THE WITCHES MOUNTAIN (1972)
Label: Mondo Macabro
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 86 Minutes 20 Seconds
Audio: Spanish or English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo with Optional English Subtitles
Audio: Spanish or English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.39:1)
Director: Raúl Artigot
Cast: John (Cihangir) Gaffari, Patty Shepard, Victor Israel, Monica Randall, Ana Farra
The witchy Spanish folk horror entry The Witches Mountain (1972) starts off with a slam-bang, a woman named Carla (Mónica Randall, Red Sun) returns home to find her beloved cat has been killed, a young child at the home whose relationship to Carla is (and remains) unclear, appears to have killed it. The woman follows the girl to a garage where she sets the place on fire killing the young girl. The next scene features Carla meeting up with her photographer boyfriend Mario (Cihangir Ghaffari, Jess Franco's The Demons), who has the most luxurious 70's handlebar moustache I've seen in many years. Oddly, there's no reference to the opening scene, Carla appears normal and not at all flustered by setting the young girl on fire. Mario tells Carla things just aren't working out between the two and says he's headed to the isolated mountains of Asturias in northern Spain for an assignment. Once in the mountains we see him taking pictures on a hill overlooking a beach from which he spies a young woman on the beach. He steals a few shots of her as she's changing out of her bathing suit before heading down to the beach below to introduce himself, she's a writer and her name is Delia (the Barbara Steele-esque beauty Patty Shepard, Slugs). It's a bizarre meet-up, but maybe this sort of semi-creepy thing was common in the early 70's, he half-assedly apologies for taking the pics without her permission and turns his apology into an opportunity to take her to lunch, which she accepts. For reasons that defy logic considering that he comes off as a bit leering creep Delia accompanies him on his photoshoot into the mountains, and as night falls they shack up at a small inn run by the odd and hard-of-hearing Posadero (Victor Israel, who is quite recognizable from Horror Express, looking like a bug-eyed mixture of Peter Lorre and Marty Feldman). At the inn Delia encounters a mysterious robed figure peering in at her from outside a window during a power outage. The next day they head into the mountains where someone steals Mario's jeep, leaving the couple stranded. Wandering further up the misty hills along a road they find the Jeep abandoned but in good working order, left near what appears to be an abandoned village. While exploring the village they discover it's not quite deserted as it first seemed, an old woman named Santa (Ana Farra, School of Death) lives in one of the stone villas and invites them to stay the night. Throughout the evening odd things begin to happen, Mario wanders the area taking photographs, which when later developed reveal people that clearly weren't there when he took them, and later when he becomes lost in the woods he encounters a woodland funeral procession of some sort with robed figures carrying torches, and is later attacked by a red-haired woman without a tongue who seems to have transformed from a cat into a human. Meanwhile Delia is back at Santa's stone villa and falls under the spell of a witch-cult inhabiting the area.
Director: Raúl Artigot
Cast: John (Cihangir) Gaffari, Patty Shepard, Victor Israel, Monica Randall, Ana Farra
The witchy Spanish folk horror entry The Witches Mountain (1972) starts off with a slam-bang, a woman named Carla (Mónica Randall, Red Sun) returns home to find her beloved cat has been killed, a young child at the home whose relationship to Carla is (and remains) unclear, appears to have killed it. The woman follows the girl to a garage where she sets the place on fire killing the young girl. The next scene features Carla meeting up with her photographer boyfriend Mario (Cihangir Ghaffari, Jess Franco's The Demons), who has the most luxurious 70's handlebar moustache I've seen in many years. Oddly, there's no reference to the opening scene, Carla appears normal and not at all flustered by setting the young girl on fire. Mario tells Carla things just aren't working out between the two and says he's headed to the isolated mountains of Asturias in northern Spain for an assignment. Once in the mountains we see him taking pictures on a hill overlooking a beach from which he spies a young woman on the beach. He steals a few shots of her as she's changing out of her bathing suit before heading down to the beach below to introduce himself, she's a writer and her name is Delia (the Barbara Steele-esque beauty Patty Shepard, Slugs). It's a bizarre meet-up, but maybe this sort of semi-creepy thing was common in the early 70's, he half-assedly apologies for taking the pics without her permission and turns his apology into an opportunity to take her to lunch, which she accepts. For reasons that defy logic considering that he comes off as a bit leering creep Delia accompanies him on his photoshoot into the mountains, and as night falls they shack up at a small inn run by the odd and hard-of-hearing Posadero (Victor Israel, who is quite recognizable from Horror Express, looking like a bug-eyed mixture of Peter Lorre and Marty Feldman). At the inn Delia encounters a mysterious robed figure peering in at her from outside a window during a power outage. The next day they head into the mountains where someone steals Mario's jeep, leaving the couple stranded. Wandering further up the misty hills along a road they find the Jeep abandoned but in good working order, left near what appears to be an abandoned village. While exploring the village they discover it's not quite deserted as it first seemed, an old woman named Santa (Ana Farra, School of Death) lives in one of the stone villas and invites them to stay the night. Throughout the evening odd things begin to happen, Mario wanders the area taking photographs, which when later developed reveal people that clearly weren't there when he took them, and later when he becomes lost in the woods he encounters a woodland funeral procession of some sort with robed figures carrying torches, and is later attacked by a red-haired woman without a tongue who seems to have transformed from a cat into a human. Meanwhile Delia is back at Santa's stone villa and falls under the spell of a witch-cult inhabiting the area.
The Witches Mountain is steeped in folk horror atmosphere, lot of gorgeous but eerie woodland/mountain scenery, it's quite a mysterious film and often doesn't lend itself to easy dissection or traditional story narratives. This could be inept filmmaking, or it might just be (and what I think personally) is simply style over story, either way I can see how this might prove a bit languid (i.e. dull) for the casual horror fan just looking for a witchy goof time. However, if you're a died-in-the-wool euro-cult deep-diver (hey, that's me) who loves a good slow-burn (me, again) and can appreciate a flick that doesn't necessarily resolve itself particularly well there's certainly some spellbinding magic to be found here. I especially enjoyed the eerie score by Fernando García Morcillo (The Cannibal Man) that incorporates haunting chanting vocalizations, which at one point seems to enter story as Mario begins hearing the score inside of the film, unable to discern where it's coming from, which makes for an eerie sort of breaking of the fourth wall.
This is a film that you won't much enjoy of you're picking it apart, it's more of an experience, you just have to surrender your senses to the atmospheric witch flick, and if you can do that I think you will find it fairly engrossing. The film was banned in Spain and has been a pretty elusive bit of Spanish horror to come by for a long while in quality and uncut iterations, so kudos to Mondo Macabro for rescuing this from the dustbins and bringing it out of the dark and into the light of day fully intact and loaded up with some fantastic extras.
Audio/Video: The Witches Mountain (1972) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Mondo Macabro in 1080p HD framed in 2.39:1 widescreen. Not sure what the source here is but I found it pleasing enough, colors looks good, saturation is usually quite good though there are some soft spots throughout. It does look like it's been DNR'd a bit, grain is still evident but it's pretty thin, some facial details are on the waxy side, contrast is not great and the shadow detail is lacking. It's not perfection but I do love having this uncut and actually watchable. I've previously watched this on a VHS-rip DVD edition on Mill Creek Entertainment's Chilling Classics 50 Movie Pack and it's hard to relate just how much of an upgrade this Mondo Macabro release is, it's pretty stunning by comparison. On a side note, those budget-minded MCE collections were pretty awesome, were they not? Super-crappy quality aside, it's quite interesting just how many of the flicks on those sets would later be restored and re-issued from the liked of Severin, Vinegar Syndrome, Code Red, Scream Factory and other boutique labels, outfits that cleaned 'em up real nice with lovely restorations and presented them in their proper aspect ratios, but I give a lot of credit to MCE for getting these low-budget schlockers to the dirty cult-movie masses in the early 2000s, that's how I first discovered a lot of these culty gems, at least the ones I didn;t see on WPIX and WGN TV as a kid in Upstate NY.
Audio coms by way of uncompressed Spanish or English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo with optional English subtitles. The English dub is pretty tinny with obvious hiss throughout, and the score can get mighty harsh sounding, but if you're foreign language adverse it will do the trick. The Spanish audio is the way to go, it's cleaner and the dialogue delivery is more natural and the score is fuller bodied.
Extras start off with an Audio Commentary from David Flint that does good work balancing critique of the movie's shortcoming with what make it so watchable, noting the censorship issues it faced in Spain, and highlighting the cast and crew who worked on the film.
Handlebar moustache himself actor John (Cihangir) Gaffari appears in two separate interviews, we get a 30-min sit down as he recounts his early career, transitioning from Iranian films to Italy and Spain, with focus on the films he made in Europe and the US, plus a second 36-min interview that focuses on his body of work in Iranian and Turkish cinema. Also featured is a 24-min Spanish language documentary about the making of the film, El Monte De Las Brujas El Documental (2021), a lot of this is focused on actor Victor Israel, with both the actor and film fans talking about his storied career, and how his odd appearance made for memorable characters, and telling some interesting tales about cursed films, his own infidelity, becoming friendly with Peter Cushing on Horror Express. The mini doc also gets into the meat of The Witches mountain with talk about the censorship issues, the memorable score, and the co-stars
The 8-min Visual Essay about Patty Shepard from Chris O’Neill focuses on the cult actresses genre film career which spanned two decades and many sub-genres. Some of the films covered include My Dear Killer, Slugs, The Stranger and the Gunfighter, The Man Called Noon, Assignment Terror, The Werewolf vs the Vampire Woman, and Edge of the Axe, also noting that she regretted her horror film career. The disc extras are finished-up with a 3-min Trailer plus the usual 13-min Mondo Macabro Promo. The single-disc standard edition release arrives in a standard keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork featuring outstanding artwork by Justin Coffee.
Special Features:
- English and Spanish audio choice, with optional English subtitles.
- Two interviews with actor John (Cihangir) Gaffari. One explores the films he made in Europe and the US (30:06), the second interview (36:00) looks at his extensive body of work in Iranian and Turkish cinema
- A Spanish language documentary about the making of the film: El Monte De Las Brujas El Documental (2021) (24:28)
- Audio Commentary from David Flint
- Visual essay about Patty Shepard from Chris O’Neill (7:52)
- Trailer (3:04)
- English and Spanish audio choice, with optional English subtitles.
- Two interviews with actor John (Cihangir) Gaffari. One explores the films he made in Europe and the US (30:06), the second interview (36:00) looks at his extensive body of work in Iranian and Turkish cinema
- A Spanish language documentary about the making of the film: El Monte De Las Brujas El Documental (2021) (24:28)
- Audio Commentary from David Flint
- Visual essay about Patty Shepard from Chris O’Neill (7:52)
- Trailer (3:04)
- Mondo Macabro Trailer Reel (13:29)
- Newly commissioned cover art from Justin Coffee
- Newly commissioned cover art from Justin Coffee
Screenshots from the Mondo Macabro Blu-ray:
