TWO WITCHES – Two witches, two stories, interconnected and both sharing an obvious love of seventies Italian stuff. Mixed reviews didn’t deter me, but maybe I should’ve listened. It gives with one hand and takes with the other – candlelit atmosphere summons a shadowy vibe upskittled by juddery editing, flirtation with gore raises hopes but then sidesteps anything really transgressive, compact storytelling propels things along yet somehow seems to plod (because there’s not all that much going on?) You can’t expect to get everything right, but ‘Two Witches’, despite showing promise and hitting a few nicely queasy notes here and there, is a bit of a zero-sum game. It ends by telling us that part two is on the horizon – I’ll probably give it a chance, but it’s nice to be forewarned! Two witches maybe, two watches maybe not.
JACK O - Jack O’Lantern-headed monster is the reincarnation of a serial killer in this goofball delight from the mid nineties. I had intended to watch it as part of my CL Halloween countdown (remember that? Feels like it was yonks ago already), but somehow it slipped from my greasy grasp. I actually saw it on bonfire night. It was quite nice because I was over in the hinterlands of West Yorkshire at my folks’ house, where my old room overlooks the wooded playing field that hosts the town’s annual Guy Fawkes celebrations, and I put this on in the dark whilst the fire outside burned full tilt and lit the walls of my room with an orange glow. Very atmospheric, and the best thing about it was that it felt a bit like being inside a massive Jack O’Lantern, maybe the head of Jack-O himself. As for the film, it’s trashy fun with rubbish special effects and Linnea Quigley.
 |