Witchery (1988)
* (out of 4)
If you remember the whole saga of George Romero's DAWN OF THE DEAD being released in Italy under the title ZOMBI only to then have Lucio Fulci come along with ZOMBI 2 then you get the same type of thing here. THE EVIL DEAD was released in Italy as LA CASA and its sequel was LA CASA 2. Then Umberto Lenzi made a film called GHOSTHOUSE, which was released in Italy as LA CASA 3 even though it was in no way, shape or form connected to the Raimi series. Then, this film, was released as LA CASA 4 but again, no Raimi connection. Outside of Italy it was known as WITCHCRAFT, GHOSTHOUSE 2 and the current title listed above.
The typical group of people arrive at your typical old hotel where there's the typical legends surrounding its curse. Apparently, many years ago, a pregnant woman committed suicide to keep from being burned alive as a witch. Years later a strange silent actress moved into the house and was apparently the last owner but soon our new guests start to fall victim to the curse. You have to hand it to the Italians when it comes to the horror genre but by 1988 their magic was running out and that's certainly true here even though they did manage to get Linda Blair and David Hasselhoff to appear in the film. This is your typical cult mess that features a little bit of gore but not enough to keep people interested. The story isn't any better or worse than a dozen other "witchcraft" tales we've seen from any country but the major problem here is the direction by Laurenti, which really shouldn't be called direction at all. The movie moves at a snails pace, none of the build ups are any good, there's no suspense and the worst sin is that the thing is just downright boring. It was rumored that Joe D'Amato did some of the direction as he and Laurenti would co-direct a movie a couple years later. Having seen dozens of D'Amato's work, I'd say he did have a hand in this as it has the same slow pace of many of his films. The one main reason to see the film is a creative death scene where a woman gets her lips sewn together before being hung upside down in a chimney to be burned alive. Blair actually gives a pretty good performance with ol' David getting to act as the boyfriend of a witchcraft specialist who refuses to put out for him or anyone.
