Witchcraft XVI: Hollywood Coven
The Witchcraft series turns 16.
The longest running Horror Franchise ever, if Witchcraft has anything, it has that. Witchcraft XVI: Hollywood Coven stands differently than the others (Even though, along with Witchcraft XV: Blood Rose and Witchcraft XIV: Angel of Death it’s a trilogy). Hollywood Coven somewhat answers a question I had since Angel of Death. Angel of Death to me felt like a Fan film, something fans of the Witchcraft series put together rather than the actual production company, cinema epoch. With Hollywood Coven, the movie acts like a satire for that fan fare.
Hollywood Coven is a film within the film as the actors who were the cast in both Angel of Death and Blood Rose return playing themselves working on a movie called Crystal Force (Used as a parody of Witchcraft), but as it turns out there is a curse on the Crystal force films as whatever actor plays in these movies seems to disappear.
I do like the concept of the film within the film. It reminds me a lot of Witchcraft IX: Bitter Flesh. Bitter Flesh was the return of Will Spanner. Will Spanner is the main character in the Witchcraft series, starting his path as a baby in the 1st movie spawned to be an evil warlock, he progresses to become a lawyer who used his Warlock senses to solve cases too warped in black magic to be solved by anyone else. By Witchcraft VIII: Salem’s Ghost , they attempted to go down a different path with the Salem’s Ghost Saga, that did not pan out like they hoped. So they decided to movie back to Will Spanner using the Bitter Flesh to back track the character and get to know him again.
Ever since, the Witchcraft movies have become semi-trivial with Will using his powers more openly, and developing long time supporting characters like detective Lutz and Garner. As a fan I like the trivia but realistically the original concept of a lawyer not fully embracing his Warlock past was better.
Hollywood Coven goes a level up using the metaphor of Crystal Force to go through the history of Witchcraft, even going as far as as showing clips form old Witchcraft movies. It almost makes Hollywood Coven a clip episode, which is really only good for those who have seen the entire series.
Hollywood Coven works on it’s own better than Angel of Death and Blood Rose. Though it starts exactly like Blood Rose, with the ending of the previous movie, it quickly becomes this different story that’s only connected by the actors that play in the last three movies.
The jump really does make it a different movie. Some characters like Garner and Lutz take a jump as well switching personalities, with Lutz being more reluctant to believe in the curse of the Crystal Force franchise and Garner, believing more so that there might be something to it, to a point that he becomes a more competent detective outside of the movie franchise. In fact Garner takes a lead focus as he tries to discover why actors from the Crystal Force movies kept disappearing. The first time in the history of the franchise (Lutz got her opportunity to shine as the main character in Witchcraft X: Mistress of the Craft).
Hollywood Coven is a better movie without the Witchcraft label. As a fan who has been watching these flicks for sometime, I do feel a little cheated, especially knowing this is the last Witchcraft film in the series (so far). It lacks the two things that seem to make the witchcraft movies worth watching. Most of the movies tended to escalate the T&A to the point were the films series is half horror and half soft-core pron, and all the best movies had Will Spanner in it. There is just not enough Witchcraft in it.
However, standing alone as a movie I loved the concept of Witches in Hollywood. The Satire is funny and it was good conceptually. Noted that this movie has more cheap special effects than any of the other Witchcraft movies, which are still shitty, yet implemented well enough to make for exciting battle scenes.
So I have come to the end of my long Journey. All this started because I saw the poster for Witchcraft IV: The Virgin Heart on my amazon prime page and I thought a Julie Strain movie would be right up my alley, but I wanted to see the three that came before it just in case I miss something. As it turned out I did not need to see those three in order to enjoy The Virgin Heart, but as it turned out it was fun. It was a bumpy road at times with Witchcraft VII: Judgement Hour being hard to find a copy of and Witchcraft XV: Blood Rose not being that great, but overall I loved the Adventures of Will Spanner, a Lawyer born a Warlock using his powers to fight the black magic he was born into with the help of Lutz and Garner. It was a good ride and with some great nudity along the way. I enjoyed it.
Hoping and Waiting for number 17.
