cliffs and people drowning in bathtubs.

Then there’s Lon Chaney Jr. Though he has top billing, the script gives him little to do aside from look tired and pissed off. Clearly, he’s just a name to get people into theater seats, but you can’t help but wonder what Peter Cushing could have done with the role. Indeed, if they’d of swapped Chaney for Cushing and made Rees’ character a bit more “hands-on” they might have made a solid little thriller, but alas, we’ll never know.

All this isn’t to say that Witchcraft is awful. At only 79-minutes, it’s quite watchable and competent. It’s just that, for a horror film, Witchcraft isn’t particularly scary or fun. In fact, it’s almost boring.