The Witch Who Came from the Sea

The Witch Who Came from the Sea
Directed by Matt Cimber
Produced by Jefferson Richard
Written by Story:
Robert Thom
Starring Millie Perkins
Lonny Chapman
Vanessa Brown
Peggy Feury
Rick Jason
George Buck Flower
Roberta Collins
Music by Herschel Burke Gilbert
Cinematography Dean Cundey
Distributed by
Release dates
 February 1976
Running time
 88 minutes (UK uncut version)
83 minutes
Country United States
Language English

The Witch Who Came From the Sea is a 1976 American horror film directed by Matt Cimber and shot by cinematographer Dean Cundey. The film's tagline was "Molly really knows how to cut men down to size!"

Plot

The film concerns a dysfunctional and disturbed woman called Molly (played by Millie Perkins) who, after suffering repeated sexual abuse as a child at the hands of her seafaring father, embarks on a spree of gruesome sexual encounters with men who she meets during her job as a waitress in a seaside bar.

Cast

Censorship

In 1983, the United Kingdom Department of Public Prosecutions compiled a list of 72 video releases that were not brought before the BBFC for certification and declared them prosecutable for obscenity. This list of "video nasties" included The Witch Who Came From the Sea, but it was in the sub-group of 33 titles that were unsuccessfully prosecuted and was soon dropped from the DPP list. In the United Kingdom, the film was eventually released completely uncut in 2006 with a complete running time of 87m 43 secs.[1]

Reception

The Witch Who Came From the Sea has been recommended by film critic Mark Kermode as one of the best video nasties of the era.[2] One critic viewed the film as not being a horror film but actually representing a scathing indictment of child sexual abuse as well as a study of a troubled woman's descent into madness; "a study of a woman whose sanity teeters on the edge".[3] Another completely dismissed the film as representing nothing more than "an absurd story with no redeeming qualities. Highly recommended for lovers of bad cinema".[4]

The 2004 DVD release of the film (whose 16:9 transfer was overseen and approved by Dean Cundey) sparked renewed interest, with one reviewer remarking that The Witch Who Came From the Sea is "an unsung psychological gem" among 1970s exploitation films.[5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "The Witch Who Came from the Sea". BBFC. Retrieved December 19, 2011.
  2. ↑ Kermode, during an interview with Simon Mayo on BBC Radio 5 on June 12, 2009
  3. ↑ Online review of 2004 DVD release of the film
  4. ↑ 2004 film review by Christopher Null at Filmcritic.com
  5. ↑ THE WITCH WHO CAME FROM THE SEA (1976) Director: Matt Cimber Subversive Cinema (Casey Scott review)
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