THE NAKED WITCH (1969)
aka THE WITCHMAKER
Label: VCI Entertainment
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: R
Duration: 98 Minutes 28 Seconds
Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35,:1)
Director: William O. Brown
Cast: Anthony Eisley, Thordis Brandt, Alvy Moore, Shelby Grant, Tony Benson, Robyn Millan, Warrene Ott, Helene Winston, Burt Mustin, Rudy Haydel
The Naked Witch aka The Witchmaker (1969), directed by William O. brown, opens with a scantily clad young woman swimming in the dirty waters of the Louisiana Bayou when she is attacked by the hulking Luther the Berserk (John Lodge, In Like Flint), a swamp-dwelling warlock who looks like Solomon Grundy. He paints an ankh symbol in blood on her abdomen and then cut her throat, bloodletting her. Not long after Dr. Ralph Hayes (Alvey Moore, A Boy and Hos Dog) a paranormal researcher from the nearby university arrives in the area to research psychic phenomena and the areas mythological past,in tow with him is a reporter named Victor (Antony Isley, The Wasp Woman ) who is there to research the recent spate of murdered women, and four student research assistants; these include the psychic-sensitive Anastasia (Thordis Brandt, In Like Flint), Maggie (Shelby Grant, Our Man Flint), Sharon (Robyn Millan, Murph the Surf), and Owen (Tony Benson, Bye Bye Birdie) seduced and killed by Anastacia, who are brought into the remote swamp via local boatman (Burt Mustin, The Ghost and Mr. Chicken) and dropped off at a remote rental cabin to conduct their research. On the way out the fact that there gave been a series of ritualistic murders of women in the area, and how some suspect that witches still inhabit the deep swamp.
Meanwhile, Luthor summons his coven's leader Jesse (Helene Winston, The Killing Kind) an old hag witch, and through a blood ritual she is transformed from an old gag into a rather sexy spellcaster, now embodied by actress Warrene Ott (The Undertaker and His Pals). When Luthor and Jesse discover that sexy blonde Anastasia is a psychic-sensitive they set out to induct her into the coven, but to do so more blood will need to be spilled.
Towards the end of the film Luthor summons the rest of the coven to induct Anastasia to witness her signing her soul into the book of the devil. It's a colorful cast of witches and warlocks from around the world, these include Felicity Johnson (Sue Bernard), San Blas (Howard Viet), Goody Hale (Nancy Crawford, The Thrill Killers), the Hag of Devon (Patricia Wymer, The Babysitter), Warlock Le Singe (Del Kaye), El-ah Hishmach, Nautch of Tangier (pin-up model Diane Webber, The Trial of Billy Jack), Marta of Amsterdam (Carla Rhodimer), Amos Coffin (horror host Larry Vincent, Doctor Death), and Fong Qual (Gwen Lipscomb).
The regional horror flick has plenty going for it, terrific looking bayou locations with mangrove swamps and sweeping moss trees, fog-shrouded forests, and a bevy of sexy women, who somewhat frustrating are nude but hilariously their naughty bits are obscured through Austin Powers-esque objects and trees, are cupped by the women themselves as they run through the swamps. Eagle-eyed viewers will catch a brief glimpse of Thordis Brandt nude in the final sequence of the film, so keep that pause button ready you perverts.
The film is quite well directed by writer/director William O. Brown who only directed one other film, the Hawaii set crime-thriller One Way Wahine (1965), which I have not seen. But his work, and that of cinematographer Jams Crabe (Night Shift) are solid, the film is moody and atmospheric, making great use of the swampy locales, with eerily lit witchy rituals and murder. We also get a creepy and effectively spooky score by Jaime Mendoza-Nava (The Creature from Black Lake, Mausoleum). The slowest parts of the flick are the dialogue exchanges between the pipe-smoking Dr. Hayes and skeptical reporter Victor, there's a ton of them and they without fail grind it to a halt. Thankfully it gets much more exciting as the frenzied finale that is meant to be a twist but seems rather silly to me. If you like witchy Satan-worship flicks like The City of the Dead, Enter the Devil, The Devil's Rain, The Brotherhood of Satan and Race with he Devil this is probably gonna be an entertaining romp, it's not perfect, but even with the pacing issues it has more than enough going for it for me to give it an easy recommend.
Audio/Video: The Naked Witch (1969) arrives n region-free Blu-ray from VCI Entertainment in 1080p HD framed in 2.35:1 widescreen. This is advertised as being "restored from a 4K-UHD scan of a 35mm print, grind-house style", and sure enough, it looks its. The source is certainly not restoration perfection, marred by speckling, and numerous vertical green and blue emulsion scratches, but generally colors look very good, and black are solid if a bit green at times. It's a rough looking print that nicely captures the grindhouse vibes of seeing a beat-up print at a flea-pit cinema or drive-in. Audio comes by way of lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 dua-mono with optional English subtitles, the track is completely adequete but limited by the source and some minor age-related wear, but never to the point of distraction.
Extras start off with a pretty fantastic Audio Commentary by Robert Kelly, who offers a walth of details about the film, from alternate titles to confusion about producers Claude Alexander's involvement in the film, having directed a n earlier film called The Naked Witch, before getting into the background of the cast and crew, and composer Jaime Mendoza-Nava. We also get the 4-min 1960’S Horror: A Decade of Innovation and Fear, which is really just a poster gallery of notable horror films with some seemingly A.I. narration. We also get the 1-min Restored Original Theatrical, 1-min of TV Spots, and a couple of Radio Spots.
The film was previously issues on Blu-ray by the now defunct Code Red DVD, and while I have not seen it to judge video/audio quality I know that the extras for that include an Audio Commentary with producer L.Q. Jones and director of photography John Morrill, as well as a Interview with L.Q. Jones, so if you;re fan you might want to seek that release out.
The 2-disc Blu-ray/DVD release arrives in a standard keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork that is truly horrendous, a photoshop nightmare that, it is seriously ugly, and is certainly not one of VCI's better looking designs. This is a film that has a couple of cool looking illustrated movie posters, at least under the alternate title The Witchmaker. This just looks like a bad bootleg artwork. Do better VCI.
Special Features:
- Audio Commentary by Robert Kelly, artist, reviewer and film buff extraordinaire!
- 1960’S Horror: A Decade of Innovation and Fear: Poster gallery of other notable horror films of the 1960's (4:05)
- Restored original Theatrical Trailer (1:13),
- TV Spot (1:00)
- Radio Spots (0:44)
Screenshots from VCI Ent. Blu-ray:
Buy it!
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