Wicked Witches review: A new kind of creature is here

Wicked Witches is out in the USA tomorrow. The full-length film has a short, but sweet list of things that make it pretty unique.

When I saw the trailer for Wicked Witches, I was immediately interested in checking it out. I’ll tell you right now that I’m pretty hard to please, especially when it comes to a new concept. When I saw the witches in this movie, I thought, “OK, let’s see what they’ve got here.”

Once I started watching, it didn’t take long before I realized this was not the next epic horror classic. While it isn’t a mainstream (or recent) film, if you happen to have seen Howling III: The Marsupials, I’d say Wicked Witches could be its cousin. However, it’s possible that Wicked Witches is setting a the bar for witches as horror movie creatures.

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As I said, on the whole, this movie was not built to sweep the Academy. The first thing I noticed was a propensity for long, drawn out scenes, which had me a little tired at first. But quickly, I understood why it was happening.

On the whole, there was less dialogue than you might be used to and much of the film was established with implied storyline through scenery.

For that, I give major props to the lead, Duncan Casey, whose portrayal of Mark has turned out to be award-winning. His constant transitions to sudden, overwhelming fear led the film, and he certainly has them nailed.

I could actually feel his fright and it was coming from the true pit of his soul. The transitions and sudden horror on his face were absolutely deserving of that award and I hope my screen will be seeing a LOT more of him.

In addition, his best friend Stevie, played by Kitt Proudfoot, was also very believable. He was your average bad influence young buddy who just wanted to party all the way. There was one scene where he was just going on and on, and boy, I felt the irritation he was meant to engineer.

Proudfoot also gave us a good ride as he got a little too involved with the protagonists during and after the party he themed “Dumpfest,” for Mark, who was booted by his wife for his unhusbandy ways. Ultimately, the breakup brought Mark into the chain of events that became the plot of the film, so the celebration beefed up the thin plot.

Before I go any farther, I’m going to remind you that this is a review and while I’m going to give you my thoughts on the film, there will be spoilers. If that doesn’t interest you, proceed with caution. Most of what I mention is readily obvious from the trailer, however.

The main bad guy, played by Justin Marosa was convincingly disturbed. I most definitely would not have stayed the first night at Dumpling Farm with him. There’s absolutely no way. I would have been out of there the second I saw his face while he was chopping by the tree line. Immediately!

Momma witch (The Priestess), played by Samantha Schnitzler, also had the redeeming quality of really being able to sniff her nose like a doggo. Bravo. This film took that approach that we’ve seen in such storylines as A Discovery of Witches, viewing witches as creatures, rather than simply magical humans.

Mark makes his way back to town after the breakup, and scores a room with old friend Ian (Pickering), who is clearly really out of whack. He’s making evil faces from the start and Mark quickly finds out what’s behind that secret door in the house. I knew what it was going to be, but it still caught me off guard. Good job.

As time goes by, the film gives us little plot but tons of gore. There’s blood, scary teeth, and chases through the woods. Some dream sequences get original with the effects and Mark’s sudden jump scare wake-ups are more for the list of Casey’s superior acting treats.

Let’s certainly not disregard the extremely creepy behavior of Ian, especially in Mark’s apparent dream. This was honestly, in my opinion, the creepiest part of the film. Wicked Witches made good use of those jerky, animalistic, unnatural movements and sounds we have seen in movies like The Ring. 

On the downside, I was not impressed with the witch references in the film. I had the feel that it was just packed to the gills with every possible piece of symbolism that could be dragged up. Unfortunately, much of the stuff was not actually witch material.

Some of the scenery was even borrowed from other films. That’s not necessarily a no-no, and in fact, it’s how most lore gets its start. As described right in the dialogue on-screen, it was pretty basic, recognizable “pagan stuff,” though not necessarily witch stuff, per se.

We’re not really used to witches as evil animal creatures just yet, but this was a great depiction of the probability of how it might be. These ladies transformed physically and act animalistic, in a nod to werecreature culture. They also eat flesh like a good ol’ zombie, and get involved with blood, super strength, and summoning behavior in a nod possession and demon ideology.

Obviously, my biggest issue with the script was that there was less plot than I would have liked. I did like the fact that the ending was completed with an incompletion. We know what happens, but we don’t. I can dig that and am always open to the lack of a true resolution. If you don’t like that, beware. It could leave you with that feeling like, “really?”

Wicked Witches released originally as The Witches of Dumpling Farm in overseas markets last year. Tomorrow, the film opens nationally here, in the United States. It’s also going to be made available on multiple VOD sites and on DVD.

So if you’re up for a new twist on an old character, Wicked Witches has something to offer you in the way of a marriage of creatures types. The Pickering Brothers and Midnight Releasing have it for you tomorrow in the US on multiple platforms. I would love to see this on the big screen, as well.

Are you going to check out Wicked Witches when it comes out tomorrow? Let us know what you think in the comments below!

Wicked Witches will be available in the United States August 9th nationwide and streaming on demand! Check out Hidden Remote on Twitter for more stories like these.