Sorceress Reviews

This T&A horror flick has as much to do with witchcraft as a strip club has to do with the art of modern dance. Sensing that her hubby Howard (Edward Albert Jr.) is in peril from housewife Erica (Julie Strain), who's dabbling in the black arts to advance her spouse's career, master witch Amelia Reynolds (Linda Blair) tries unsuccessfully to steer Howard away from a crippling auto accident. Weary of his wife's occult experiments, Erica's husband Larry (Larry Poindexter) heatedly argues with Erica until he accidentally pushes her off a balcony. Supernaturally, Erica grips Larry's subconscious even after death. While grieving Larry begins an affair with Carol (Rochelle Swanson), vengeful Amelia goes on a spree, bewitching her handyman Stan (Michael Parks) into killing his family and then attacking his lawyer, Larry. Going bonkers when Larry receives disabled Howard's promotion, Amelia plots Larry's downfall despite the intervention of white magician Maria (Toni Naples). By the time Larry's pals help him spruce up his home, Amelia has reincarnated Erica's minxy spirit in Carol's body. After vicariously enjoying Larry's lovemaking with possessed Carol, Amelia drives Carol to broil Larry's buddy Don (Lenny Juliano) in the sauna, to knock out Don's wife Kathy (Kristina Ducati) in the shower, and to stab Larry. Getting wind of Amelia's conjuring, Howard shoots his bewitching wife so Erica, still possessed by Carol, can be released from her murderous trance. A coda shows Larry still wed to Erica as the entire nightmare is about to begin again. Although this horny-of-plenty scenario seems heavy on exposition, the film finds ample time to deep-freeze the plot so that randy couples can get naked. Despite the promising opening in which Amelia scrambles to forestall Howard's crash, this thrill-less flick compresses a subplot involving Parks as an unhinged handyman, and expends little effort in disguising its true sleazy nature. In terms of frightening authenticity, the female cast members might as well be wearing Margaret Hamilton hats at a lap dancing convention. Only occasionally bothering to use filmic properties to escalate suspense (there's deft crosscutting between incapacitated Howard and wounded Larry crawling at the climax), SORCERESS mainly contents itself with mundane sexploitation. Two divinely camp-video presences, Blair and Strain, aren't given enough opportunities to hammily chew their fire and brimstone; a buttoned-up Blair is turning into an elder stateswoman for these schlock films. However, even as the fright-night plot sags and the dialogue droops, the centerfold cast does not. Connoisseurs of cleavage and implants can consider this last observation a recommendation of sorts.(Graphic violence, extensive nudity, sexual situations, profanity.)