The Witches Mountain (1973)

Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

good back-story, and good acting

A different way of telling a story

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

One of the few films directed by Artigot, a Spanish DP who worked with industry legends like Eloy de la Iglesia and Jess Franco. It's difficult to judge the film in its current condition for a few reasons: the only copies available are brutally panned-and-scanned from the original 2.35:1 ratio, the film was so heavily censored after its premiere that the final product is borderline incoherent, and the picture is so dark on the current releases that it's often impossible to tell what's going on. Nonetheless the film (which basically involves a macho photographer and his female companion getting targeted by a coven of witches) has a pleasing, sleepy ambiance, somewhat reminiscent of Arthur Machen's weird fiction. The mountain location is stunning, and the wacko soundtrack (lots of atonal choral music, and a strangely unnerving pop song) gets you through the more uneventful passages. Easily the best thing about the movie is the ludicrously masculine Cihangir Gaffari. He's even dubbed with a hilariously deep, manly voice - I believe it's the same voice actor who dubbed Paul Naschy in Count Dracula's Great Love. The film also gave me an odd Wicker Man vibe, meaning the insane version starring my beloved Nicolas Cage. This isn't as over-the-top, but like that film this has our protagonist stumbling onto a matriarchal religious sect, complete with a feral muscle man chained up in a cave who the witches use for breeding! Nicolas Cage also claims that he wanted to play Edward Malus as a macho man with a handlebar mustache, which is another interesting connection. Anyway, it's one of those quietly weird movies that I can't help but like, but anyone not obsessed with Euro-horror or handlebar mustaches probably won't find much to appreciate.

Sometimes certain films get caught in an untenable position. They want to be classy and subtle but don't have the ability to be so. Yet, they avoid elements that would make them interesting or entertaining in an effort to attain a subtlety that is far beyond their means or capabilities. "The Witches Mountain" is such a film. It so strives to attain such an atmosphere that it all but ignores any element whether it be exploitative, strange, or horrific in an effort to achieve its desired goals.And, yet, it doesn't have the ability to generate the suspense it needs to attain such a chilling atmosphere. The film was directed by Raul Artigot, a noted cinematographer making his directorial debut. He knows how to frame a scene, and the photography is quite beautiful. But, for some strange reason, he is unable to create what a low-budget film like this needs most in it's repertoire; the haunting visual imagery so necessary to leaving an indelible mark on the memory of the viewer. All of the best low-budget horror films have indelible images, that once you think about them, shivers run down your spine. From the flesh-eating scene in "Night of the Living Dead" to the menace of Michael Meyers relentlessly pursuing Jamie Lee Curtis in "Halloween", these images create a sense of fear and dread that lasts in your subconscious. They contribute to an atmosphere of suspense that is unrelenting. Which is exactly what this movie so drastically needs. It is unable to attain the ethereal or dream-like beauty that it so longs for, thus leaving the first hour of the film suspense- less and bereft of nearly all action, leading up to a denouement that is flat and uninvolving. And, while there are a couple of surreal moments towards the end, they are much too limited to have any real impact.As for the production itself, the cast, headed by genre stalwarts Patty Shepard, John Gaffari, and Monica Randall, is fine. But the material( A young couple encounters a witches coven while traveling through the mountainside,) is incredibly weak. Only the reliable character actor Victor Israel( "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly", "Horror Express", "Goya's Ghost") is allowed to shine through as a sinister innkeeper with a hearing problem. His complex performance is one of the few bright spots in this movie. And while the photography is beautiful, the film is so poorly paced that you literally wonder if anything is going to happen. Even the musical score is a mixed bag. The instrumentals and singing do possess a lyrical, moody beauty that should have been embraced by the movie itself, but the chanting( which is meant to terrify us, I suppose) is grating on the nerves and almost too painful to listen to,So, all in all, this movie doesn't add up to much. The film strives to be a modern Gothic horror story but cannot achieve it. It eschews all other elements in an attempt to create an emotional impact it otherwise lacks. But the only thing it creates is a tepidness that it never recovers from.

Witches' Mountatin begins with an exasperated woman who is driven to burning her admittedly bratty daughter. This woman is the wife of Mario, who looks as if he walked off a porno set, a newspaper photographer who is so turned off by spending time with her that he calls his boss and demands that he cancel his vacation and send him on any assignment available. He gets his wish in the form of a mountain community that is supposedly haunted. As Mario travels to the mountain he comes across a blued-eyed, raven haired beauty, Delia played by Patty Shepard. After a quick introduction that began by Mario photographing her topless, a shot not afforded the viewer much to my chagrin, she agrees to accompany him to the mountain. Once they arrive both Mario and Delia realize that there is truth to the rumors. All does not end well.What turned me on most about this movie was how smart it was written. Too many times the lead characters remain stupid just to advance the plot. When Mario comes across something that seems odd he doesn't accept it as face value but rather questions why it so. The face Delia sees in her second floor window prompts just such an example. The use of the music was very effective as well as it added to the eerie atmosphere. The Witches' Mountain doesn't offer anything new or original and is very tame (no nudity and PG level violence) but what it does well is present a quick paced story that kept me interested to the end. A true surprise indeed! Give it a view.

This was a fairly creepy movie; I found the music to be effective for this. The photographs Mario took of the village were also unnerving. However, I had three problems with this film. One is that the lighting was very dark so some of the time it was hard to tell what was going on, but this may have just been my copy. The second is that the very beginning is not explained very well and I'm still not sure what was going on there. The third problem is that I didn't understand the ending, but apparently some people do. Of course there are also the usual problems of people doing stupid things, and the male lead is very 70s. All in all, watchable but not even close to being a favorite.