Journalist Luke Palmer (Andy J. Forest) has had a rough mental go as of late… a rough go that comes complete with nightmares involving a country estate, a grizzled witch (Maria Cumani Quasimodo, She)… and his own demise via decapitation (after which, his head ends up in a boiling cauldron)!
In order to clear his head, Luke’s wife Martha (Sonia Petrovna) rents the home of blind composer Andrew Mason (Paul Muller, Lady Frankenstein) for a little rural rest n’ relaxation, but almost immediately the visions of the witch continue… and Martha is starting to act weird as fuck… and Mason’s house appears to be the one from our hero’s dreams!
Also visiting the domicile is Mason’s niece, Sharon (Marina Giulia Cavalli), who soon joins Luke on his investigation into the sordid past of the estate… as well as his physician sister Dr. Elsa Palmer (Susanna Martinková) and her teenage daughter, Debra (Maria Stella Musy)… and we all know how much evil witches dig on more bodies to potentially up the ol’ kill count!
Speaking of which (or witch as the case may be… ), our arcane antagonist only gets more and more brazen as the days roll on… so much so that Luke’s desire to keep his head on his shoulders and out of the soup begins to look like a serious long shot!
Coming hot n’ heavy on the heels of Lucio Fulci’s (The Beyond, The House by the Cemetery) The House of Clocks and The Sweet House of Horrors; entries in the La case maledette or The Houses of Doom series (originally intended for TV broadcast in Italy, but that was never to be thanks to the gore present) comes Umberto Lenzi’s (Cannibal Ferox, Nightmare City) The House of Witchcraft… a supernatural shocker that delivers on the old school-style chills mixed with bloody set-pieces and a boob or two (it becomes readily apparent why this film fits right in with Lenzi’s entries in the La Casa film series, Ghosthouse and Witchery)!
Set in a suitably ancient abode, this fright flick has many of your classic Gothic thriller tropes… dark family secrets, a black cat, nightmares, a skeleton or two… and then adds some downright surreal flourishes (such as winter indoors, and bleeding flowers) to let you know that you are also up to your ass in Italian horror cinema (or TV I guess… ) madness!
That being said, the trademark Italian gore is present, but to a much lesser degree than you may expect given Lenzi’s filmography. We get some severed heads, some blood, and a death by garden tool… a lot of the mayhem is the result of the witch forgoing magic and straight up stabbing and bludgeoning her victims to death… she may be older than time, but this woman can absolutely murder a motherfucker like it’s her job… which, along with stirring her cauldron, it is!
And you’ll see every ingredient in that sinister stew as Cauldron presents The House of Witchcraft via a 2K restoration/1080p presentation that boasts a wealth of detail and vivid color.
As for special features, you can view The House of Witchcraft in English (with optional subtitles), Italian with English subtitles, or with an audio commentary from film scholar/documentarian Eugenio Ercolani, Mondo Digital’s Nathaniel Thompson, and writer/horror cinema expert Troy Howarth (which delivers a ton of info about those involved in the film’s production, the feature’s place in Lenzi’s filmography… as well as within the The Houses of Doom series, and much more!).
Also present are interviews with FX artist Elio Terribili and cinematographer Nino Celeste.
An atmospheric, paranormal thriller that gets off-the-wall from time to time, The House of Witchcraft is fright flick fun through and through!
