At the height of the #MeToo movement a
term kept coming up which seemed to suggest not much as changed between the Middle
Ages and the present-day: the “witch hunt”.
In visual effects supervisor turned writer-director
Elle Callahan’s indie horror flick Witch Hunt, currently in limited
theatrical release, we’re presented with two definitions. One which refers to the historical noun where
women were hunted down and persecuted under suspicion of practicing witchcraft
and the other being a campaign against people holding unorthodox or unpopular
views. The top definition fades to black
leaving the bottom one to linger and hammer home the film's unsubtle point of view.
Transposing medieval witch finding,
trial and execution to present-day America with the immigration border crisis
fresh in mind, Witch Hunt zeroes in on high-schooler Claire (Gideon
Adlon) who whiles away her year mingling with her friends who are prejudiced
against witches. Little do they know
Claire has a secret: her mom is working incognito to illegally chauffeur
witches across an underground railroad system that leads to Mexico for the
asylum of witches.
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Annoyed she’s being
put between a rock and a hard place by her mother’s ruse, her resentments are
tested by the arrival of two young-orphaned witches after their mother is
burned at the stake whom she forms an unlikely bond with. But how long can she befriend these two
witches without inadvertently giving away their position and inviting unwanted
federal attention?
Partially an obvious political allegory
conflating witchfinder generals with lascivious FBI agents using any means
necessary to achieve their ends, partly a coming-of-age story about trying to
exist as an individual in a homogenized society, Witch Hunt is short on scares,
atmosphere or strong visual effects. It nevertheless serves up a unique modern-day
spin on the classic witch hunting subgenre that hasn’t been thought of
before. That said, it is as subtle as a brick
thrown through panes of glass.
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With recurring imagery of the main
character dreaming about approaching Trump’s border wall with a
stream of blue flowers leading up to a cross on the wall, Witch Hunt makes
sure you get exactly what it’s feeding out on the first try. Despite a decent original score by Blitz/Berlin
and work by two cinematographers Nico Aguilar and Tommy Oceanak, Witch Hunt suffers
from more than obvious allegory which makes for an interesting premise but as a
film comes across as browbeating in intentions.
Though it leaves no room for subtlety
or interpretation, save for a curious homage to a “remastered version of Thelma
and Louise” mid-movie and a loose critique of misogyny in general, Witch
Hunt is a mostly serviceable if not forgettable horror exercise that wants
to proclaim things haven’t necessarily changed for the better which tragically ultimately
winds up being a semi-deflated female tween fantasy.
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--Andrew Kotwicki
