Simon, King of the Witches
| Simon, King of the Witches | |
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| Directed by | Bruce Kessler |
| Produced by | Joe Solomon |
| Written by | Robert Phippeny |
| Starring | Andrew Prine |
| Music by | Stu Phillips |
| Cinematography | David L. Butler |
| Edited by | Renn Reynolds |
| Distributed by | Fanfare Films Inc. |
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Release date
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Running time
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99 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Simon, King of the Witches is a 1971 film directed by Bruce Kessler and starring Andrew Prine. Not technically a straight horror film as the title might suggest, it also falls in the realm of camp and psychedelia. It is considered a cult classic.
Simon Sinestrari (Andrew Prine), a cynical Ceremonial magician, is on a quest to become a god. Simon is living in a storm sewer, selling his charms and potions for money, when he is befriended by a young male prostitute named Turk (George Paulsin). Turk introduces Simon to his world of drugs, wild parties, and bizarre Satanic rituals featuring a goat and Andy Warhol star Ultra Violet. Death, freakouts and mayhem ensue, along with romance for Simon with the district attorney's vague daughter (Brenda Scott).
The misleading advertising campaign, which set up Simon as a Satanic sex orgy film cashing in on the Charles Manson trials, seriously hurt the film at the box office. The film is practically bloodless, with only brief nudity (which, again against the norm, actually serves a purpose in the story) but no explicit sex and no parallels whatsoever with Manson. Like many other more eccentric 1970s low budget genre films, Simon has become a cult film over the years, albeit an extremely marginal one.
There was also a paperback novelization of Simon by Baldwin Hills, more than likely a pen name, which took the satirical camp of the film one step further into full-on absurd comedy. Long since out of print, the book comes up occasionally on eBay and online used book stores.
What sets Simon, King of the Witches apart from the legion of occult genre films of the late-1960s and early-1970s is the script, which is far more literate and versed in the esoteric than the norm, both offering new twists to and poking fun at the clichés of the genre.
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