The Witching Season

 



Creator - Michael Ballif (2 Hours, They Live Inside Us)
Starring - James Morris (I Don't Speak English, Raisin Soup Pilot), Jordan Swenson, and Samuel Morris
Release Date - 2015
Genre - Horror
Tagline - "The season NEVER ends"
Format - Bluray (Personal Collection)

Rating (out of 5):

     I love the Halloween season but my reviewing duties prevent me from enjoying Halloween centered films that I grew up watching every season.  Most people turn to horror every October and miss out on fantastic Halloween films that are more for the holiday over horror.  I get why they turn to horror but it just isn't as fun watching a movie like American Psycho when you can have watch the Halloween heavy films like Spaced Invaders or Double Double Toil and Trouble.  These movies are far from horror as a movie can get but it is so deep in Halloween that you don't care.  A few years back director Michael Ballif started working on his YouTube series The Witching Hour after finding success in his short zombie film 2 Hours.  The series was compiled into an anthology film and released on blu during an Indiegogo campaign to raise money for a new film.  I couldn't pass this up so I jumped on it.  Sadly, I didn't have time to check it out but with Halloween approaching I had to make time.
     The film features five shorts.  The first, Killer on the Loose, is as the title suggests.  It centers around a killer that has escaped but who is this killer?  The second story is Princess and follows a single mother and her daughter move into an old home and soon find a strange stuffed animal and a supernatural presence.  The third short is Not Alone and centered around a community gripped by UFO sightings when a young man awakens from a nightmare to find that he is not home alone.  The third short, They Live Inside Us, follows an author who visits a supposedly haunted house to conjure up inspiration and soon finds himself in the story he is writing.  The fifth and final story is Is That You? follows a young girl in her room on Halloween who may not be home alone as she had originally thought. 
     I love Halloween flicks.  I don't care if they are horror, comedy, sci-fi, fantasy, or adult (yes, there is several Halloween porn flicks out there).  Modern Halloween flicks try to capture that nostalgic feeling we all have thinking about Halloweens we celebrated as a kid with the paper and cardboard decorations, the McDonalds' ghost buckets that the kids' meals were sold in, the local television commercials that played before the late night horror marathons.  The perfect example of this is WNUF Halloween Special.  The Witching Season doesn't go to the lengths that WNUF does but god damn was it fun.  The acting in this one is solid throughout all five segments.  Some of the cast does show their inexperience but that doesn't take away from their scenes.  No one stands out from the other but they do a fantastic job and the scenes are eerie and creepy.  Fantastic job to the cast.  The stories for this one is solid.  They are clichéd and borrow from other classic horror films and series but they work for the film.  My biggest complaint about the series on blu is there is no wraparound segment.  Films like Creepshow, Tales from the Crypt, and The Willies offer fun wraparound segments that ties the shorts together nicely.  This release of the film does not have that.  I cannot speak for the Scream Team release of this.  The segments work very well at creating chilling atmosphere and getting the viewer in the Halloween spirit.  Finally, this one does have some blood but the deaths are not the highlight of this one.  The effects work for the gag but are nothing that memorable.  Overall, The Witching Season is essential for October viewing.  Fans of horror and Halloween need to see this anthology.  I believe Scream Team Releasing has released the film on a different blu so check that out and add it to your collection.