Saturday, November 15, 2008

Witchcraft '70


Witchcraft ‘70 is a “documentary” in the tradition of the Mondo Cane films on the evil stuff like witchcraft and Satanism. The documentary claims to capture real blasphemous rituals for the entertainment of the audience. Unsurprisingly, the documentary is full of beaten to death moral commentary and a variety of ad hominem attacks against the terrible heretics. The height of Witchcraft ‘70’s appeal is an appearance by Church of Satan founder Satan LaVey. Evil stuff here!


Witchcraft ‘70
features interviews with a cop about young people involved with Satanism and it’s effects on his jurisdiction. The well mannered officer tells of ritualistic animal killings and Satanists on LSD. I got the feeling from the cops commentary that he just wanted to tie the Satanists to the animal killings. The cop also seemed to think dirty hippies and Satanists are one in the same. Apparently he has not read the writing of Anton LaVey.

As can be expected, Witchcraft ‘70 features many scenes of nude satanic ritual. The documentary justifies the appearance of exploitative nudity in the film by showing that the participants are "openly evil." I especially liked how the Witchcraft ‘70 narrator seemed to really have it out for the British devil worshipers. The narrator surely has no respect for those individuals that want to fall in the footsteps of Aleister Crowley. The lowest part in the documentary is when a group of naked Negroes become seriously engaged in evil rituals. These individuals seem to be the most believing bunch featured in Witchcraft ‘70.


Aside from a few drugged out visual effects and it’s unintentionally comical blatantly exploitative nature, Witchcraft ‘70 doesn’t offer much. It was even a somewhat painful experience. During the documentary's conclusion, a group of stoned hippies listen to shitty rock music and start molesting a girl. Although this may sound hilarious, it was actually quite boring. The narrator attempts to liven the mood of the content of Witchcraft ‘70 but fails embarrassingly throughout.


-Ty E

1 comment:

  1. Never seen this one, but I do remember watching others in the same vein. They was a lot of sensationalism going on. There was this big Satanic Panic at the time.

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