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Arrow Video: Two Witches (2021) - Reviewed
 |
Courtesy of Arrow Films |
In addition to unearthing obscure cult gems or restoring
renowned classics rereleased in deluxe limited editions, Arrow Video has tended
towards highlighting the efforts of unique first-time newcomers from around the
world. Rather than stay entrenched in
the past, Arrow continues to introduce new independent or otherwise underground
filmmakers whose works likely wouldn’t be seen or be made easily
available. Their latest limited-edition
package comes in the form of Parisian writer-director Pierre Tsigaridis’
feature-film debut: the bilateral semi-anthological scare fest Two Witches. While not necessarily a prime-rib cut, this
colorful and atmospheric stab at indie-horror filmmaking does offer its own
flavorful share of cutlets of a more bloody-gory kind.
Split cleanly in half narratively but sharing the same
chronological space and timeline, this lean-mean spine-tingler zeroes in on two
different women whose lives are intersected by what appear to be the actions of
witchery. In the first half, pregnant young
mother Sarah (Belle Adams) is dining with her boorish unfeeling boyfriend Simon
(Ian Michaels) when she gets the evil eye from a creepy old woman first inside
the restaurant and then again outside.
Dismissing her fears, the couple convenes with their hip friends Dustin (Tim
Fox) and Melissa (Dina Silva) who make the hairbrained mistake of screwing
around with a Ouija board, further conjuring occult forces.
In the meantime, the film crosscuts to graduate school
student Rachel (Kristina Klebe) frustratedly contending with her troubled
sex-kitten roommate Masha (Rebekah Kennedy) who claims she’s set to inherit
supernatural powers from her witch grandmother currently on her deathbed. Eventually the flaky Masha visits Rachel’s
workplace and decides to steal Rachel’s personal stories of an abusive former
relationship and pass it off as her own, sowing further division as what seems
to be a form of demonic possession taking hold of Masha. Though divided nearly in half replete with
title cards designating each chapter, in time these two disparate plot threads
and co-existing characters will invariably cross paths in a grisly battle to
the end.
Shooting, editing and scoring much of it himself with the
help of Gioacchino Marincola, Pierre Tsigaridis puts himself out front and
center as a new voice in horror to keep your eyes on. Co-written by Maxime Rancon and fellow
co-star Kristina Klebe, this homegrown joint family effort represents a taut shoestring
debut with reliance on practical makeup effects rather than succumbing to the
shortcomings of CGI rendering. Operating
a bit like a one man band, Pierre Tsigaridis’ debut shows a startling amount of
confidence, pushing ahead with potential sequels that may or may not happen
while giving his own unique spin on the tried but true witch horror subgenre.
Shot and edited in 2.35:1 on the Arri Alexa, Tsigaridis
shows an astute hand for handling the camera while making the most of the
limited budgetary means, also channeling a subtle re-rendering of Dominic
Harlan’s Grey Clouds from Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut peppered
throughout the otherwise electronica soundscape. Performance wise the ensemble cast of
newcomers is mostly fine with Belle Adams making her pregnant mother vulnerable
and afraid while Rebekah Kennedy finds her inner succubus as we see the
evolution of characters like Tim Fox’s Dustin starting out as an idiot forced
by the situation to rise to the occasion.
Though nothing spectacular, horror aficionados will be
suitably entertained by this first-time one-man wonderment stoking horror
elements of the past while looking ahead to the future. Though not nearly as strong as some of the
other occult cinematic newborns (Jill Gevargizian’s debut The Stylist being
a vastly superior comparison), Two Witches is a good way to kill two hours
as a horror fan and Arrow Video have assembled a most handsome looking limited
package for such an unknown title. Yes
some fans may gripe the efforts of Arrow could’ve been spent on furthering
their archaeological dig through the land of cult cinema but Two Witches is
a nice little frightener well worth sharing in the company of other like-minded
boutique releases tailored towards new release movies we’d likely not know of
otherwise.
--Andrew Kotwicki