Season of the Witch (1972 film)
| Season of the Witch | |
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Original film poster under the name Hungry Wives
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| Directed by | George A. Romero |
| Produced by | Nancy M. Romero |
| Written by | George A. Romero |
| Starring |
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| Music by | Steve Gorn |
| Cinematography | George A. Romero |
| Edited by | George A. Romero |
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Production
company |
The Latent Image, Inc.
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| Distributed by | Jack H. Harris Enterprises, Inc. |
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Release date
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Running time
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130 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Season of the Witch is a 1973 American film directed by George A. Romero. The film is about a housewife (Jan White) who discovers with her friends that a local woman, Marion (Virginia Greenwald), practices witchcraft. The friends visit Marion and White finds herself interested enough in witchcraft to experiment with it for herself.
The film was originally made under the title Jack's Wife, with a small crew, giving director George A. Romero the duties of an editor, cinematographer and screenwriter. The film's distributor cut major parts of the film and changed its title to Hungry Wives!, marketing it as a softcore pornography film. The film failed to find an audience on its initial release and was re-released years later under the title Season of the Witch.
Joan Mitchell (Jan White) is the 39-year-old wife of a businessman, Jack Mitchell (Bill Thunhurst). They live in suburban Pittsburgh with their 19-year-old daughter Nikki (Joedda McClain), a student. Joan is unhappy and bored with her housewife role. Jack is busy, domineering, and sometimes violent, embarking on long business trips every week. Joan has been seeing a psychotherapist because of her recurring dreams about her husband controlling her. He makes repeated references to needing to "kick some ass"—a colleague's, his own child's, his wife's. Eventually, he strikes Joan in the face.
Joan and her friends learn about a new woman in the neighborhood named Marion Hamilton (Virginia Greenwald) who practices witchcraft. Prompted by curiosity, Joan and one of her friends, Shirley (Anne Muffley), drive over to Marion's house one night for a Tarot reading. Marion is the leader of a secret witches' coven.
Joan and Shirley drive home to Joan's house, where they meet Gregg (Raymond Laine), a student teacher at Nikki's college (with whom Nikki has a very casual sexual relationship). The four drink and talk. Gregg shows an interest in Joan, who rebuffs him. Joan throws Gregg out of her house after he cruelly tricks Shirley into believing that she has smoked pot. After taking Shirley home, Joan returns home to hear Nikki and Gregg having sex. Turned on, she quietly goes to her bedroom and begins touching herself until Nikki walks in on her.
The next day, a furious Nikki leaves without telling anybody where she is going, and soon afterward Jack leaves for a one-week business trip, with Joan feeling more lonely than ever. Joan buys a book about witchcraft. She conjures a spell to make Gregg attracted to her, and soon they are engaged in an affair. She also has increasingly terrifying nightmares, in which she is attacked by an intruder wearing a Satanic mask. As she explores witchcraft further, practicing rituals and researching spells, Joan's world continues to change. The police tell Joan they have found Nikki in Buffalo, New York and that she will be coming home in three or four days. After one last sexual encounter with Gregg, Joan tells him she does not want to see him again.
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