The Love Witch (2016)

“The fear of female sexuality has been a staple of horror movies forever, but “The Love Witch” does more than simply subvert or parody the erotic underpinnings of the genre…Ms. Biller’s movie, like its heroine, presents a fascinating, perfectly composed, brightly colored surface. What’s underneath is marvelously dark, like love itself.” — A.O. Scott, The New York Times

“Biller’s feminist philosophy meshes with the freewheeling delight of her aestheticism. The film pulsates with furious creative energy, sparking excitement and amazement by way of its decorative twists, intellectual provocations, and astounding humor.” — Richard Brody, The New Yorker

SYNOPSIS

Writer-director Anna Biller conjures a ravishingly artificial world of sex, sorcery, and romantic obsession in this wicked feminist riff on the Technicolor melodramas and exploitation cinema of the 1960s. Samantha Robinson stars as Elaine, a glamorous modern-day witch who arrives in a small California town determined to find the perfect man, employing potions and spells to inspire an all-consuming devotion in her unsuspecting suitors…with increasingly disastrous results. Working as her own production designer, costume designer, and editor, Biller meticulously recreates the saturated colors, elaborate décor, and stylized performances of an earlier Hollywood while turning its conventions of feminine desire and male fantasy inside out. Equal parts romantic melodrama, psychosexual horror, and deadpan comedy, The Love Witch uses its sumptuous retro surfaces to ask what happens when the fantasy of being desired becomes every bit as destructive as the desire itself.