Season of the Witch

At the start of his career -- in the years between the release of his seminal zombie classic Night of the Living Dead and its sequel, Dawn of the Dead -- George A. Romero made a few features that, due to spotty and brief theatrical runs and a long line of bankruptcy suits against distributors like Jack Harris, completely slipped through the cracks and are only now being made available via companies like Blue Underground and Anchor Bay. This new set of "lost" films collects the last two Romero features to be released in the DVD format, Season of the Witch and There's Always Vanilla.

Long considered a missed opportunity by Romero himself, as he was frustrated by the lack of money to shoot his sequences as he imagined them, Season of the Witch is something that fans of the director's films outside of his zombie cycle will nonetheless find rewarding. An imaginative opening sequence worthy of Luis Bunuel (and actually it's not unlike the opening of Belle du Jour) kicks off a tale of a bored, frustrated suburban housewife who strikes out on her own after conquering a contrasting reaction of fear and attraction to her first exposures to the black arts.

The great sense of life in the '70s hinterlands that this period of Romero's work captures so well is on display here and the ennui that his lead character Joan feels attending tupperware parties and social dinners can't help but remind fans of the bored leads in Dawn of the Dead who become trapped in a mall without even realizing it.

As Joan, Jan White has a stiffness to her, but it actually works in her favor in the early part of the film -- before she becomes empowered by her magic rituals -- since it helps sell the discomfort she feels in her daily life. A couple of scenes in which she is chased by a malevolent man in a mask are actually pulled off pretty well and, as discouraged with them as Romero seems to be in the interview on side B, I'd still argue that they're worth checking out. You can already see the seeds of the mastery of suspense techniques he would pick up in later films.

Is it scary, though? Not really. If you're looking for the heebie-jeebies, I wouldn't recommend putting this on but, if you found Romero's Knightriders to your liking, you definitely need to check out this hidden gem. For more frightful fare, you might want to check out his already underrated Land of the Dead, which was released on DVD the same day as this.

In addition to the aforementioned Romero interview and text biography, side B contains a second "lost" feature, There's Always Vanilla, which is definitely a product of its time. It was imagined as a youth culture comedy in the vein of The Graduate and Goodbye, Columbus and some of its techniques -- that were no doubt wild and daring then -- are almost quaint now. Nonetheless, this is definitely worth checking out. Romero has always had a strong respect for craft and, for such a low budget feature, this is an amazingly well shot and cut film.

Working completely outside of the horror genre and, in fact, eschewing any genre trappings whatsoever, There's Always Vanilla recounts the rake's progress of an idealistic young writer (Ray Laine, who also has a small part in Season of the Witch) as he fumbles his way through a relationship with a young actress (played by Judith Ridley from Night of the Living Dead) and tries to deal with a moral crisis that happens in his first experience with the world of working stiffs. I'd long avoided seeing this film because I was afraid of the inherent cheese factor in its premise and the fact that it doesn't have any of the fantasy elements of Romero's other work, but the solid work of everyone involved makes this a worthy spin on a rain or snow-bound afternoon.

The transfers of these films are pretty bad (especially Season of the Witch), but Anchor Bay is up front about this. As soon as you put the DVD in your player, a message pops up that tells you that the films do not look as good as the company would like, but they were made from the best elements they could find.

There are quite a few extra features on side A, including an interview with actress Jan (now Janina) White and the George Romero episode of the tv show The Directors. Part of me has always found the episodes of this series to be cheesy, even when they're about good directors, and this episode is no exception. There are also numerous alternate title sequences for Season of the Witch. Originally titled Jack's Wife by Romero, the film was released as Hungry Wives by the distributor, who was obviously hoping to cash in by inaccurately selling the film as a softcore romp. We also get the theatrical trailers for both films and a gallery of still photos and art. -- Christopher Hyatt