Season of the Witch

(1972) dir. George A. Romero
viewed: 11/09/08

Season of the Witch is an obscure early film by cult director George A. Romero who is best known for his zombie films, including the classics Night of the Living Dead (1968) and Dawn of the Dead (1978) as well as several others.  While I haven’t seen all of his films, I had always liked Martin (1977), as well, and I’ve been slowly adding his films to the bulk of the films that I am watching.

Season of the Witch is most like Martin in that its supernatural aspects are conflated with natural explanations.  In Martin, for instance, Martin believes himself to be a vampire.  But is he?  Or is he just crazy?  It’s a clever conceit, an effective portrait of an outsider whose attempts to become part of the world become bizarre and nightmarish.

In Season of the Witch, the story is about an upper middle class housewife in Pennsylvania in 1973, bristling under the constraints of her chosen or enforced role.  It’s explicitly a feminist film, about a woman taking power of herself amidst a changing culture of conservatism to one of outright wantonness.  Her world is one most comprehensively understood in her surreal nightmares, which Romero plays out with some of his most avant-garde direction (also rather campy and amateurish).  Her struggle for empowerment, which she seeks in psychoanalysis, in a brief affair with a young radical, and ultimately in witchcraft.

Unlike in Martin, where the question of real vs. imagined is never fully explicated, the housewife’s concept of her supernatural abilities is depicted as most likely a fantasy.  While elements of possibility remain, such as a strange black-and-white cat entering her house as she attempts to conjure a demon, nothing explicitly fantastic actually ever takes place.  The possibility remains, but is unlikely.  In many ways, this is a much more naturalistic tale than one is used to from Romero.  But it seems, after his initial splash with Night of the Living Dead, he did attempt to branch out of horror, and while this film is not utterly successful, it has some qualities.

The dialgoue is interesting.  Very lively cultural discussions about a woman’s place in the world, in the changing world.  As a woman aging, with her children “leaving the nest” as it were, remaining attractive and sexual.  It’s intelligent discussion, even in a less powerfully constructed film.

It certainly adds to one’s understanding of George A. Romero’s ideological stance, one that he seemed to have more success in depicting via the horror genre rather than in a more naturalistic setting.  It’s also a low budget exercise, from a good director still feeling out his strengths.  I would only recommend it for more hardcore Romero enthusiasts.  Because, while it’s interesting to a degree, it’s also not the most enthralling of films.  One of the last two left of my Halloween collection.