Schlock Corridor: Day Five

SCHLOCK CORRIDOR: Virgin Witch

I think I fucked up. 1972's Virgin Witch, helmed by prolific television director Ray Austin, is a real movie. I had no idea what this was before I watched it, which is one of my rules for this exercise, and it ended up surprising the hell out of me. Everything else I've subjected myself to thus far has felt incomplete and poorly thought out, photographed in a very perfunctory, utilitarian style. Uninspiring, to put it bluntly, unable to truly hold my interest. But this movie, on the other hand... it's stylish, lurid and hallucinatory, a consistently engaging and creatively shot narrative that I honestly enjoyed.

I must get this out of the way before I go any further: this is basically a softcore porn flick at its core. With an alternate title of Lesbian Sisters, I'm not sure how one could confuse it for something a little more highbrow, but this film was made in the 1970's, the height of the exploitation cinema era, and many surprisingly innovative movies were created during this time. As long as the film contained the prerequisite exploitative elements (nudity, gore, etc.) the financiers usually allowed the filmmakers to do whatever the hell they wanted as far as narrative and technical approach were concerned. That was one of the things that attracted so many eager and creative young directors, writers and cinematographers to the genre during this period. Roger Corman gave such luminaries as John Sayles, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, James Cameron and Jonathan Demme their big breaks in the industry, after all. There's plenty of room for inspired filmmaking in exploitation cinema, and Virgin Witch, as it turns out, is a fine example of this.

Real-life sisters Ann & Vicki Michelle play Christine & Betty, a pair of aspiring model siblings looking for work, and Christine finds it at the enigmatic Sybil Waite's modeling agency. The sisters journey to a gorgeous estate on the English countryside for what they believe to be a weekend of mildly libidinous photography sessions peppered with numerous gratuitous shower sequences, but end up in the clutches of a wanton coven of local witches who want to induct them into their not-exactly-evil-but-still-kinda-weird order... while engaging in a series of mildly libidinous photography sessions peppered with numerous gratuitous shower sequences.

The coven's high priest Gerald desires Christine primarily for her latent supernatural talents, which he hopes to awaken, but Sybil is a devious lesbian who aims to take the uninhibited young woman as a submissive lover. The film sets Sybil up to be the film's villain during the slow-burn first half, but she is ultimately proven to be no match for Christine once she is initiated and comes into her true power, being bullied and eventually brutally killed by the power-mad usurper as she begs for mercy during the climax. It's more than a little jarring to see the assertive but still relatable Christine transform into the potent and bloodthirsty new leader of the coven by the end of the story, especially considering the events of the film take place over the course of a weekend, but the character's evolution manages to work regardless of the accelerated timeframe.

The film posits that Christine was never what one would call a so-called "good person", but rather a wolf in sheep's clothing who was just waiting for the perfect opportunity to come along that would allow her to indulge in her baser instincts in what is essentially a consequence-free environment, because no other members of the coven are willing to stand up to her after she dispatches poor Sybil, choosing instead to follow their new Alpha into the darkness, both metaphorically and literally. Her milquetoast sister Betty manages to escape with her boyfriend, at least for the moment, but how long will it take before Christine reasserts control over her sibling, bringing her back into the fold?

Before this fateful weekend, the coven was essentially harmless, just a gathering of local dabblers in the occult who performed various rituals as an excuse to engage in the occasional orgy, but by the end of the film they willingly fall in line behind Christine, who has revealed herself to be a despicable, cruel and vindictive creature, surrendering their souls to evil in the process. It's a grim and very well executed ending, helping to elevate what could have simply been a well-made, titillating nudie cutie with a dash of the supernatural thrown in to help broaden its appeal.

Virgin Witch is a good movie, with clever direction and cinematography, stimulating production design, a memorable score, and committed performances from some very brave actors who were willing to bare all for a lingering camera lens. It's a film that reminds its audience that "exploitation cinema" isn't necessarily a negative term.

TOMORROW: Fading Of The Cries