The Love Witch Review (Film, 2016) #31DaysofHorror

content warning: nudity, sexual content, death by suicide, gore

The Love Witch is one of the most beautiful horror films ever made. Writer/director/producer/editor/composer/costume designer/set designer/art director Anna Biller crafts one of the most stylized horror films of all time. No detail is too small to be just good enough and nothing that appears onscreen is insignificant to the story being told. This is auteur cinema at its finest.

Welcome to the perfectly coordinated world of Elaine. She is an artist looking for love in a new city. She rolls into town decked out in red from head to toe, charming everyone who comes near her. Elaine is also a witch, trained to use her sexuality as a vessel to practice her faith and manifest what she wants in life.

The Love Witch feels like an authentic late 60s/early 70s horror film. The evil hidden coven destroying society film hit its peak at this time, building on decades of cinematic narratives of women tricking men into falling in love with them through witchcraft. The difference here is that Biller is a feminist filmmaker not interested in meeting anyone’s narrative expectations except her own.

Elaine is the hero of this story. You know from the start exactly what she has done and will do and no one will stop her. She is also intelligent, charming, creative, caring, and gifted at everything she tries to do. Other films would make her an antihero destined for a third act turn into an unimaginable monster, but not The Love Witch.

Biller creates a world of extremes. Everything is jaw-droppingly beautiful. The first time I saw the perfectly pink tearoom, I swooned. It’s also a world where anyone and everyone can have their actions controlled with the precision of the interior design and wardrobe coordination. Elaine is your greatest ally until she’s not. Her mentors encourage her powers and gifts in using her body to get what she wants, but warn her not to use the spells she’s trained in to enhance her natural talents.

I need to be direct. I really enjoy The Love Witch. However, it is the kind of horror film that is difficult to write about without spoiling it. Biller’s screenplay and editing are so incredibly tight and controlled that discussing certain small details could spoil the entire story. The film is incredibly dense and layered with meaning because Biller took on so many of the creative tasks of the film herself. I’ve never reviewed a film where discussing specific makeup and stocking choices can spoil entire acts of a story.

I can discuss the dramatic structure of the film. This is not a three act horror story, though all the nods to the ‘60s/’70s witch film will try to convince you it is. The Love Witch is a modern take on the traditional five act dramatic structure of classical theatre. The voiceovers are soliloquies played straight into your ears, with Elaine staring right into the camera as she goes about her day. The flashbacks are the equivalent of the little recaps where a major player reminds the audience of the important things that have happened in the past before continuing the plot.

The Love Witch is all about subverting expectations. It’s a witch film where the witch is undoubtedly the hero. It’s a throwback horror film not driven by violence against women. It’s a murder/mystery film where we know what happened from the start. Simply put, The Love Witch is one of my favorite films of all time and only gets better on repeated viewings.

The Love Witch is streaming on Shudder and Amazon Prime.