Season of the Witch (1972)

dir George A. Romero

Making my way through Anna Biller’s list of film inspiration for The Love Witch. Aside from The Birds and Psycho which I’ve seen many times before, this is my first feature off the list.

Thoughts I had while watching:

Damn! That opening dream sequence sure is deliciously disorienting. Very well done. Now listen, I’m no film buff, I don’t know what any of these things are really called, but I love whatever they’re doing with those angles while Joan is in the dog cage. I’m also loving the motif repetition to clue you into the dream magic: shadows, mirrors, flames, masks.

I would totally die to go to the kinds of parties they were having in the 70s. No one is ever doing dirty mad libs anymore! Can we revive that, please? Or maybe that would drive me nuts. With the right crowd maybe. But quick, let’s have a moment of nostalgia before we move forward with the film review: Red wallpaper, blue eyeshadow, feathered and teased hair, long almond-shaped fingernails, fringe, head scarves, the most fierce curly boy-bob on the shop clerk who makes a joke about witchcraft. Yes! Yes!

Okay, back to business. It’s interesting how hollow and isolating all of the scenes with groups of the women feel. Joan doesn’t really feel any more comfortable with them than she does around men. Her guard remains strongly intact the whole time. There is something very sad in the moment where Joan’s daughter compliments her figure. Joan is so earnestly moved because you can tell her self esteem is in the toilet and hearing that means a lot to her. Her husband barely appreciates her and she’s put her daughter on a pedestal. Joan comes completely last in the household. Heartbreaking family dynamic. Husband leaves the family for a week at a time for work! Daughter doesn’t brush her teeth!Wife is bored and lonely as hell! Husband beats wife. Daughter sleeps with an asshole. Wife sleeps with the same asshole?

These men are uniquely and creatively evil. How do you even think to trick an older woman into thinking she’s smoking reefer just to embarrass her for your own pleasure? Don’t piss me off. Also I hate how he keeps talking about being turned on and off. And saying BALLING, ugh. “It’s just balling, lady!” Shut! Up!

Side note: there’s some interesting psychology at play here when it comes to mens’ haircuts and my reaction to their misogyny. When the sexist pigs have short, slicked and groomed styles of the 1910s-early 60s, I roll my eyes and complain about the times but I don’t take it too personally. When I hear the same words come out of a man’s mouth who has some shaggy mop-top, I just want to punch him in the face. I want to throw up. I want to die but first I want to kill him. As a man, the longer your hair is, the more of an obligation you have to be an absolute lover (and respecter) of women.

Definitely see what Anna Biller saw in Romero’s masterpiece. Really solid film. I know there’s a different edit with 14 more minutes and now I’m on the hunt to find it because I’m curious if it spends more time marinating in the witchcraft. Hell yeah, blessed be!