Search - Season of the Witch/There's Always Vanilla on DVD

To the devil with what people say...

Allan MacInnis | Vancouver | 10/21/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Alright, so the acting is often amateurish and it isn't approved by Wiccans and the lot. They can go play with their chalices and swords -- it's a brilliant little movie. Romero looks at sexual frustration, the sexual revolution (California-style), and the relationship of these things to what would become known as "New Age spirituality" with a critical, curious, searching eye, making his most reflective and unusual film. Donovan's song is nicely used, and there are some almost Cassavetes-like moments where the characters push each other into revealing deep-seated frustrations and fears... Also some interesting considerations of the relationship between religious beliefs and sexual needs which, really, just aren't TREATED that often in cinema. The film seems to seriously want to explore everything that Romero thinks might be healthy about witchcraft, without being afraid to also criticize it, as well. I'd almost be willing to call it a feminist film, in that Romero earnestly tries to frame 70's west-coasty let's-pretend/ let's-get-nekkid occultism in the context of VERY REAL female struggles at the time. His cynicism ultimately wins out, however; though the movie remains ultimately a little ambiguous, the last scene seems pretty mocking, to my eyes... In any event -- it is worth watching and thinking about. And yes, Satanism and Wicca are different things, and YES, Romero takes some liberties with his depiction of "The Craft," but Cripes, guys, what, do you just watch THE WICKER MAN over and over and over and over and over and over and over? Lighten up! (And please don't put any curses on me)."

1 movie three names

paulkristi | Mount Prospect, Illinois United States | 06/22/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Well I think George Romero is a genius (If you don't think so thats good for you). This was romeros 3rd movie,and it seemed to have the same fate as the movie romero made before it and after it. reason #1: Georges' second movie shot in 1969 was first titled "Theres Always Vanilla", it was then re-released as "The Affair", and then once more re-named "At play with the Angels", then, it unfortunatly fell off the face of the earth without a trace. Then in 1972 Romero shot "Jacks wife" the movie bombed at the box office (mainly because people didn't get it or didn't want to try) The production house that financed the film (unknown to Romero)actually usually financed x-rated films. So the film was re-released under its new name "Hungry Wives" and was trying to be sold as "soft porn", poor George was so wizzed (and embarassed) that he called it a loss. The film remained forgotten until 1979 right after "Dawn of the Dead" was released. The new distribution company who bought the rights to it cut about a half hour out of it and re-released it as "Season of the Witch". Hoping that the movie would ride on the coatails of "Dawn". Then Romeros' next film "The Crazies" was originally released as "Code Name:Trixie" in 1973.As for "Season of the Witch", its really a great movie. Its just that most people just dont want to have to try to figure things out, if the entire plot, all of the questions and answers in it arent presented to people right under their noses, they "don't understand it" or "get bored" with it because they have the attention span of 3rd graders. The plot is very original, the acting isn't bad it reflects the charaters emotional states (Romeros' charecters never act mellow dramatic just very natural)Once again probably the most overlooked stong points of the movie is romeros cinematography and editing, romero has honed a style of camera work and editing that is very prominent in all of his work, its genius but unappreciated. And for all those who whine about the movies "low budget". Ok, the movie was shot in 1972 on 16mm film, yes thats right 16mm film. "NOTLD" was shot on 35mm B&W, "Season of the Witch" was shot on 16mm color, So WHat?? I personally like seeing movies that were shot on 16mm. Just because a film wasn't shot on "state of the art" equipment does that make it a bad movie?? I would of liked it even if it was shot on super 8!"

One of my Favorites

Inner Spiral | 03/30/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This movie has been a favorite of mine for many many years. Origionaly released under the title of "Jacks Wife" this movie continues to be great after all this time. This movie, though slow to get to the topic, is based on traditional witchcraft (NOT WICCA) but witchcraft as presented in Paul Huson's 70's Book, Mastering Witchcraft. Each ritual in this bok is taken almost word for word from Mastering Witchcraft. I would highly reccomend this movie for those people who are interested in a true classic and not just some modern wicca based nonsense full of special effects and silly fluffy bunny wannabes. If your a Romero fan this is for you."

Two strange films by George A. Romero

Marc DIAZ | 07/23/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This DVD features the second and third films by the "horror director" George A. Romero. Nevertheless, none of each is really horror oriented. There's Always Vanilla is a romantic drama depicting the 70's atmosphere, whereas Season of the Witch is a housewife portrait. Both of them are difficult to watch, but necessary for die hard Romero fans. The quality of the image and the sound is good on There's Always Vanilla, whereas on Season of the Witch, it's not clean at all. By the way, although the title of the movie is Season of the Witch, it seems to be the Hungry Wives cut (the French DVD release contains more witchcraft scenes and less dialogue). The bonus are interesting, the documentary is cool, and the interview of the director is out of the ordinary.
As a conclusion, this DVD is destined to Romero fans only !"