Witchtrap — Witchtrap(Blu Ray)
Witchtrap is a very 1980’s take on the investigating-a-haunted-house genre. It’s high in 80’s camp, full of stilted- often-unintentional amusing acting, cutting one-liners,and more than a few gore deaths. It’s a film that just sits on the edge of so bad-it’s-great, and while there are a few pacing issues- this is a largely entertaining slice of 80’s shlock. Here from MVD’s Rewind Series is a Blu-Ray release featuring a 2k scan of the film, a commentary track, and a selection of interviews.
The Blu-Ray comes presented in a standard case- but this comes presented in a card slip- which mimics the old VHS layout/ look. Along with the disc we get a mini fold-out poster- taking in the original poster art of the film.
Witchtrap (aka The Presence) was both written & directed by Honolulu, Hawaii-born Kevin Tenney. To date he has thirteen credits to his name- these go from teens get possession horror of Night Of The Demons (1988), onto the killer puppet horror/ thriller Pinocchio's Revenge (1996), through to the alien parasitic zombie horror of Brain Dead (2007).
The film opens with fairly effective foreboding shots of the outside of an older large house in the daytime- we go inside the house & the film's camp intention is revealed as we see a shot of a fireplace where a picture of a staring-eyed bearded man hangs. Then darting shorts of skulls, pentagrams, creepy looking texts- as a large side boarded man in a pink tux is clasping his head in distress- he runs towards the end of the corridor throwing himself out of the window- to fall to the below ground, with blood spurting from his downed body. We later find out this man was a showy LA medium- who had been sent to the house to prove it was haunted.
Next, we meet the team of characters going to investigate the house. There’s husband & wife psychics- bossy and smug Agnes (Judy Tatum), and the rather timid & bespeckled Felix Goldberg (Rob Zapple). There’s strawberry blonde Psychic Kathleen (Witney O’Shay). And security business owner Murphy (Jack W. Tompson), and his two men- the wisecracking and cynical Tony (James W. Quinn), and horny African American Levi (Clyde Talley II). And Ginger Kowowski- played by screen queen Linnea Quigley- who’s a videographer filming the group's visit, and has rather caught the eye of Levi.
As the film unfolds we get a fairly by-the-books ghost investigation plot- the group move in, and slowly but surely the activity gets worse & worse- going from hammy & OTT in trace-then-possession freakouts, through to ghost drifting by on video cameras footage, onto attacks/ killings- like a shower head in the throat, head explosion, etc. The ghost that haunts the house is a stage-performing psychic/ wizard- whose picture we saw hanging in the opening
Most of the acting is very deadpan/ extremely stilted- with at points I’m sure some of the actors are reading off cue cards. I guess the only vague good/ consistent actor here is Quinn who plays the wisecracking, and often belittling/ snapping back at his boss Tony. There is often a rather TV movie/ US TV soap feels to the presentation of the film. As mentioned early on some of the pacing of the film is somewhat off- and personally I didn’t really find anything very scary or creepy here, and I’d say on the whole it came off like a more adult Scooby Doo feature with some gore & a few flashes of female flesh. I’d say if you enjoy light & campy horror- that has some chuckle-worthy/ snipping dialogue, with effective enough moments of gore I think you’ll get something from Witchtrap.
Moving onto this region free Blu-ray, and basically, it ports over its print & extras from the 2016 Vinegar Syndrome release of the film. The 2k print looks nicely bright & well-defined though-out. We get a commentary track from director Kevin Tenney, producer Dan Duncan, cinematographer Tom Jewett and actor Hal Havins. And a good selection of on-camera interviews-director Kevin Tenney (23:36) actress Linnea Quigley (13:40) Cinematographer Tom Jewett (15:09) Special Effects Supervisor Tassilo Baur (17:11). There’s a VHS version of the film, photo gallery, and original trailer.
Witchtrap is an entertaining & engaging enough example of B-movie 80’s video shop fare. It most definitely sits on the edge of so-bad-it’s-great filmmaking, but never truly gets there…so take from that what you will, and decide whether this is for you or not.