The Love Witch (Biller, 2016)
I hadn’t had a look at Aussie free streamer Brollie – operated by our friends1 at Umbrella Entertainment – for a while so was stoked to discover that there have been some additions to their catalogue.
When I first wrote about The Love Witch for RNZ back in October 2023, it was because it was one of the titles that launched the paid streamer Shudder here:
Described as “horror” in the Shudder schema but utterly unclassifiable in my book, Anna Biller’s The Love Witch (2016) is like nothing else that you will have seen recently.
Aesthetically inspired by ’60s exploitation films but looking glossy enough to remind you of technicolour television masterpieces like the ’60s Batman or The Monkees, The Love Witch is a dead serious feminist parable wrapped in pitch-perfect satire.
Samantha Robinson is Elaine, a witch, starting a new life in modern day California after being heartbroken by her loser husband.
Determined to find love again – and still with faith that men only want someone sexually available, domestically compliant and perfectly pretty – she concocts spells and potions to make her men believe that’s exactly what they are getting. Except, that turns out to be too much for any man and they expire, making Elaine an unlikely serial killer.
If you can imagine that revenge thriller Promising Young Woman hadn’t been directed by Emerald Fennell but had, in fact, been made by the lecherously exploitative Russ Meyer, you might get half way to where this film is heading.
It took Biller six years to make – mainly because she wrote, directed, produced, edited and designed all the sets and costumes. No wonder she hasn’t made a film since and has stuck to writing novels where that kind of control comes a lot easier.
Also featured in that “Introducing Shudder” article: Demented killer pig film Razorback (also know on Brollie) and the brilliant straight-to-Shudder Frankenstein-inspired The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster which we will come back to here at some point.
Where to watch The Love Witch
Aotearoa & Australia: Streaming on Brollie (free with ads)
Canada: Streaming on Converse or Midnight Pulp
Ireland: Digital rental
India: Not currently available
USA: Streaming on Peacock, Kanopy, Fandor, Cineverse or Midnight Pulp
UK: Streaming on BFI Player
Umbrella have just sent me the new UHD 4K restoration of the outback masterpiece Wake in Fright and the first ever Blu-ray release of Rolf de Heer’s indigenous classic Ten Canoes. In fact, the postman has just left them at my front door so I must immediately go down to collect them.
