"WITCH HUNT" // SXSW 2021
Combining the Salem Witch Trials with modern day politics seems like something that should have been done a long while ago. And it has been touched on before, but writer/director Elle Callahan's clever and original horror film WITCH HUNT seems to be the first movie, at least in my memory, to really nail the connection while still telling a self-assured genre film that's both as fun as it is impactful. The Prologue takes to an actual witch burning in New England. Watching a mother be burned in front of her two red headed daughters is horrifying and squarely sets up the stakes of the film. You might think that this witch burning was set many years ago, but sadly, we only jump three months later to the current day as we focus on Claire (Gideon Adlon) a high school teen trying to navigate her everyday life.
In addition to the typical high school cruelness, kids with tease others who they suspect of having "magic in their blood." Yes, in this world, magic is very real, and sometimes looked down upon in the same way as many Americans are treated differently today due to the color of their skin or sexual identity. We also learn of the 11th Amendment, a bill that denies those with magic in their blood the same rights as every other American. The parallels may not be subtle, but they're effective and clear. Claire's home life is sheltered in mystery to those around her because her mother Martha (Elizabeth Mitchell) is one of many who use their homes as hiding places for witches who have been "outed," smuggling them to Mexico where they can be granted asylum. Agents are aware of such places and are constantly hunting them down. One such agent is Hawthorne (Christian Camargo), a man who doesn't hide how much he loathes witches and will stop at nothing in hunting down every last one of them.
The film interweaves a typical teenage drama with this horrifying premise quite well, as we see Claire deal with the possibility that she may have powers and grow close to Fiona (Abigail Cowen), one of the two sisters hiding away at their home. By exploring immigration rights, women's rights, misogyny and xenophobia within the boundaries of a classic horror film, Callahan's film excels in what many others have failed at: creating a fantastical world dealing with our own real life horrors. Gideon Adlon and Elizabeth Mitchell are the two most compelling characters and actors among the very strong ensemble, and bring a terrifying weight to their precarious situation. WITCH HUNT may not have a multi-million dollar studio behind it, but the cleverness and resourcefulness of the creative team pushes it far above most recent horror hits, and I suspect once a general audience sees it, it'll long be a favorite for years to come.
GRADE: A-
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY Elle Callahan STARRING Gideon Adlon, Elizabeth Mitchell, Abigail Cowen, Lulu Antariksa, Christian Camargo, Cameron Crovetti, Nicolas Crovetti, Echo Campbell. SELECTED AS PART OF THE 2021 SXSW FILM FESTIVAL.