‘Love Witch’ a gorgeously bad (on purpose) movie
‘Love Witch’ a gorgeously bad (on purpose) movie
“The Love Witch,” her new comedy-horror movie, is completely her vision.
[...] “The Love Witch,” shot on 35mm, reflects her love of old Technicolor Hollywood films and schlocky international occult horror movies from the 1960s and ’70s.
Shot in Northern California (in Eureka, Arcata and other places in Humboldt County), it’s about a woman who becomes a witch in order to explore her feminism and sexuality, and becomes involved in a sex cult and, ultimately, murder.
Elaine (Samantha Robinson) is in a life crisis; her husband has divorced her, and she apparently has murdered him.
For entertainment: a woman singing medieval folk songs and playing a harp.
Elaine falls in with a cult with bizarre S&M-themed rituals.
The presentational acting style is so self-aware you almost expect the cast to occasionally underline a joke by turning toward the camera and winking at the audience (no one does, though).
G. Allen Johnson is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.