Dreadfully Boring

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Illustrious thespian David Hasselhoff co-stars with Linda Blair and assorted other American actors in this Massachusetts-filmed 4th entry into the "La Casa" series of Italian horror films. The plot centers around an old resort hotel on an off shore island that Freddy (Robert Champagne) and Rose Brooks (jazz singer / occasional actress Annie Ross) want to turn into a fixer-upper opportunity. Taking the journey with them to the island are his pregnant daughter Jane (Blair), his very young son Tommy (Michael Manchester), an immensely sexy blonde architect (Catherine Hickland), and a real estate agent (Rick Farnsworth). Already at the location are a would-be writer (Leslie Cumming), who's researching the history of the area, and her photographer boyfriend Gary (The Hoff). In ones and twos they get knocked off by a German film star / witch (the striking Hildegard Knef).You know you can't say much about the cast when The Hoff delivers one of the better performances. Some of these portrayals are pretty abysmal, especially from Cumming, who's very attractive but whose personality is utterly drab, and child actor Manchester. But director Fabrizio Laurenti and company make up for that with some general weirdness and atmosphere. 80s horror fans will be delighted to note that the horror is extremely sadistic, with some gruesome fates in store for some of our characters. One unfortunate has their lips sewn shut, and is tied up and hung upside down inside a chimney where, you guessed it, a fire eventually gets lit. Among the other highlights: The Hoff getting hit in the face with a splatter of fake blood, Linda getting possessed - again - and an ingenious cut around the 71 minute mark. The makeup effects by Maurizio Trani are pretty good, overall.Decent viewing for lovers of Italian horror.Seven out of 10.

Witchcraft (1988)is name of this movie on my DVD Just found this is now called Witchery (1988) Not to be confused with Witchcraft (1988) (I Like I did)I thought it was it the other witchcraft but so I didn't expect to see David Hasselhoff and Linda BlairThe movie start of in the women running away from some and soon Jumps out of window for some reason but the movies fast When a storm strands a group on a Massachusetts island where the only dwelling is an old hotel supposedly haunted by the ghost of a former German actress (Knef), the result is the standard horror film as each of the cast is picked off one-by-oneThis was not as bad as I thought it was going to be, It never get boring at all, there were decent death scenes in this movie. There few bloody moments in the movie I really liked, I wasn't to keen it the end the story.it's felt too rushed and I didn't really get the last scene in the movie. The acting was really good from most of the castI give 4 out of 10, worth watching

Witchery (1988) * (out of 4)If you remember the whole saga of George Romero's DAWN OF THE DEAD being released in Italy under the title ZOMBI only to then have Lucio Fulci come along with ZOMBI 2 then you get the same type of thing here. THE EVIL DEAD was released in Italy as LA CASA and its sequel was LA CASA 2. Then Umberto Lenzi made a film called GHOSTHOUSE, which was released in Italy as LA CASA 3 even though it was in no way, shape or form connected to the Raimi series. Then, this film, was released as LA CASA 4 but again, no Raimi connection. Outside of Italy it was known as WITCHCRAFT, GHOSTHOUSE 2 and the current title listed above.The typical group of people arrive at your typical old hotel where there's the typical legends surrounding its curse. Apparently, many years ago, a pregnant woman committed suicide to keep from being burned alive as a witch. Years later a strange silent actress moved into the house and was apparently the last owner but soon our new guests start to fall victim to the curse. You have to hand it to the Italians when it comes to the horror genre but by 1988 their magic was running out and that's certainly true here even though they did manage to get Linda Blair and David Hasselhoff to appear in the film. This is your typical cult mess that features a little bit of gore but not enough to keep people interested. The story isn't any better or worse than a dozen other "witchcraft" tales we've seen from any country but the major problem here is the direction by Laurenti, which really shouldn't be called direction at all. The movie moves at a snails pace, none of the build ups are any good, there's no suspense and the worst sin is that the thing is just downright boring. It was rumored that Joe D'Amato did some of the direction as he and Laurenti would co-direct a movie a couple years later. Having seen dozens of D'Amato's work, I'd say he did have a hand in this as it has the same slow pace of many of his films. The one main reason to see the film is a creative death scene where a woman gets her lips sewn together before being hung upside down in a chimney to be burned alive. Blair actually gives a pretty good performance with ol' David getting to act as the boyfriend of a witchcraft specialist who refuses to put out for him or anyone.

There are many different versions of this one floating around, so make sure you can locate one of the unrated copies, otherwise some gore and one scene of nudity might be missing. Some versions also omit most of the opening sequence and other bits here and there. The cut I saw has the on-screen title WITCHCRAFT: EVIL ENCOUNTERS and was released by Shriek Show, who maintain the original US release title WITCHERY for the DVD release. It's a nice-looking print and seems to have all of the footage, but has some cropping/aspect ratio issues. In Italy, it was released as LA CASA 4 (WITCHCRAFT). The first two LA CASA releases were actually the first two EVIL DEAD films (retitled) and the third LA CASA was another film by the same production company (Filmirage), which is best known here in America as GHOSTHOUSE. To make matters even more confusing, WITCHERY was also released elsewhere as GHOSTHOUSE 2. Except in Germany, where GHOSTHOUSE 2 is actually THE OGRE: DEMONS 3. OK, I better just shut up now. I'm starting to confuse myself!Regardless of the title, this is a very hit-or-miss horror effort. Some of it is good, some of it isn't. I actually was into this film for the first half or so, but toward the end it became a senseless mess. A large, vacant hotel located on an island about 50 miles from Boston is the setting, as various people get picked off one-by-one by a German- speaking witch (Hildegard Knef). Photographer Gary (David Hasselhoff), who wants to capture "Witch Light," and his virginal writer girlfriend (Leslie Cumming), who is studying witchcraft, are shacking up at the hotel without permission. Along comes real estate agent Jerry (Rick Farnsworth), who's showing off the property to potential buyers Rose (Annie Ross) and Freddie (Robert Champagne) Brooks. Also tagging along are their children; pregnant grown daughter Jane (Linda Blair) and very young son Tommy (Michael Manchester), as well as oversexed architect Linda Sullivan (Catherine Hickland - Hasselhoff's wife at the time). Once everyone is inside, their boat driver is killed (hung) and the boat disappears, so they find themselves trapped and basically at the mercy of the "Lady in Black."So what can you expect to find here? Plenty of unpleasantries! One of the characters has their lips sewn shut and is then hung upside down in the fireplace and accidentally slow-roasted by the rest of the cast. There's also a crucifixion, witches eating a dead baby, a swordfish through the head, someone set on fire, a possession, a Sesame Street tape recorder, the virgin getting raped by some demon, a guys veins bulging and exploding thanks to voodoo doll pokes and some other stuff. From a technical standpoint, it's a nice-looking film with pretty good cinematography, a decent score and good gore effects. The hotel/island setting is also pretty nice. Blair (particularly at the end) and Ross both seem like they're having fun and Knef is great as the evil witch. Even though people like to ridicule Hasselhoff these days, he's not bad in his role, either.On the down side, despite all the gore, the film seems somewhat dull and it gets monotonous after about an hour. The supernatural themes are muddled and confusing, too. When characters are being swept into the witches lair to be tortured and killed, the filmmakers unwisely decided to superimpose the screaming actors over some silly looking red spiral vortex effect that looks supremely cheesy. And the witch lair itself is vacant and cheaply designed with unfinished lumber. And while most of the cast is at least decent, a few of the performances (particularly the "actress" who plays Hasselhoff's girlfriend and the kid) are so bad they're constantly distracting.