I give this movie a 5, but only for its humor value. I would consider this more a shock-drama than a horror movie, and that's being generous.
The carnal elements of the witch trials held an attraction to makers of cheap, gory movies. Sensationalism and sado-eroticism aside, a few of these films gave the viewer a thought-provoking slice of history, both poignant and compelling. This movie, however, is not one of those.
The movie opens with some scrolling text about the witch hunt hysteria, and quotes the same wildly inaccurate "facts" and avers that the movie is based on true accounts. Next in the film comes a scene of soldiers, under the direction of a witchfinder, attacking a carriage full of nuns and one monk. The monk and youngest nun are captured for trial, the rest are raped and murdered. All of this is shot through a semi-arc lens upon which several large specks of dirt can be seen while the opening credits roll. If I could tell film makers just one thing, I'd tell them to keep the freaking lenses clean.
While all this is happening, we get our first taste of the movie's theme music. It is a horrid little piece of elevator music, all strings and choir, and I swear it sounds like a cross between `A Summer Place' and `He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother'. It's completely over-the-top with its romantic dreamy mood. At first, I thought it was very asynchronous to have this kind of music during the scene of violence played out on the screen, then I thought I would give the director (or dubber) the benefit of the doubt and assume he was trying to contrast the tranquility and beauty of the countryside and the explosion of ugly human violence. Alas, this credit was ill gifted. As it turns out, this music runs through the entire movie (with brief breaks for screams and such). The inappropriately romantic upbeat quality of the music adds some real comedy to the movie. For example, in one scene, our young idealistic protagonist, Christian, bursts into a tavern to see Albino, the local witchfinder, tormenting locals. This scene is meant to be a sort of Young Good Guy challenges Old Bad Guy, wherein they lock eyes and exchange glares, but with the romantic music going, it seemed like they had both discovered love at first sight. It doesn't help that our hero looks seriously girly and Albino moves with all the mincing grace of an aging queen.
To continue, after the opening, the film cuts to the monk and nun being denounced by the witchfinder amidst the stereotypical jeering rabble of peasants. Yawn. The nun is burned alive without a trial. The monk, also without a trial, has the fingers of one hand chopped off and is then stripped, tarred, feathered, and chased through the streets. He is surprisingly calm throughout this, or just a really bad actor.
*** SERIOUS SPOILING BEGINS*** A small village is under the dreadful domination of the local witchfinder (Albino) and his henchmen, all of whom are sadistic and lascivious pond scum. The chief witchfinder, Lord Cumberland, a man of tremendous fame and terrible repute, enters the story to check up on Albino who has been torturing and executing his victims, err, the witches, without benefit of evidence or trial, and Cumberland strongly disapproves of this. Bully for him! Compared to Albino, we are supposed to see Cumberland as a judicious and pious man of God. Righhhhhht. Well, his apprentice, our hero Christian, who is a witchfinder in training, certainly idolizes the man, so maybe he's ok. Or maybe Christian is in for a big letdown. Meanwhile, Christian is falling in love with a buxom tavern wench (Olivera), questions his faith in the Church, his admiration of Cumberland, and has several run-ins with Albino. The heroine is adequately equipped from the neck down, but she has a lazy eye that wanders a bit and often makes her looked cross-eyed. It quickly became a distraction and a game of `who is she looking at'. Scenes of torture occupy most of the film's brief 90 minute run time. There's nothing overly shocking here, even in the uncut `Collector's Edition' I have. Mostly there's lots of mud and blood and the victims screaming out unusually articulate protests of their innocence. I doubt that anyone could be quite this erudite on the rack, but at least they give us some much needed insight into the religio-political dynamics of the church and class system oppressing the poor... or something like that. I started tuning out at some point, when I realized I wasn't sure who was getting tortured - the witch or the film viewer.
There seems to be no rhyme or reason to who gets arrested, with the exception of lovely young women who are arrested just so the henchman can molest and torture them. One fellow, a bona fide Prince, is arrested and tortured so that he will sign over all his gold and property to the church. Another couple are arrested, along with their small children, because they put on puppet shows with marionettes. I put it to your own discretion as to whether this is evidence of Satanism or not. As for period accuracy, the costumes are close enough to not be jarring. The sets are accurate, but that's easy to do in Europe where plenty of squalid little villages and castle ruins have remained unchanged. The film was made in Austria and looks it. The scenic shots are duly breathtaking, and the villagers look suitably muddy and pockmarked.
Now, for all its flaws, there actually are some elements of this film that work. The dialogue between the idealist Christian and his mentor, the jaded and corrupt Cumberland, do explore some of the genuine issues of that time. Christian also explores some philosophical issues with his new girlfriend Olivera, as she is more humanist/naturalist than the typical churchgoer. Working in a tavern in a small Medieval village will do that to you. As for the validity of the narrator's claim that the movie was based on true events, this is somewhat true. Wealthy people were sometimes charged with witchcraft in order to size their property, and many local witchfinders were corrupt sadists who had to be chastised by the Church. One of the tortured women, upon being sentenced to death, thanked the witchfinder for his `mercy in giving her the release of death to end her torment', and this statement is more or less accurate, as documented in witch trial records.
As is painfully predictable from the first time Christian and Cross-Eyed Mary, err, Olivera meet, Olivera is arrested on charges of witchcraft, mainly because Albino can't stand to see anyone happy. As Olivera languishes in jail, the torture and tensions between the local yokels and the Church's representatives escalate. Christian frees Olivera and she rallies the peasants to rebel. Chaos ensues, many die bloodily. The end of the film has some nice touches of irony. It is NOT a happy ending for our heroic love birds. The mob, swept up in anti-Church sentiment, kill Christian in a comically gruesome fashion. Olivera arrives too late. Cumberland gets away unscathed!
There is one plot point in the film that was never fully exploited, and could have added more punch to the end of the film. Remember the couple who were arrested for having puppets? The husband is locked in solitary confinement and submitted to a form of water torture. He goes gradually mad. We know this because the view through his eyes is shot with a blurry red lens. I had hoped he would finally snap, break out of his bonds and go on a maniacal rampage. But the film never returns to him. In fact, his wife, after being liberated by the peasant rebellion, searches for her children, and once reunited with them, is happy to just go home. She never even bothers to look for her husband!
I think it would have been a really great twist if at the end of the movie, we find out that Olivera really was a witch in league with the devil, and starts zapping people with fireballs or lightning. Then she would hop on her broomstick and yell `Thanks for the kicks, suckers!' and zoom off into the sky. Oh well. A re-write probably was not in the budget.
More or less cheap entertainment if you're not squeamish about fake blood and screaming.
The carnal elements of the witch trials held an attraction to makers of cheap, gory movies. Sensationalism and sado-eroticism aside, a few of these films gave the viewer a thought-provoking slice of history, both poignant and compelling. This movie, however, is not one of those.
The movie opens with some scrolling text about the witch hunt hysteria, and quotes the same wildly inaccurate "facts" and avers that the movie is based on true accounts. Next in the film comes a scene of soldiers, under the direction of a witchfinder, attacking a carriage full of nuns and one monk. The monk and youngest nun are captured for trial, the rest are raped and murdered. All of this is shot through a semi-arc lens upon which several large specks of dirt can be seen while the opening credits roll. If I could tell film makers just one thing, I'd tell them to keep the freaking lenses clean.
While all this is happening, we get our first taste of the movie's theme music. It is a horrid little piece of elevator music, all strings and choir, and I swear it sounds like a cross between `A Summer Place' and `He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother'. It's completely over-the-top with its romantic dreamy mood. At first, I thought it was very asynchronous to have this kind of music during the scene of violence played out on the screen, then I thought I would give the director (or dubber) the benefit of the doubt and assume he was trying to contrast the tranquility and beauty of the countryside and the explosion of ugly human violence. Alas, this credit was ill gifted. As it turns out, this music runs through the entire movie (with brief breaks for screams and such). The inappropriately romantic upbeat quality of the music adds some real comedy to the movie. For example, in one scene, our young idealistic protagonist, Christian, bursts into a tavern to see Albino, the local witchfinder, tormenting locals. This scene is meant to be a sort of Young Good Guy challenges Old Bad Guy, wherein they lock eyes and exchange glares, but with the romantic music going, it seemed like they had both discovered love at first sight. It doesn't help that our hero looks seriously girly and Albino moves with all the mincing grace of an aging queen.
To continue, after the opening, the film cuts to the monk and nun being denounced by the witchfinder amidst the stereotypical jeering rabble of peasants. Yawn. The nun is burned alive without a trial. The monk, also without a trial, has the fingers of one hand chopped off and is then stripped, tarred, feathered, and chased through the streets. He is surprisingly calm throughout this, or just a really bad actor.
*** SERIOUS SPOILING BEGINS*** A small village is under the dreadful domination of the local witchfinder (Albino) and his henchmen, all of whom are sadistic and lascivious pond scum. The chief witchfinder, Lord Cumberland, a man of tremendous fame and terrible repute, enters the story to check up on Albino who has been torturing and executing his victims, err, the witches, without benefit of evidence or trial, and Cumberland strongly disapproves of this. Bully for him! Compared to Albino, we are supposed to see Cumberland as a judicious and pious man of God. Righhhhhht. Well, his apprentice, our hero Christian, who is a witchfinder in training, certainly idolizes the man, so maybe he's ok. Or maybe Christian is in for a big letdown. Meanwhile, Christian is falling in love with a buxom tavern wench (Olivera), questions his faith in the Church, his admiration of Cumberland, and has several run-ins with Albino. The heroine is adequately equipped from the neck down, but she has a lazy eye that wanders a bit and often makes her looked cross-eyed. It quickly became a distraction and a game of `who is she looking at'. Scenes of torture occupy most of the film's brief 90 minute run time. There's nothing overly shocking here, even in the uncut `Collector's Edition' I have. Mostly there's lots of mud and blood and the victims screaming out unusually articulate protests of their innocence. I doubt that anyone could be quite this erudite on the rack, but at least they give us some much needed insight into the religio-political dynamics of the church and class system oppressing the poor... or something like that. I started tuning out at some point, when I realized I wasn't sure who was getting tortured - the witch or the film viewer.
There seems to be no rhyme or reason to who gets arrested, with the exception of lovely young women who are arrested just so the henchman can molest and torture them. One fellow, a bona fide Prince, is arrested and tortured so that he will sign over all his gold and property to the church. Another couple are arrested, along with their small children, because they put on puppet shows with marionettes. I put it to your own discretion as to whether this is evidence of Satanism or not. As for period accuracy, the costumes are close enough to not be jarring. The sets are accurate, but that's easy to do in Europe where plenty of squalid little villages and castle ruins have remained unchanged. The film was made in Austria and looks it. The scenic shots are duly breathtaking, and the villagers look suitably muddy and pockmarked.
Now, for all its flaws, there actually are some elements of this film that work. The dialogue between the idealist Christian and his mentor, the jaded and corrupt Cumberland, do explore some of the genuine issues of that time. Christian also explores some philosophical issues with his new girlfriend Olivera, as she is more humanist/naturalist than the typical churchgoer. Working in a tavern in a small Medieval village will do that to you. As for the validity of the narrator's claim that the movie was based on true events, this is somewhat true. Wealthy people were sometimes charged with witchcraft in order to size their property, and many local witchfinders were corrupt sadists who had to be chastised by the Church. One of the tortured women, upon being sentenced to death, thanked the witchfinder for his `mercy in giving her the release of death to end her torment', and this statement is more or less accurate, as documented in witch trial records.
As is painfully predictable from the first time Christian and Cross-Eyed Mary, err, Olivera meet, Olivera is arrested on charges of witchcraft, mainly because Albino can't stand to see anyone happy. As Olivera languishes in jail, the torture and tensions between the local yokels and the Church's representatives escalate. Christian frees Olivera and she rallies the peasants to rebel. Chaos ensues, many die bloodily. The end of the film has some nice touches of irony. It is NOT a happy ending for our heroic love birds. The mob, swept up in anti-Church sentiment, kill Christian in a comically gruesome fashion. Olivera arrives too late. Cumberland gets away unscathed!
There is one plot point in the film that was never fully exploited, and could have added more punch to the end of the film. Remember the couple who were arrested for having puppets? The husband is locked in solitary confinement and submitted to a form of water torture. He goes gradually mad. We know this because the view through his eyes is shot with a blurry red lens. I had hoped he would finally snap, break out of his bonds and go on a maniacal rampage. But the film never returns to him. In fact, his wife, after being liberated by the peasant rebellion, searches for her children, and once reunited with them, is happy to just go home. She never even bothers to look for her husband!
I think it would have been a really great twist if at the end of the movie, we find out that Olivera really was a witch in league with the devil, and starts zapping people with fireballs or lightning. Then she would hop on her broomstick and yell `Thanks for the kicks, suckers!' and zoom off into the sky. Oh well. A re-write probably was not in the budget.
More or less cheap entertainment if you're not squeamish about fake blood and screaming.