Movie Review
Season of the Witch (1972)
Rated R
Starring: Jan White, Raymond Laine, Ann Muffly, Joedda McClain, and Bill Thurnhurst
Writer & Director: George Romero
Remember when ‘it was all a dream’ became a storytelling cliche? This is when it happened. In this movie. If it was meant to throw us off-kilter and doubt the reality of the movie we never really got a chance to experience, then it worked.
Joan Mitchell is a housewife. She basically waits at home while her husband gets stressed out enough to come home and smack her around when her talking about her own problems or lashing out during her dreams is a bit too much for his delicate constitution.
As per any textbook expounding on the teachings of Sigmund Freud, the dream sequences in this movie are full of sexual symbolism and innuendo. One, in particular, Joan is meeting with a ‘realtor’ who gives her a tour of a house. The house has amenities, including a young man who delivers items, is a plumber, and fixes other things (etc., etc.), basically any cliche porn scenario from the 70s. Toward the end of the tour, she sees her reflection, as her older self.
Joan and her friend, Shirley, get a tarot reading and Joan becomes interested in witchcraft. She meets Gregory Williamson, the fix-it man from her dream…
