The Love
Witch is the latest offering by writer-producer-director
Anna Biller, a subversive, stylish homage to melodramatic Technicolor witchy
horror movies of the 1960s.
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Samantha Robinson plays Elaine, a woman seemingly
stuck in the Sixties. Abused as a child,
and initiated into a coven of witches, she uses her sexuality and magick to
make a series of men fall in love with her.
Cold, manipulative, narcissistic, yet needy for love as she understands
it, she winds up destroying each of her victims.
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The men in this movie are depicted as shallow,
salivating, and sex-driven. Even Griff
(Gian Keys), the traffic-cop turned detective investigating one of Elaine’s
murders, seems easily taken in by her wiles against his better instincts. Elaine and her coven leaders express the
opinion that women’s sexuality is the source of their power over men, and
should be celebrated as such. In one scene, they even break the fourth wall to
lecture the audience directly.
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Laura Waddell plays Trish, Elaine’s friend, and landlady
of her gothic Victorian house. Convinced to be more like Elaine, in an almost
touching scene, she doffs her conservative pantsuit and dolls herself up in
Elaine’s makeup, lingerie, and wig before discovering that her husband was
another of her hapless victims.
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It’s a clever tongue-in-cheek parody (if parody it is),
and the art direction and costuming is spot-on iconic. Floppy hats and flouncy pink dresses in the
tea room scenes contrast with the fetish wear and seamed stockings that Elaine
prefers. She is first shown driving a vintage red Mustang convertible, and one
of her victims drives a gold Impala from the late ‘60s, in a world where other
characters drive contemporary vehicles. However, it’s a shame that the
witchcraft shown in this movie is taken straight from the Farrars’ Witches’ Bible. Portions of an initiation ritual, the Great
Rite, the Charge of the Goddess, skyclad dancing to the Witches’ Rune, the
five-fold kiss – all part of the beautiful literature of the Craft – are juxtaposed
with the clever, ugly cynicism of the rest of the movie. It’s easy to see why this can be considered sacrilegious.
Given Elaine’s amorality, when a bar crowd turns into the inevitable angry mob
shouting, “Burn the witch!” you’re not sure whether to root for them or not.
Only for a moment, during a solstice Oak King/Holly King battle and handfasting
done in the context of a Renaissance Fair conducted by the coven, can you sense
some of the beauty of the Craft.
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It’s hard to tell whether Biller intended this to be
an homage or parody, and even whether she supports or hates witchcraft, and
why. Part cautionary tale against love spells, part narcissistic, misanthropic
feminism, Biller gives us a Witch as mentally-ill serial killer. I found myself
cringing throughout, but then, I’m only a man. Two-and-a-half broomsticks out of five.
