Directed by Pierre Tsigaridis, Two Witches is an ode to the darkly camp occult movies of the 1960s and 1970s. Split into three chapters, the film depicts black magic, the fear of the feminine and ancient occult customs through a matriarchal lineage. The first segment deals with a pregnant Sarah (Belle Adams) who fears she is being haunted and cursed by an old hag, whilst her unsupportive boyfriend fails to put her fears to rest. After visiting their friends and playing with a ouija board, the truth behind Sarah’s ailment comes to light. The second chapter and the following epilogue centre around the strange and unnerving Masha, played by Rebekah Kennedy with a Sissy Spacek-like gusto, if Carrie had gotten out of her homicidal predicament alive. Masha has inherited her dead grandmother’s witch capabilities and is now using them to terrorize the people around her to make up for her past lack of confidence and power over people that have exploited her.
The first section of Two Witches, despite playing with stereotypical horror jump scares and character archetypes, is played to its full potential. Part Drag Me To Hell (2009) and part Rosemary’s Baby (1968) the visuals are disconcerting and effective in projecting Sarah’s paranoia surrounding her early pregnancy. Despite the slightly irritating male characters that include Sarah’s boyfriend Simon, this chapter of the film does an amazing job at depicting the emotional instability and fear that surrounds the first pregnancy and impending parenthood, especially seen from the lens of a future father. Portraying Simon’s apprehension about Sarah’s changing body and mentality, and his apparent dread towards the birth of his child, the first third of Two Witches paired with its impressive visual metaphors and provocative subtext, is the strength behind the whole film.
the gore and special effects are very gratifying for fans of 1970s occult horror, especially as the ending descends into a pure ode to Dario Argento’s Suspiria (1977).
Unfortunately the second and third chapters, despite a rather stringy and weak connection, seem to almost push aside the fortitude of the opening, focusing instead on a burgeoning witch drunk on power. Unlike the story of Sarah, the story of Masha has very little nuance behind it, instead focusing more on visuals and it’s out and out traditional witchy horror. Which is fine. The horror displayed is entertaining, largely in part to Rebekah Kennedy’s performance and the gore and special effects are very gratifying for fans of 1970s occult horror, especially as the ending descends into a pure ode to Dario Argento’s Suspiria (1977).
Two Witches is an utterly entertaining dedication to occult horror of the past, however, it’s only downfall is that it didn’t explore the initial story of the almost supernatural mystification surrounding pregnancy and childbirth from a gendered lens, which would have been a most interesting examination, whilst still retaining that traditional and unpretentious horror medium that Two Witches did an excellent job at portraying.
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Two Witches
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