I'll try to keep this spoiler-lite.
When they get lost on their way back from a picnic, young lovers Laurie and John stumble upon a decrepit, closed-down spa and its sole tenant, the equally aged Mrs. Abercrombi. Soon Jenny's being haunted by a ghost bride and other strange goings-on are happening in this oddball variation of "Hansel and Gretel."
Although thoroughly obscure due to poor distribution, I can't praise this little b-movie enough. There's four inherent problems with no-name '70s schlockers (horrible acting, bad continuity, abysmal effects, ridiculous plot reveals) and this movie suffers from none of them. The cast is populated by actors from the stage, many of whom give nuanced performances which might seem a little over-the-top at times, but it works. The casting might also account for the overall good continuity -- once a stage actor makes an acting decision, they tend to stick with it. The film relies more on scares than effects, and they achieved them better with the camera, the foreboding sanatorium labyrinth setting and editing than many of the era's filmmakers did with effects -- though the few effects shots are equally well executed. The plot reveal could easily have been hokey, but they sidestepped that issue entirely by refusing to explain much of anything. Aside from a few pacing issues and Jenny's sometimes-illogical actions (she drives her own VW back to the spa, so she could really leave at any time!), I've got no complaints.
Perhaps it's BECAUSE there's not much explanation that the movie's memorable (much like the next year's "Black Christmas"). All of the answers aren't spelled out for the audience, so it leaves one thinking. Even a moment that another filmmaker would draw hefty attention to (Jenny discovers living flowers where dead ones had been a few moments earlier) is played fairly subtly. Without giving too much away, there's also an element that has an entirely different meaning upon second viewing. Plus the filmmakers pitched several curve-balls, and the story involves a bizarre mixture of witchcraft, Satanism, cannibalism, hillbillies and hauntings. Those aren't themes that one finds interwoven too often. And I have to mention that there's one endearing mid-movie sequence where our would-be Hansel and Gretel play make-believe which initially seems completely random but the scene absolutely oozes charm.
It's really a shame that the movie got saddled with a bad title (no discernible warlocks nor a single shot of the moon), worse marketing (the poster featured a vampire bat, the VHS a shrouded warlock) and distribution (Tucson, Arizona and Alaska for a few weeks in 1974 and infrequently on late-night TV), a screwed-up first DVD release (which is edited and skips a hunk of the movie during a layer transition), the filmmakers went on to get 9 to 5 jobs, and the picture has virtually been forgotten outside of the community where it was made. It's a quirky little '70s horror flick that should have been a drive-in classic.
When they get lost on their way back from a picnic, young lovers Laurie and John stumble upon a decrepit, closed-down spa and its sole tenant, the equally aged Mrs. Abercrombi. Soon Jenny's being haunted by a ghost bride and other strange goings-on are happening in this oddball variation of "Hansel and Gretel."
Although thoroughly obscure due to poor distribution, I can't praise this little b-movie enough. There's four inherent problems with no-name '70s schlockers (horrible acting, bad continuity, abysmal effects, ridiculous plot reveals) and this movie suffers from none of them. The cast is populated by actors from the stage, many of whom give nuanced performances which might seem a little over-the-top at times, but it works. The casting might also account for the overall good continuity -- once a stage actor makes an acting decision, they tend to stick with it. The film relies more on scares than effects, and they achieved them better with the camera, the foreboding sanatorium labyrinth setting and editing than many of the era's filmmakers did with effects -- though the few effects shots are equally well executed. The plot reveal could easily have been hokey, but they sidestepped that issue entirely by refusing to explain much of anything. Aside from a few pacing issues and Jenny's sometimes-illogical actions (she drives her own VW back to the spa, so she could really leave at any time!), I've got no complaints.
Perhaps it's BECAUSE there's not much explanation that the movie's memorable (much like the next year's "Black Christmas"). All of the answers aren't spelled out for the audience, so it leaves one thinking. Even a moment that another filmmaker would draw hefty attention to (Jenny discovers living flowers where dead ones had been a few moments earlier) is played fairly subtly. Without giving too much away, there's also an element that has an entirely different meaning upon second viewing. Plus the filmmakers pitched several curve-balls, and the story involves a bizarre mixture of witchcraft, Satanism, cannibalism, hillbillies and hauntings. Those aren't themes that one finds interwoven too often. And I have to mention that there's one endearing mid-movie sequence where our would-be Hansel and Gretel play make-believe which initially seems completely random but the scene absolutely oozes charm.
It's really a shame that the movie got saddled with a bad title (no discernible warlocks nor a single shot of the moon), worse marketing (the poster featured a vampire bat, the VHS a shrouded warlock) and distribution (Tucson, Arizona and Alaska for a few weeks in 1974 and infrequently on late-night TV), a screwed-up first DVD release (which is edited and skips a hunk of the movie during a layer transition), the filmmakers went on to get 9 to 5 jobs, and the picture has virtually been forgotten outside of the community where it was made. It's a quirky little '70s horror flick that should have been a drive-in classic.