While a 1960s black and white movie starring Lon Chaney might not sound like a good bet, Witchcraft is an undeservedly neglected, often chilling little horror movie.
Tagline: “After 300 years in the grave… they returned to reap BLOOD HAVOC!”
WTF Factor: ** one extra for the baby-shaped bundle
Notable Dialogue:
- Todd [after Bill almost drives them over a cliff unintentionally]: There must be an explanation.
- Bill: There isn’t. I was wide awake and I saw the road in front of me the whole time.
- Todd: Maybe it was some sort of auto-suggestion. You were thinking about Helen’s accident and turned off at the same place.
- Bill [agitated]: I was thinking about the meeting tomorrow!
- Todd: All right, you explain it.
- Bill: I can’t. I can’t! I CAN”T!…All right, why don’t I admit it; it was witchcraft!
- Todd: Don’t be idiotic, Bill.
Synopsis: We open on a busy street next to a cemetery. After the credits, we see what looks like a different cemetery being bulldozed. The bulldozer is confronted by a group led by Morgan Whitlock (Lon Chaney), shouting about blasphemy, to no effect.
We cut to Bill Lanier (Jack Hedley) and his wife Tracy (Jill Dixon), examining a model of a new housing complex to be built over the former graveyard.
They are joined by Bill’s aunt Helen Lanier (Viola Keats). Whitlock bursts in in indignation. Bill points out that the Whitlocks have had months to move the graves, at Lanier’s expense. However, Bill is surprised to hear that the bulldozer has already dug up the graveyard, against his orders. Whitlock brought his niece Amy (Diane Clare), who meets up with Todd Lanier (David Weston), Bill’s brother. They have a clandestine relationship that Whitlock will not accept (it turns out that the Laniers are not too thrilled about it either – cue the theme from Romeo and Juliet).
Bill goes to see his partner Miles Forrester (Barry Linehan, with an utterly atrocious toupee). Forrester ordered the bulldozing and he’s not sorry about it. Bill tells Forrester to confine the bulldozing to clear ground. Bill then drives out to the cemetery to survey the damage, in a genuinely spooky scene. He has the decency to look disgusted at the carnage.
As he heads back to his car, we hear scratching and moaning emanating from an unearthed stone coffin. A loud cry brings him back to investigate. He brushes the dirt from the gravestone, which says Vanessa Whitlock, and finds a piece of stone with a strange engraved symbol. He takes the stone and leaves.
We see the top of the stone coffin start to move.
Bill returns home and matches the symbol on the stone with one engraved in their fireplace hearth. He takes the stone to his grandmother Malvina (Marie Ney), who lives upstairs. She points out that the symbol dates back to when the Whitlocks owned the house, and the only replicate is on Vanessa Whitlock’s grave. Bill says he once heard the symbol called a Witch’s Circle. Malvina agrees and expositions that Vanessa was condemned as a witch.
Malvina: “She wasn’t burned. After she was condemned, they took her out and buried her alive.” [Clap of thunder]
Cut to the empty coffin and a woman walking away.
Helen is greatly disturbed to hear that Bill has a piece of Vanessa’s gravestone. Todd tries to scare Tracy by pointing out that Friday is May Eve (Roodmas). Bill explains that this is one of the four yearly sabbats celebrated by witches. Tracy, who is new to the family, wants to hear more about their history. Todd briefly expositions that the Whitlocks used to own all of this land and the house. During the early 1600’s, the Laniers accused the Whitlocks of witchcraft. The Laniers killed Vanessa and drove the other Whitlocks out. Supposedly the Whitlocks still observe the sabbats and plan the destruction of the Laniers. Helen is plainly unnerved by this discussion.
Whitlock angrily visits Forrester, who blows him off. Whitlock leaves behind some sort of voodoo doll.
We see some sort of ceremony where Vanessa takes a similar doll and submerges it in water. Forrester is taking a bath and begins to clutch his throat and drowns.
A detective comes to the Laniers’ house the next day and tells them that Forrester was murdered. The police are holding Whitlock, since he threatened Forrester, but no charges have been filed. Todd immediately leaves to see Amy. The detective asks Bill to come to the cemetery with him and pulls out the doll, which upsets Helen; she calls it a Devil Doll.
Todd and Amy smooch it up and profess their love. Todd insists that Amy come stay with the Laniers while her uncle is in jail. Amy wishes they were far away from “everything.” When Amy arrives at the Lanier house, Helen is less than welcoming, although Tracy and Todd are delighted. Helen angrily confronts Bill and Todd with her belief that the Whitlocks rule a coven. She tells them she’s leaving in the morning for London.
That night, Vanessa Whitlock appears in Helen’s bedroom. Helen wakes but she thinks it was Amy. Bill is skeptical but then he finds mud on the carpet.
Helen packs up and leaves the next morning, but she doesn’t see the Devil Doll tied to her back bumper.
Malvina warns Bill that Helen is in great danger. We catch a glimpse of Vanessa in the back seat of Helen’s car. Helen drives as if hypnotized and turns down the road to a dump with an unprotected cliff [as the sign so helpfully tells us]. Helen believes she is driving on the appropriate road, but in fact she drives off the cliff. [Wonder of wonders, the car doesn’t blow up!]
Malvina watches the funeral from her window. She has confined herself to a wheelchair since her husband died and she does not leave her room, by choice. The coffin is taken into the family crypt. The detective notifies Bill that Whitlock is due to be released, for lack of evidence.
Bill and Todd are headed to London for a bank meeting tomorrow. Amy isn’t feeling well but she tells Tracy that she must go home and obey her uncle. While Todd sleeps in the back of the car, Bill turns off at the dump the same as Helen, seeing the usual road ahead. Luckily the bumps wake Todd up just before they go over the cliff.
Amy sneaks out of the house during the night and Tracy sees her go to the family crypt. Tracy follows her while Malvina watches from the window. Tracy finds candles lit and goes down below the crypt through a low passage.
Tracy is making extraordinary amounts of noise as she explores [it looks like a wine cellar down there] but nothing comes of it. Finally she reaches a closed door and peeks in.
There is some sort of black magic ceremony going on, led by Whitlock.
Whitlock stabs a small bundle [baby-size, I fear] and hands it to an acolyte, who turns out to be…gasp…Amy. Tracy screams and the coven grabs her.
Back at the house, Malvina senses Tracy’s peril and resolves to leave her room and walk down the stairs. Unknown to her, Vanessa watches her from the top of the stairs, then follows her. She makes a pushing gesture and Malvina falls to the bottom.
We next see Tracy tied to an altar, wearing a sparkly gown. Meanwhile, Bill and Todd successfully conclude their meeting and Bill calls home. Malvina tries to answer but collapses. Bill and Todd are alarmed that Tracy doesn’t answer. Todd gets out at the Whitlock place to see if Amy knows anything. Amy says Tracy is at home and Bill heads back. Amy begs Todd to leave and then Whitlock comes in and orders Todd out. Whitlock tells Amy that Vanessa will join them tonight for the sabbat.
Bill searches for Tracy and finds the local doctor in Malvina’s room. Malvina was able to call for help and she’s going to be fine. She tells Bill that she saw Vanessa on the stairs, and that Tracy has gone to the crypt. Bill tries to follow Tracy but the candles are out and there is a shrine where the passageway was before. Todd joins Bill, who says there’s a tunnel behind the shrine. The torches are still lit below. They make their way to the ceremony room. Meanwhile, the coven is arriving at the crypt. Bill and Todd find Tracy, who has been drugged.
They hide in the passage while the coven files in and gathers around a brazier, not noticing that Tracy is gone. That gives Bill and Todd enough time to bar the door and escape with Tracy.
Whitlock sends the other witches home to hide. Vanessa walks into the crypt as the Laniers get to the house. Tracy tells Bill and Todd that she followed Amy into the crypt, and Amy is one of the witches. Todd runs back to the crypt.
Whitlock, Amy, and Vanessa gather around the brazier.
Whitlock accuses Amy of being led astray, but Amy denies it. Whitlock senses Todd coming and Amy goes HAM over his safety. She overturns the brazier on Vanessa, who attacks Amy.
Todd arrives as Whitlock goes down and Amy and Vanessa grapple in the fire. The entire Lanier house goes up in flames. Todd makes it out of the crypt, but he’s not a happy camper.
Malvina observes: “Born in evil, death in burning.”
Amen.
Thoughts: Witchcraft is one of the last of the routinely black and white horrors. After the mid-1960’s, black and white photography was generally used as an occasional aesthetic choice rather than a financial necessity. This movie certainly would not have benefited from color photography. Many scenes are lit eerily by candlelight or flames, and as you can see from the stills, the use of shadow and suggestion is enhanced in black and white. The atmosphere and soundtrack recall the days of Universal in many ways. Ominous statements are punctuated with thunder claps and music stings, adding to the classic feel of the movie.
While this is clearly a low budget movie, this did not act as an impediment to the action. Sets are wisely kept to a minimum and are dressed well to look more expansive. One major coup was obtaining a real house (scheduled for demolition) and burning it down for the climax.
This allowed impressive footage and significant screen time for the finale. It certainly beats the glimpses of a burning barn that Roger Corman used in several of his Poe pictures (see House of Usher (1960) and Tomb of Ligeia (1964)).
While Lon Chaney receives top billing, his is really a fairly small part. The other actors capably carry the majority of the plot. At this time in his life, Chaney was well-known to be a heavy and sometimes hot-tempered drinker, but by all accounts, he was well behaved on the set. The director planned all of his scenes before lunch, to catch Chaney at his best.
Witchcraft was not successful for its first limited release. However, it was then teamed up on a double bill with The Horror of It All (1964), a dreary “horror-comedy” starring Pat Boone and did much better box office. For this release, a William Castle-esque gimmick was used to drum up business; the “Witch Deflector.” A surprising number of people still have these.
If you are a fan of classic horror movies, this is a must-see. There are genuine chills to be had in Witchcraft.
Quick bits:
- It’s unclear if the Devil Doll is necessary for the spells, since there isn’t one on Bill and Todd’s car when they almost go over the cliff.
- The coven apparently has a permanently installed altar and wall hangings under the Laniers’ house.
Suggested double feature: This would pair well with Burn, Witch, Burn! (U.S.title)/Night of the Eagle (1962)
Tagline for Coming Attraction: “From the depths of the sea… A TIDAL WAVE OF TERROR!”
