Sorceress (1995)

There have been several movies with the title Sorceress but there are two in particular which are likely to get confused. There’s Jack Hill’s 1982 sword & sorcery flick (which is by the way an excellent fun movie) and there’s the 1995 witchcraft-in-the- modern-world horror film. To add to the confusion the 1982 movie was written by none other than Jim Wynorski, who went on to direct the 1995 movie. The 1995 movie has also been released as Temptress (which was in fact Wynorski's origonal title).

The 1995 flick begins with a naked witch (we soon find out her name is Erica, played by Julie Strain) performing a ritual. Amelia (Linda Blair) is waiting for her husband Howard to get home from work. He doesn’t make it home. Whether Erica is actually responsible for this is not entirely certain but the viewer has very very strong reasons to believe just that. Erica certainly believes it. Erica believes she is a witch.

Amelia is a witch as well. This will be a battle of the witches movie.

Things don’t turn out the way Erica planned. She ends up being the one who is dead.

Erica is (or was) married to Larry Barnes (Larry Poindexter), who works in a top L.A. law firm. Howard is a junior partner in the same firm. Larry had been in love with Carol (Rochelle Swanson) but he married Erica. Erica told him that was because she cast a spell on him. Literally.

Erica is quite generous with Larry. For his birthday she gives him a really thoughtful present - her sister Maria (Toni Naples, who was also executive producer on this film). Larry had always wanted to have sex with Maria and now he can.

Then there’s a murder. Amelia’s gardener Stan is suspected of murdering his while family.

Larry and Carol get back together. Larry feels a bit guilty about this, given that Erica has only been dead a few days, but Carol is hot to trot and now that Erica’s dead he realises it was always Carol he loved.

But Carol starts to behave strangely. She starts to resemble Erica, not just in appearance but in behaviour. Larry is pretty disturbed by this.

Maria tries to warn him that it’s all witchcraft and that it has something to do with a necklace Carol found, a necklace called a glynska.

While the plot pauses regularly to make room for sex scenes (which is not a complaint - the sex scenes are well done and fairly hot) the plot never gets forgotten and a genuine sense of menace starts to build. People start to get killed. The sexual tensions build, and it’s those sexual tensions that cause people to get killed. While there’s plenty of sex it would be incorrect to describe the sex scenes as gratuitous - the plot is driven to a considerable extent by sex.

This is a very woman-centric movie. The men - Larry, Howard, Larry’s buddy Don - are totally passive. It’s women’s jealousies, loves, hatreds, passions and desires that drive the action and the men are powerless.

The acting is, surprisingly perhaps, pretty good. Rochelle Swanson and Toni Naples are extremely good, Julie Strain projects the right sort of seductive evil and it’s always fun to see Linda Blair (and she manages to be chillingly witchy). The male cast members re ll perfectly competent.

Jim Wynorski doesn’t get much respect as a director but he did make a few fun movies, such as Deathstalker II. The fact that he has made so many trashy movies has led a lot of people to dismiss Sorceress as mere trash. It is trash, but it’s good trash. And it’s well-crafted trash. It’s unashamedly an exploitation movie. It’s worth pointing out that Wynorski honed his skills working for Roger Corman and this movie is like Corman’s better efforts - packed with entertainment value, fast-paced and slick. Like Corman Wynorski has the knack of making modestly budgeted movies that are well-made and look more expensive than they are.

Amusingly the house which was used as Larry’s house was actually owned by a bunch of real-life witches.

Synapse have released this movie on Blu-Ry and DVD. This release is the uncensored director-approved cut. The transfer is excellent and there are two audio commentaries.

Sorceress is sexy fun. And it’s also a genuine horror movie. It has acres of female nudity, some genuinely scary moments and plenty of style and energy. Don’t take it too seriously. Just enjoy the ride. Highly recommended.