‘Season of the Witch’ Is an Underrated & Stunning Psychological Horror – Armessa Movie News

Trigger Warning: The following references assault.

While he is known primarily as the godfather of the zombie film, George A. Romero had a prolific and wide-ranging career, and 1973’s Season of the Witch (or Hungry Wives as it was titled upon release) proves that he could do moody and thematically-rich psychological horror as well as he could do gory, socially-conscious zombie masterpieces. Wrapped in a groovy ’70s exterior, the film is surprisingly intimate and stripped down. The only violence in the film happens at the very end, and as a result is highly effective, even if the special effects have aged somewhat poorly. Season of the Witch is an absolute visual treat with its stunning color palette and interior design, both of which deserve to be studied in film school for how beautifully composed they are. The blue in much of the film’s primary location is closely matched to that of lead actress Jan White‘s own stunning icy blue eyes, for example.

Season of the Witch follows Joan (White), a disenchanted and unhappy housewife who has an ever-distancing relationship with her daughter and abusive husband. While visiting with a group of similarly discontented women in her neighborhood, she is intrigued by one woman who claims to practice witchcraft. She slowly spirals down a dark path complete with Rosemary’s Baby-style dreams of a mysterious and evil figure invading her home and assaulting her. The dreams become increasingly horrifying. The film is smart in that it uses her descent into witchcraft to explore the growing anxiety and desperation of her situation. The more abuse and adversity she experiences in her personal life, the further she is willing to take her new practice into uncharted territory.

‘Season of the Witch’ Was “Elevated Horror” Before the Term Existed

One of the most impressive aspects of Season of the Witch‘s story is how it clearly yet subtly takes Joan’s fear of aging, specifically in regard to her loss of agency, and allows her to reposess that agency through her practice of witchcraft. The main conflict from the film’s very first scene is Joan’s feeling of helplessness and her struggle to regain control. Her daughter is no longer in need of her, her husband is constantly going on long, vague business trips, and as a result can no longer attach herself to her presumed roles of wife and mother. On the surface, the film is about a woman taking up dangerous practices that she doesn’t fully understand, but the subtext examines a woman approaching middle age without the love and support necessary to sustain her.

Season of the Witch has much in common with what some have deemed “elevated horror“, as true horror is more existential and personal and is represented by external threat. Fear is an incredibly intimate emotion, and thus horror makes an excellent genre for exploring the deepest and darkest recesses of a character’s inner life. Parenthood and the fear of are nothing new to horror. In fact, some of the most successful and respected entries in the genre, such as Rosemary’s Baby, The Babadook, and Hereditary all make parenthood a central theme. Season of the Witch deserves to be counted among those other films which explore the topic as it goes deep into Joan’s psychology to talk about aging, social roles and norms, and the fear of irrelevance, especially from a woman’s perspective.

In addition to Joan’s personal crisis which is central to the film’s plot, Season of the Witch also works as a cultural artifact. The film represents the changing attitudes toward spirituality in the early 1970s, especially in regard to the occult. Following the radicalizing of social mores and norms in the ’60s, there was more of an openness to various esoteric spiritual practices and traditions. Joan acts as a sort of surrogate for those interested yet still afraid of these practices and traditions. Witchcraft is often considered much more feminine than any of the Abrahamic religions, making it the perfect set of practices to explore a woman’s search for control in her life. It’s mentioned early on in the film that Joan is a Catholic, but she seems neither to embrace nor reject it, as she is passive in almost all areas of her life. George Romero himself was raised Catholic, not at all unusual for an Italian-American horror filmmaker, though he seemed to have had a skeptical attitude towards organized religion, including Catholicism. As a result, Season of the Witch represents the growing presence and acceptance of non-Christian spiritual traditions, as well as the trepidation and interest with which many (especially those raised in traditional Christian churches) approached witchcraft, perhaps including Romero himself. Regardless of whether one takes the witchcraft in the film literally or as metaphorical for Joan’s condition, Season of the Witch is equally intriguing and unsettling.

‘Season of the Witch’ Is a Visually Stunning Horror

The film is incredibly dreamlike in its presentation and structure. It seems as if every decision made, both visually and narratively, is attempting to disorient the audience, doing so with great success. While there is a strict boundary set between the dream sequences and those taking place in reality, it nevertheless feels as if the dream logic carries over into the real world due to the uncannily coordinated color palette and the jarring, often unnatural editing choices. The reality presented in Season of the Witch is brittle and unpredictable, claustrophobic yet also expansive. The score is largely comprised of discordant piano, warbled effects, and bells signaling an oncoming doom that is clear neither to the audience nor to Joan. There is an overwhelming sense that she is on the cusp of something both terrible and enlightening, which comes to fruition in the final ten minutes.

Despite its level of artistry and fascinating exploration of womanhood, Season of the Witch was not highly regarded at its time nor is it talked about with the same fervor as other classics of the time. In fact, it was originally advertised as a soft-core porno, as noted in The Cinema of George A. Romero: Knight of the Living Dead, despite the sex in the film taking place almost entirely off-screen with minimal nudity. However, in this author’s opinion it deserves a place at the table of 70s horror classics with The Wicker Man, Carrie, Don’t Look Now, and even The Exorcist due to how superbly it balances its atmosphere and themes. You can clearly see its influence on contemporary horror cult classics like The Love Witch in both its psychedelic aesthetic and subject matter. All in all, Season of the Witch is an under-seen classic that deserves a re-evaluation from Romero fans, horror geeks, and general fans of ’70s cinema in general as it turns half a century this year and still doesn’t get the recognition it deserves.