The Love Witch

 The Love Witch

2016

Director- Anna Biller

Cast- Samantha Robinson, Gian Keys, Laura Waddell, Jeffrey Vincent Parise, Jared Sanford, Robert Seeley, Jennifer Ingrum, Clive Ashborn, Stephen Wozniak, Elle Evans, Fair Micaela Griffin, April Showers

            

     Elaine has serious man troubles. She wants more than anything to have true love and a husband. She has created, in her mind, a Prince Charming fantasy. The problem is that she can’t seem to keep a man, so she turns to witchcraft. She devotes her time to learning sex magic and brewing love potions. The movie begins with her relocating from San Francisco to a small town after she killed a would be lover with a potion.

           

     Elaine doesn’t learn her lesson and she continues her search for love, drugging the men with psychedelics and indulging their sexual fantasies in order to seduce them. The problem is, her magic is too potent and the relationships always end in disaster.

            

    The first thing you’ll notice about the film is how it looks. The director, Anna Biller took great pains to create a period look. The film doesn’t take place in the 60’s but it looks very much like it was made then. The lighting, make up, wardrobe, camera angles, lighting, filters, even being shot on film rather than digitally , all contribute to this feeling of watching a higher end Hammer film. The film is worth watching a second time just to soak in the look of it.

            

     I’ve seen the film categorized as a comedy but I just don’t get it. I think the camp 60’s look maybe keeps some folks from taking it completely seriously, but its every bit a tragedy. I think the closest analog to me is American Psycho (the movie not the book).

Elaine (like Patrick Bateman) lives in a series of fantasies in her head. Whereas Patrick Bateman lives in a male fantasy where he is the star of his own porno, Elaine lives in a female fairy tale where a man will sweep her off her feet. Likewise, both Patrick and Elaine are utterly incapable of empathy. Elaine is never genuine when she is with a man. She is always playing a character, the character that she thinks the man wants her to play. Christian Bale’s Patrick Bateman had an immaculate, utterly constructed appearance. Elaine is likewise immaculate. Her hair and make-up are always on point; eye shadow bold, lip stick glossy, posture seductively poised. She is glamorous like a starlet from a bygone Hollywood heyday. And if you think about the origins of the word glamour, this is appropriate. She wears a mask and never takes it off. Some of the more charming scenes in the movie is when Elaine’s mask slips, ever so briefly, as in one scene where is stabbing her fork into a piece of cake, trying to cope with stress.

            

   

    To be clear, Elaine is not vacant. She is actually plagued with loneliness and doubt. She believes that men want a vacant sex doll, so she forces herself be the that way. Elaine wants love and wants a man to love her for herself but refuses to be herself. This conflict of expectations and messages is a common theme throughout the film. Just as she creates an unrealistic idea of herself, she creates an unrealistic idea for the men in her life. Her love potions turn them into utterly devoted slaves who would do anything for her and this only serves to disgust her. Elaine’s coven likewise dishes out conflicting advice, telling two young girls that they must be powerful and independent while at the same time telling them that they must turn themselves into sex dolls with the rationale that they can use their sexuality to gain power over men.

            

    Feminine power, sexuality, fantasy and self-image are all themes explored over and again in the film. Using a witch and witchcraft to explore these themes makes perfect sense. Throughout history women (some real witches, most not) have been persecuted for witchcraft.  Witchcraft and femininity are interconnected.  Witches have received very different portrayals in fiction in general and movies in particular. The 1960s and early 70s were the heyday of witch cult movies and a lot of them came with a fair dose of sex and nudity. The witch is a symbol of terror but also a symbol of eroticism. Sex and death, all rolled into one (usually female) image.

            

     Samantha Robinson does a great job of playing Elaine. She portrays the perfect borderline personality disorder. There is a stereotype joke about borderlines; “I hate you, don’t leave me. I love you, I’ll kill you.” Samantha’s Elaine encapsulates this paradox perfectly. She is a killer. But rather than using the implements of a slasher film she uses love, smothers them in love, and immerses the men so deeply in love that they can’t take it. Robinson was only in her early 20s when the film was made but she showed a remarkable maturity in her ability to capture this.

            

    This is not a scary film, not in the usual sense of horror. It is a tragedy that uses the imagery of a horror film. It is study of a complex,lonely character but it’s also very fun, which I suppose is a paradox. Samantha Robinson looks so glamorous that just seeing her on the screen is a reward in itself and the period look is equally rewarding. Rather than these being the sugar that helps the medicine go down, I’d say more it creates a tasty candy coating that hides the much more substantial meal that awaits you.