LastingAware The greatest movie ever!

MonsterPerfect Good idea lost in the noise

Motompa Go in cold, and you're likely to emerge with your blood boiling. This has to be seen to be believed.

Haven Kaycee It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

m2mallory The difference between a British sleaze film of the 1970s and an American sleaze film of the 1970s is that the British film is well acted and features interesting locations. "Virgin Witch," quite possibly the quintessential sleaze film of the 1970s, manages both. It's not that the film is not exploitative and rather insulting to women, it's just that one would have to take it seriously to take offense. The film stars real-life sisters Ann and Vicki Michelle as an ambitious career woman (Ann) and a repressed virgin (Vicki) who leave their strict parents and come to London. On the way they meet Johnny (Keith Buckley), in one of those 1970s movie coincidences, and he develops a bone for Vicki. Meanwhile, Ann answers an advert for a model and is "auditioned" by lesbian agent Sybil Waite (Patricia Haines), who invites her up for the weekend at a manor house owned by Gerald Amberly (Neil Hallet), a sort of proper Hugh Hefner, who is (of course) also the leader of a coven of witches. Ann (character name "Christine") is all for it, even the attentions of Sybil, if that's what it takes to get ahead, but Vicki (Betty) is still repressed. Sex rites ensue. In fact, the coven really isn't much into black magic at all, just sex games. Suffice it to say that the film did not have much of a costume budget. It would be a lot easier to dismiss this film as so much trash if it were not decently acted, particularly by Haines and Hallet. Ann Michelle--a kind of road company Martine Beswick--also does well under the direction...at least under the camera pointing...of stuntman-turned-director Ray Austin. There's nothing scary about this "horror" film, and truth be told, even with the vast amount of nudity, there's nothing very erotic about it either. It's a time capsule of a particular era of very strange British thriller films, but a rather disarming one.

gavin6942 A girl gets a job for a modeling agency, only to later discover that it's all a cover to recruit young girls for a coven of witches. Her sister and her sister's boyfriend get dragged along on the adventure.The plot here is a little shaky. While the goals of the coven aren't really revealed, and the modeling agency may or may not be real (they never explicitly say), there is a definite story. Whether or not it's enough story to really matter is up to the viewer, I suppose.The obvious reason this film was made was not to make a horror film or a classic film or any other type of film except one: a movie where two sisters (as well as many others) are naked in approximately 90% of the movie. In the modeling agency, in a field, on a car, in a witch's ceremony, in bed... I didn't time it, but to say that 90% of the film has nudity is really not much of a stretch.According to Wikipedia, "The film has subsequently been disowned by its sibling stars Ann and Vicki Michelle. Vicki's website makes no reference to the film, while Ann's cryptically refers to it as 'not an experience Ann cares to remember'." I suppose this shouldn't surprise me. Although one (if not both) of the girls became known from this film, it's not really something you want to say was your crowning achievement.The witch aspects were done very well, with the ceremony and explanation of the high priest's role very believable. The topic of magic was very minimal, which I guess is unfortunate, but it didn't take away from the witch storyline as much as you might think.On a personal note, my biggest disappointment with this film is the choice of the leading actress. The sister is far more attractive than the lead, so I would have rather their roles were reversed. This way, the attractive one would have more on-screen nudity. Although, if you're watching this to get turned on (as the tagline implies) you might be let down: after the first fifteen minutes, the nudity was so pervasive it wasn't even that odd anymore (like living in a nudist colony).If you're into exploitation films and horror films, this is worth checking out. The plot is thin, the acting decent and the nudity excessive. Hey, some people go for that -- they made a whole market of the stuff. I expected much worse from this, so I guess I can't complain and would not even be opposed to owning it if it was available for a reasonable price.

MARIO GAUCI I was half-expecting this to be even worse than THE BODY STEALERS (1969) and, my viewing of it, certainly proved my fears right! This one's the pits: the title promises nudity and scares (or at least diabolism) - it provides the former in spades, though none of it is erotic, but the latter is only present, if so it can be called, in some silly late-night rituals with nude dancing en masse of old and young witches alike! Tigon only distributed the film and, really, there are no redeeming features to this low-brow venture - whose director was actually an English aristocrat! The premise offers no surprises whatsoever and, in fact, here again we have sisters as the leading characters - one virtuous, one wicked (around this same time, Hammer Films made TWINS OF EVIL [1971] - which were played by Maltese actresses, by the way - and which, alas, I've never watched!). The other characters are stereotypes and the only one who provides any interest is Patricia Haines (formerly Mrs. Michael Caine and who died, at a fairly young age, only a few years later!) as the lesbian High Priestess of the coven.Perhaps the most hilarious scenes are the afore-mentioned rites, Ann Michelle's photo sessions (a modeling agency serves as a front for the coven) and especially when she, a newly-inducted witch, puts a spell on her rival Haines - having suddenly become an expert in the occult merely by reading a book on the subject (Michelle burns a photograph of Haines, and we see the latter's expression in it change gradually to reflect the pain she goes through!). The film was actually shot in 1970 but the BBFC refused it a certificate - realizing, perhaps, that it was pure exploitation and not really a horror film at all; in fact, it only got released when the producers took the film to the apparently more lenient censor boards of individual towns, after which the BBFC relented!

gavcrimson Warning: spoilersVirgin Witch hails from an era when witchcraft was depicted as a new novelty in the world of swinging suburbia. The topic had already spawned several sex paperbacks sold from the back pages of Continental Film Review. Filmmakers were also quick to get in on the act, the enigmatic Malcolm Leigh directed the documentary The Legend of the Witches (1969) while Wife Swappers auteur Derek Ford helmed Secret Rites (1971) a 47 minute featurette on 'witch king' Alex Sanders. If the still sets are anything to go by the two reoccurring themes in the Ford film are bald men in face make-up and female pubic hair. This sub-genre also got its own magazine in Witchcraft,the 'monthly chronicle of Horror,Satanism and the Occult'. Witchcraft was a mixture of surprisingly literate articles on vampires and witch hunting alongside pictorials of recognisable sexploitation actresses posed in satanic tableau. One article 'Initiation into an Essex Coven' features shots of swingers with blacks bars over their eyes to protect their identity and drawn on Y-fronts to protect their modesty. Virgin Witch replays the contents of an issue of Witchcraft within a traditional horror film narrative. It's an early 'Elton Hawke' production;Hawke was the appropriately occult-sounding pseudonym of Crossroads creator Hazel Adair and wrestling commentator Kent Walton.'Made on location in Surrey, England' the film features Vicki and Ann Michelle as two girls fresh from the provinces looking to break into modelling. Despite warnings to avoid 'backstreet photographers',Ann goes to a casting call in which she's required to go nude for the head of an advertising agency. In a gender twist the person in question isn't some salivating bloke,but Sybil Waite a stern and intimidating middle aged lesbian. Using her position of power to prey on young models,Sybil insists on taking Ann's measurements all the while trying and failing to feign apathy with statements like 'just for the record'. As a reward for playing along with the scenario Ann gets a modelling gig shooting a cider advert at a country house,Vicki tags along too. The ad involves Ann sprawled naked over a car. Peter a sexually desperate looking photographer with a comb over snaps away trying to get the right shot. And there's not a drop of cider in sight..funny old game advertising. Sybil,who goes through the film with fixed scowl on her face,reminds Peter of his low end of the pecking order status within the household. If anyone's getting their hands on the sisters during the weekend it's either her or the house's owner Dr Gerald Amberley 'an authority' on the subject of witchcraft played by the extremely likeable Neil Hallett. The inquisitive sisters eventually discover Gerald,Sybil and Peter are all part of a witch's coven in which Gerald is the chief white witch. Over dinner Gerald reassures the girls that the coven only use their powers for good,dropping swinger expressions like 'friendship' and 'give pleasure' as other attributes to his lifestyle. Ann wants in on the sexy scene. As Gerald, Hallett is the epitome of the charming,non-threatening English gent with a raised eyebrow for the ladies. While Gerald is seemingly serious with regards to his lifestyle and religious beliefs you suspect stripping off and 'initiating' giggling virgins into the coven by having sex with them on altars have great appeal for the old fox as well.A fairly mellow horror film (compare and contrast to Satan's Slave shot several years later on the same country estate),Virgin Witch's intensions aren't far removed from that of the Hallett character. It has a shamelessly leery fixation on its lead actresses and is perfectly in touch with the Dirty Mac sensibility. The Michelle sisters spend most of the film in a state of undress or in a state of just about to get undressed. In rare occurrences when they are allocated a costume,it includes some of the shortest skirts in cinema history. Ann's considerable coolness in handling advances from both genders means she's much more than a mere sex object though. The need for a dramatic plot thread sees upstart Ann trying to knock Sybil off her position of power within the coven. Ann has hither to unsuspected psychic powers and uses them to naturally defend younger sibling Vicki against creepy men and give Sybil a taste of her own medicine. The film subscribes to the wishful fantasy of young vulnerable girls eventually gaining the upper hand over sexual predatorily casting agent types. It all ends with a psychic showdown between Ann and Sybil amidst the rest of the coven madly shagging away in the bushes. Virgin Witch was directed by Ray Austin,a former bit part actor of 'bruiser' appearance,who had helmed episodes of The Saint and Randall and Hopkirk Deceased. He approaches Virgin Witch very much like a horny ITC episode. His talent lay in creating atmosphere whether it's the hero's bright red sports car thundering down dark country roads,a blues music interlude,or the psychedelic flavoured orgies. Austin also shows a flare for offbeat compositions such as a scene framed by a milk float. Very much directed from a heterosexual male perspective the film views lesbianism as somewhat abhorrent,yet hilariously at the same time has no hang ups with regards to young girls embracing the occult. Ann reacts to the news that she's been accepted into the coven with all the hop, skip and a jump of a brownie who has just received her first badge. `Now I'm a witch, now I can please myself',she tells a male acquaintance. The film was the first in the 'Elton Hawke trilogy' of Virgin Witch,Can You Keep It Up For a Week and Keep It Up Downstairs,three films loosely linked and greatly benefited by Neil Hallett's reoccurring performances as the genre's most suave and charismatic swinger. In turn the film also kick started Ann Michelle's mini British horror film career,still a working actress she leaves Virgin Witch off her CV these days and refers to the film as an experience she doesn't care to remember.