Witchcraft '70 (1970)

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

OK, first, the one review above about "a lot of stuff being occult in 1970" doesn't even seem to be about this movie. I think he's confused it with something with a similar title/subject.There are two movies which use some of the same footage. The Italian version, "White Angels, Black Angels", is more like a Mondo documentary of the 1960's.The American version titled "Witchcraft '70" is a better version in my opinion. It's tone treats witchcraft with a more sinister view. It leaves out footage of Hare Krishnas that the Italian version has, and has a much more spookier theme. Plus it has a cool psychedelic opening, with low tech, but effective graphics.I'll focus on the American release (although for some reason it's harder to find. Try to find it, it's better. ). The first scene features some kind of Wicca/Crowley type cult. The High Priestess' name isn't given, nor the name of the cult/coven. The rituals appears Wiccan, but uses Crowley's "Hymn To Pan" (although it could still be Wiccan), and there's a challenge to the Judeo-Christian God in the movie by the buxom High Priestess, "if there be any power left in Heaven, let it transfix my breast". How charming. Wicca was born out of Crowleyism, so it's hard to say what the cult it exactly. Satanist? Wiccan? Thelema? Mix-and-match? Oh well. While Wiccans nowadays may whine about the movie lumping them together with Satanists, the truth is, the line was more blurry back then...even though they won't admit it.Next, we see Alex Sanders perform a Wiccan wedding. In the 70's Wicca was all about nudity and sex, unlike the very watered down version of Silver Ravenwolf.There's also scenes with Anton LaVey reading the destruction ritual from The Satanic Bible and the Invocation of Satan...different material from what is in "Satanis". If you want to see what a bunch of Yahoos LaVey and the original Church of Satan were, see that movie. Even so, you still get to see LaVey wearing goofy devil horns and pimping out his own wife as a nude altar. The Church of Satan ritual scene has less nudity than the Wiccan and Voodoo groups even though they're "more evil", oddly enough.There's a Brazilian Macumba purification ritual which shows prostitutes being chastised. It's seems to have been shot in 8mm, and the narrator says it's someone's vacation home movies...might have been.There's an LA voodoo ritual which supposedly was recorded with a hidden camera, but looks like it could have been staged.There's an Indonesian Hindu exorcism ritual with daggers, and for some reason, a scene of a Dutch Charismatic church singing hymns in church (proably to add little footage).There's also another UK Wiccan ritual in England, with a probably fake interview with a witch from said coven who for some reason was an American. They do the old fashioned "Eko Eko" chant in that scene. Wiccans were exhibitionists who wanted the spotlight back then (unlike now? lol!). They thought nothing of getting naked and selling out their "religion" for the cameras. Wiccans nowadays (with a few exceptions) will be rather disappointed in watching how the originals did it.There is a scene showing hippies in Devil's Canyon, were the Mansons hung out. The scene depicts the kind of made up witchcraft hippies practiced, resulting in one girl getting assaulted (although you really can't see what's going on). This could be another staged scene...or who knows, it could have been real. Real as reality TV. The Mansons stole some NBC TV camera equipment, so who knows, it might even be some of the long lost "Manson porn" you hear about...but I seriously doubt it.There is nudity in the film, but no actual penetration. It was an X rated film when it was released...would probably be considered an NC-17 today. Some people find the Witchcraft '70 version creepy, and even scary. I've had friends that had to get up and leave the room when I showed it. Seriously. If you know someone curious about the occult, this would probably nip it in the bud for them...unless they're truly weird. There's no mention of Jesus or the Bible or anything, it just shows the weirdos for what they are.Another good film in this genre if you can find it is "Journey Into The Beyond" (1975 or 76) narrated by John Carradine, although it would be considered more slanted in favor toward the occult.

This is very funny stuff. It's not actually documentary, most of it is directed, but it has tendency to be seen as "real documentary". It's loaded with funny stuff-quotes like "Dionis, god of ecstatic intoxication", rite in Finland with "severed pig head painted in black (wtf?!?!), satanists in black mass that are afraid to show their vagina (shy satanists?!?!?), but funniest of all is part with voodoo rites, where narrator first mentions St. Hypnosis (?), and then there's some creepy footage of ritual with young girl sitting while some "priest" decapitates chickens and goat on her head. That's not directed (I hope), but the funniest thing is when narrator says that "they put feathers of dead birds on girl's head as the symbol that she may fly above unhappiness and poverty like these birds!" Hahaha, yeah right, they flew really high. There is also LaVey, who is funniest of all. But the creepiest thing is psychedelic flower music that's in background all the time, and no matter how ridiculous movie is, it was scary for me to look at some freaky voodoo cemetery ritual with psychedelic groove in the background. Seariously, it's obvious that this movie was supposed to have educational tone, witch maybe it had in 1970., but today it looks like poor Christian mockumentary on everything "blasphemous". This isn't movie that'll teach you anything about occult and supernatural; this is the movie you should watch with your friends and have really good laugh.P.S. Last part of the movie is about cryogenics. Guess that was occult in the 1970's.

This movie was awful but SO entertaining! I chose to go and see this for my birthday -- it was free at Library of Congress -- expecting it to be a slightly bizarre documentary, but I was definitely in for a surprise. As someone who grew up watching "In Search Of..." and later was enamored of "Unsolved Mysteries" for its same "info-tainment" and "exploi-tainment" feel, I was thrilled when the movie opened with the Mondo genre's stereotypical score and narration. Sure, if you're expecting this to be a legitimate documentary or you take witchcraft and the occult seriously, you'll be disappointed; or, if you get squeamish about nudity, then this probably won't be for you. If, however, you love the sort of poor-production-quality sensationalism of things like "In Search Of..." and you love to watch 70's era-films just because the "interviewees" and actors are so over-the-top unreal, then you should love this. Keep in mind, though, that an integral part of the Mondo genre is sexploitation, so be prepared.

This expliotative documentary is certainly dated, and feeds to the believe that witches and satanists are pretty much the same thing, which I know will irritate and offend all the pagans out there. It even has Anton LeVey and has some footage of his rituals and stuff. There is lots of nudity at black masses, but it stops short of showing anything to sexual. Good for a watch, if even only for the Hippie campfire cult footage...