Review: Witchtrap (Special Edition)

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2023
Images from the Internet

Witchtrap (aka The Haunted; The Presence)
Directed by Kevin S. Tenney
Moonstone Entertainment; Cinema Plus; CGO Pictures; Mentone Pictures; Magnum Entertainment; MVD Rewind Collection
https://mvdb2b.com/s/WitchtrapSpecialEdition/MVD12465BR
92 minutes, 1989 / 2023

One of my favorite ghost sub-genres is when a group of parapsychologist scientists go to a haunted house to investigate it. No, not like those silly “ghost hunting” shows on cable, but films with a darker turn, such as The Haunting (1963, based on Shirley Jackson’s excellent 1959 novel, The Haunting of Hill House), or The Legend of Hell House (1973, based on the 1971 book Hell House, by one of my favorite authors, Richard Matheson).

For Witchtrap, the script was written in 6 days and shot in Fairfield, California in 17. A nice quickie production, most likely designed for the VHS market, in which the second highest of the two top sellers at video stores was horror. That is why so many films came out in the 1980s. This one was just as the move towards laser discs and DVD was starting.

This is definitely a child of its time, when the demographics were geared more towards teen boys and young men, when women in these films were idealized and sexualized beyond the scope of the story. For example, every female character introduced, even the lead scientist, is either wearing next to nothing, high heels, or topless. Yes, there is a bathing and a shower scene (to be honest, the later is part of the story rather than just gratuitous), of course; at least one was mandatory at the time: wet women’s bodies were, if you pardon the cliché, the money shot.

The object of the investigation is to photograph and exorcise an evil ghost, hired by Devon Lauder (director Kevin Tenney) the nephew of the dead warlock (not witch) Avery Lauder (JP Luebsen; d. 2022). Devon wants to turn it into a B&B, but there is just that nasty and murderous spirit in the way, which is proven in the prologue.

Judy Tatum

The leader of the team is parapsychologist Dr. Agnes Goldberg (Judy Tatum) who is with her husband Felix (Rob Zapple) a mental medium. Next up is redheaded physical medium, stately Whitney O’Shea (Kathleen Bailey), followed by video technician Ginger Kowowski (the Linnea Quigley, top Scream Queen at that time, in an extended cameo and the shower scene). For security, along for the ride (and paycheck) is obnoxious boss Frank Murphy (Jack W. Thompson), who mentions that his beer is “as flat as my ex-wife’s chest,” and his two underlings, stereotypical for the time sauntering and horny (right down to often self lip-licking) for Ginger, Levi Jackson (Clyde Talley II), and the comedy relief, sceptic and sarcastic Tony Vincente (James W. Quinn) who could be the model for Chandler Bing; he really does have the best lines, including lots of references to other films and television shows, such as stating “Good night, Gracie.”

It takes 20 minutes of exposition (Act 1) for the team to get to the Lauter House (aka “Slaughter House”), where they meet the big, slow, and creepy – natch – groundskeeper Elwin (Hal Havins). Whose side is he on is the question – in genre films, it really can go either way – though it is obvious he is also a horndog. That is the way of films of this period: the women are either smart or bimbos, though dress the latter, and the men are either (but rarely) smart and obnoxious in one way or another. There is also a nice touch of racism beyond the stereotyping, such as Frank saying, “You’re gonna do what I say or I’m gonna kick your black ass down those stairs,” to witch – I mean which Levi responds, “Try it and I’ll tap dance on your ass like Bojangles Robinson.” But I digress…

Linnea Quigley, Clyde Talley II

This has been noted that the acting is quite wooden, but there is a reason in this case: as IMDB states, “all of the dialogue and sound effects had to be re-recorded in post-production because of a mix-up with the live sound recording.” All the dialogue is flat (same distance from the microphone) and it is hard to match emotions when you are trying to sync the sound to the screen. I was especially amused by the punches during a fight scene; not as “wooden” as in a Shaw Bros. release, but it does resonate like the same sound effect for each punch.

Kathleen Bailey

Of course, our intrepid troupe gets picked off one by one (nice body count with enjoyable blood and relative gore SFX by Judy Yonemoto). The issue for me is that each time it is about to happen, it is telegraphed in two ways. First, Whitney goes into extreme spasms whenever the ghost/warlock is about to do his due diligence. The second is when the music suddenly changes to an intense and dissonant string-based screech. The kills are still fun to watch, though, and a bit imaginative. There are also some decent jump scares, as was the trend at the time.

James W. Quinn

Starting off the Blu-ray extras is a group commentary track with: director Kevin Tenney, producer Dan Duncan, cinematographer Tom Jewett and actor Hal Havins. Fortunately, they kept their egos in the pockets and rarely talk over each other, and the obviously like each other, which comes across. There are lots of anecdotes, but much of it is a study on filmmaking that is not overly technical.

JP Luebsen

There are a series of interviews starting with Tenney (24 min), who also directed cult classics Witchboard (1986) and Night of the Demons (1988) before this one. He actually tells some interesting stories about the lead-up and making of the film that is not just the standard fare, including self-deprecating moments and insightful anecdotes. Next up is Linnea Quigley (14 min) who discusses how she got into the genre (though does not mention some of her earlier classic films), working with the director, and how much she loves acting in horror films (lucky for us). Then there is cinematographer Tom Jewett (15 min) discussing his career and has a bit more technical info. Last is with special effects supervisor Tassimo Baur (17 min), explaining his role with stunts, shootings, and explosions, for example. All the interviews have clips from the film, and they are solo talking head style, but the content is better than the form.

Added is the VHS version of Witchtrap (92 mins, with some of the extra gore removed thanks to the ratings board that wanted to give it an “X”). I did not watch this, only the uncut main film, not seen until the Blu-ray/DVD release. Last is a mostly on-set photo gallery and the original trailer, as well as other company coming attractions of films from the period. On the physical side, there is a reversible cover artwork and a really nice collectible poster, and for the technical, this is a “High Definition (1080p) presentation of the main feature in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio, scanned and restored in 2K in 2016 from the 35mm Interpositive.” The audio is LPCM 2.0 Mono, and there are optional English subtitles.

Considering the budget and some of my comments, this is actually a surprisingly enjoyable film nearly all the way through. The effects are effective, it is shot well, and as is mentioned often in the commentary and interviews, the lighting throughout is quite noteworthy with its mixing of shadow and light.

This fits in well with the pantheon of 1980s horror cinema, despite its low budget, and even though it was released at the end of the decade, its heart is definitely on a VHS shelf, though seeing the full, uncut version is special.

IMDB listing HERE