Witch's Brew (2011)

Witch's Brew (2011)
Directed By:  Chris LaMartina
Starring:  Ruby LaRocca, Shawn Phillips, Gary-Kayi Fletcher, Ryan Thomas, Megan Rippey, Helenmary Ball, Lauren Lakis, Virginia House, Seregon O'Dassey, Kendra North
Genre:  Independent Horror
Tagline:  "Liver damage will be the LEAST of your problems!"
Format:  NTSC 1 Personal Collection

(out of 5)

   I purchased this for the sole performance of Ruby LaRocca my favorite indie queen and also because I just couldn't pass up on the idea of a coven of witches cursing a batch of micro-brews.  Chris LaMartina directed, wrote, and edited this little comedy of horrors and what a talent. 

I may say he did an excellent job editing the movie because frankly a lot of stuff happens and I never once felt like I was being pulled in five different directions.  The opening credits also were very well orchestrated something a lot of films and movies overlook as something just not worth making a little creative.  We start out with a little boy playing a trick on one of the witches selling her a bottle of what he said was lemonade but of course ended up being urine.  Well all does not fair well for the young lad after he is tracked down by the nasty group of black magic mistresses.  In a scene that for me was reminiscent of George Romero's Night of the Living Dead.  In the scene the boy appears to be being attacked by just the one witch then the other witches just keep appearing in shot slowly until all of them are trapping and cursing the boy.  Romero did this in NOTLD when one of the zombies is smashed in the face and falls back and at that moment three or four other zombies come into shot making the characters and watchers realize what's happening all around them.  Am I saying Chris is the next Romero no who knows it's just what I thought of at the time.



     So anywho the boy ends up receiving an ugly skin disease style death and we then find out he's the son of one of town's own police women (Kendra North) who was definitely one of best actors in the film by far.  Very impressed all around with the acting though even the little boy.  Jeff (Gary Fletcher) and Preston's (Ryan Thomas) dialogue throughout the film was more than believable as Jeff constantly tries to make Preston believe that these witches cursed the recent batch of beer because Jeff ran over their black cat.  Later of course we find out there's a little more to the story with the cat and it's importance to the group.  The boys at first tried to do the right thing I might add and bring the dead cat up to the house instead of leaving it dead on the road like most assholes would do but that means nothing to these women.

     This is when the shit hits the fan for the many customers of Jeff and Preston.  And it really hits the fan and this is why I have to go with a four bloody hand rating here.  The amount of deaths on screen and off goes over 40 and these aren't shitty filler death scenes or a make-upless body just laying there taking up space.  Each drinker has their own death for the most part.  Blindness only to fall on a fireplace poker, melting bodies, turning into a werewolf, a girls hair suffocates her to death, a guy in a wheel chair kicks himself to death, a cop's boogers attack and kill him, the lovely and talented Ruby LaRocca sees herself get old and scrapes her own face off, and a heavy-set guy starts having sex with a hottie only to see her as food and start eating her.  There are others but why go on the movie was not mildly entertaining...it's fall off your chair entertaining.   At least for me.  I hope to see many more movies from Chris LaMartina.  Highly recommended for any lover like myself of independent/underground horror.