Stars: Samantha Robinson, Gian Keys, Laura Waddell, Jared Sanford | Written and Directed by Anna Biller
If Viva was Anna Biller’s ode to 1970s sexploitation films, The Love Witch is the auteur’s loving – and really quite lovely – homage to the 1960s horror heyday of Hammer Films and Roger Corman. Funny, seductive, and in the end oddly moving, it may be the best indie horror movie since… well, since another indie horror movie with the words “The” and “Witch” in the title. And it couldn’t be more different.
Samantha Robinson plays Elaine, a recently-widowed witch who moves to California, into a grand old house owned by her fellow mystic, Barbara (Jennifer Ingrum). There she meets Trish (Laura Waddell), an interior decorator. The ladies chat about men, and it quickly becomes clear that their views sharply diverge on the role of women, and what the love of a man means.
If Viva was Anna Biller’s ode to 1970s sexploitation films, The Love Witch is the auteur’s loving – and really quite lovely – homage to the 1960s horror heyday of Hammer Films and Roger Corman. Funny, seductive, and in the end oddly moving, it may be the best indie horror movie since… well, since another indie horror movie with the words “The” and “Witch” in the title. And it couldn’t be more different.
Samantha Robinson plays Elaine, a recently-widowed witch who moves to California, into a grand old house owned by her fellow mystic, Barbara (Jennifer Ingrum). There she meets Trish (Laura Waddell), an interior decorator. The ladies chat about men, and it quickly becomes clear that their views sharply diverge on the role of women, and what the love of a man means.
- 3/30/2017
- by Rupert Harvey
- Nerdly
Take the Technicolor photography of classic ‘60s melodramas, mix vigorously with equal parts surrealism and Jean Rollin-esque eroticism and what does one get in return? Well, in so many words, one gets one of 2016’s most lavishly crafted experiments in genre and one of its most deliciously arch dramas.
The end result of the above mentioned mixture is a film entitled The Love Witch, a truly one of a kind film from one of a kind filmmaker Anna Biller. Witch introduces us to Elaine, a breathtakingly beautiful young witch on the hunt for love. Following up her underrated 2007 film, Viva, Biller takes to the world of witchcraft and cults for a film that sets its eyes as much on the world of ‘60s melodramas as it does the sexploitation films from just a decade later.
We first meet Elaine as she’s driving along the coast of Northern California...
The end result of the above mentioned mixture is a film entitled The Love Witch, a truly one of a kind film from one of a kind filmmaker Anna Biller. Witch introduces us to Elaine, a breathtakingly beautiful young witch on the hunt for love. Following up her underrated 2007 film, Viva, Biller takes to the world of witchcraft and cults for a film that sets its eyes as much on the world of ‘60s melodramas as it does the sexploitation films from just a decade later.
We first meet Elaine as she’s driving along the coast of Northern California...
- 11/13/2016
- by Joshua Brunsting
- CriterionCast
A vibrant and eye-catching homage to the Technicolor films of the 1960s, writer/director Anna Biller’s The Love Witch is a seductive and clever twist on the gender politics, witch-centric cinema, and pulp storytelling of that era, all while keeping things set in modern times. Made with a tangible sense of affection, and featuring a star-making performance from Samantha Robinson, who flawlessly carries the film on her very capable (and lovely) shoulders, I was immediately smitten from the very first frame of The Love Witch, and wholly drawn into Biller’s intriguing tale of one woman’s desperate search to find her true love.
In The Love Witch, we follow Elaine (Robinson), who wants nothing more in this world than to find true love, and has resorted to using witchcraft to fulfill her deepest desires for ultimate happiness. The thing about Elaine’s handiwork is that it often works too well,...
In The Love Witch, we follow Elaine (Robinson), who wants nothing more in this world than to find true love, and has resorted to using witchcraft to fulfill her deepest desires for ultimate happiness. The thing about Elaine’s handiwork is that it often works too well,...
- 11/9/2016
- by Heather Wixson
- DailyDead
Say hello to your new obsession: A spellbinding homage to old pulp paperbacks and the Technicolor melodramas of the 1960s, Anna Biller’s “The Love Witch” is a throwback that’s told with a degree of perverse conviction and studied expertise that would make Quentin Tarantino blush. Shot in velvety 35mm and seen through the lens of a playfully violent female gaze, the film follows a beautiful, narcissistic young sorceress named Elaine (Samantha Robinson, unforgettable in a demented breakthrough performance) as she blows into a coastal Californian town in desperate search of a replacement for her recently murdered husband. Sex, death, Satanic rituals, God-level costume design, and cinema’s greatest tampon joke ensue, as Biller spins an archly funny — but also hyper-sincere — story about the true price of the patriarchy. There hasn’t been anything quite like it in decades.
Entrancingly self-possessed, “The Love Witch” announces itself with rare authority...
Entrancingly self-possessed, “The Love Witch” announces itself with rare authority...
- 11/8/2016
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Anna Biller’s new film “The Love Witch” follows Elaine (Samantha Robinson), a beautiful young witch who’s determined to find a man to love her. She makes spells and potions and uses them to help pick up and seduce men, but when her spells work too well, she ends up with a string of hapless victims. Though when she meets the man of her dreams, Elaine’s desperation to be loved drives her to the brink of insanity and murder. The film co-stars Laura Waddell (“Crimson Peak”), Jeffrey Vincent Parise (“Mad Men”), Gian Keys (“F**Kin’ Actors”), and more. Watch an exclusive promo below featuring The Love Witch herself warning moviegoers about the “anti-attractiveness” of talking and texting during a movie, currently playing in Landmark theaters.
Read More: 12 Must-See Films at BAMCinemaFest 2016
Biller’s previous feature “Viva” and her 16mm shorts have screened at major film festivals and art spaces around the world.
Read More: 12 Must-See Films at BAMCinemaFest 2016
Biller’s previous feature “Viva” and her 16mm shorts have screened at major film festivals and art spaces around the world.
- 10/20/2016
- by Vikram Murthi
- Indiewire
2Nd Update (9/23, 3:23 Pdt): An earlier version of this article listed Elle Evans as the actress who plays the title role in The Love Witch. That distinction in fact goes to Samantha Robinson. We regret the error. Update (9/22, 11:37 Pm Pdt): The same day this article was published, Paramount pushed back the release date for Rings from October 28 to February 3, 2017. Original Article: Fall has traditionally been viewed as the prime time of year for the horror film, but this summer was actually a pretty good one for the genre, with movies like The Conjuring 2, Lights Out, and the surprise smash Don't Breathe doing gangbusters business in the midst of blockbuster season. But the year's not over yet! With September in full swing, there are a number of worthwhile (and, yes, questionable) titles looming on the release calendar over the next three months. Below, you can find a rundown of 12 upcoming horror films,...
- 9/23/2016
- by Chris Eggertsen
- Hitfix
"She loved men... to death." Oscilloscope has released an official trailer (that's Nsfw) for a horror comedy called The Love Witch, written & directed by Anna Biller. The film is a tribute to 1960s pulp novels and Technicolor melodramas, which is why it looks the way it does, and is about a contemporary witch who uses spells and magic to get men to fall in love with her. But after she ends up sleeping with them, they all end up dead, which is not what she was hoping for but can't really control. Samantha Robinson stars as Elaine, with a cast including Elle Evans, Jeffrey Vincent Parise, Dani Lennon, Lily Holleman, and Gian Keys. As funky as this seems, it actually has great reviews calling it "spellbinding & hilarious". Take a look. Here's the official Nsfw trailer (+ a poster) for Anna Biller's The Love Witch, direct from YouTube: Elaine, a beautiful young witch,...
- 7/30/2016
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
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