(1973) Written and directed by George A. Romero; Starring: Jan
White, Raymond Laine, Ann Muffly, Joedda McClain, Bill Thunhurst, Neil Fisher,
and S. William Hinzman; Available on Blu-ray and DVD
Rating: ***½
“The film and the character of Joan grew out of the time, I
think. I mean, it just grew out of the late ‘60s/early ‘70s, when it seems as
though women were wanting to break out. This is not career stuff – it’s not the
glass ceiling or anything like that, it was just a woman’s role at home and a
woman is less than a compete citizen of the world, of a marriage, or a
relationship, and it just seems like that was happening… There was a lot in the
press back then… It was women’s lib… and all the beginning rumblings of that,
and I just thought it would be a good topic for a film…” – George A. Romero (from
2005 Anchor Bay interview)
After the runaway success of his independent debut feature, Night
of the Living Dead (1968), fans of the film likely expected Pittsburgh-based
filmmaker George A. Romero to continue in that vein. Instead, he chose to focus
on character-driven dramas, starting with the fractured romance, There’s
Always Vanilla (aka: The Affair) (1971), followed by his third
feature, Season of the Witch.* Shot in 16 mm for a budget of only
$90,000,* Season of the Witch failed to make much of an impact with
audiences or critics (much like its predecessor), dying a quick death at the
box office. Although it might be stretching things a bit by stating the movie
has enjoyed a second wind, it’s long overdue for a much-deserved reassessment.
* Fun Fact #1: Romero shot and directed several short
documentary-style segments for another famous Pittsburgh-based production, Mister
Rogers’ Neighborhood. His most noteworthy effort on the show was the 1971
segment, "Mister Rogers Gets a Tonsillectomy," which Romero joked was
the scariest film he ever made.
** Fun Fact #2: The original title of the film was Jack’s
Wife, which distributor Jack H. Harris rejected. The film was subsequently edited
down from 130 to 90 minutes, re-titled Hungry Wives, and marketed as a
softcore movie. Years later, in an effort to cash in on Romero’s horror legacy,
it was re-titled Season of the Witch.
*** Fun Fact #3: The movie was originally budgeted at $250,000,
but when the original financer went belly up, Romero was left with a fraction
of that amount.
From the opening dream sequence (the first of several), we
learn all we need to know about Joan’s relationship with her husband Jack. She
walks several steps behind him, while tree branches smack her in the face.
Along the way, she sees a baby on a blanket,* before catching up with her
husband to provide his morning coffee. When he discovers her sitting in his
car, he smacks her with a newspaper and leads her around by a leash,** before
locking her in a dog kennel. Joan’s real life isn’t much better, with a husband
who’s constantly gone on business trips, and a 19-year-old daughter she barely
sees. When Jack is home, their bed is someplace to sleep, nothing more. Now
entering middle age and stuck in a perennial malaise, she’s trapped in a
domestic cage of lonely servitude. To make matters worse, she’s haunted by
recurring nightmares of a menacing intruder in a mask, *** who attempts to
break into her house.**** But life is about to change for Joan, in ways she
could scarcely imagine…
* Fun Fact #4: While never expressly stated in the movie,
Jan White confirmed in an interview that the baby was supposed to be Joan’s
son, who died during infancy.
** Random Observation (MILD SPOILER ALERT): Compare this
sequence to a scene towards the end of the movie, when Joan is led around with
a red rope (which matches the color of the leash) during her witch’s initiation
ceremony.
*** Fun Fact #5: The intruder is played by Bill Hinzman
(best known as the graveyard ghoul who pursues Barbra in Night of the Living
Dead), who also served as Romero’s assistant cameraman.
**** Fun Fact #6: Joan’s suburban Pittsburgh house belonged
to the parents of Christine Forrest, who would eventually become Romero’s
second wife.
Season of the Witch is at once a snapshot of the time
it was made, as well as a sign of the social revolution that was about to take
place in American society. Like many marriages from their generation, Joan and
Jack’s relationship isn’t based in compatibility or love, but a social contract,
reinforced by societal expectations. Jack fulfills the stereotypical male role
of the time, boorish, laconic, and guided by thoughts rather than emotions. They
don’t have dialogues, just parallel monologues. As the self-ordained
breadwinner, Jack goes off on his business trips, leaving Joan to handle the
household, which includes keeping an eye on their 19-year-old daughter Nikki (Joedda
McClain). When Nikki unexpectedly runs off, he lashes out at Joan, slapping her
because she failed to do what he considered to be her parental duty. Meanwhile,
he doesn’t take any accountability for raising Nikki (the depth of his
parenting advice is “You kick some ass!”). Instead of shouldering the blame for
any perceived parental shortcomings, he condescendingly addresses Joan like a child
who misbehaved. Both are conditioned by society to accept their stereotypical
gender roles, with Joan embodying the outdated, misogynistic, hetero-centric
view that the woman must dutifully sublimate her dreams and desires for the man
in her life.
The soul of Season of the Witch is Jan White’s* courageous,
naturalistic performance as the beleaguered housewife Joan. We see the turning
point in Joan’s life in the scene where she regards her reflection in the
mirror, and to her horror sees a much older, withered version of herself
staring back. This nicely contrasts with another scene in which Nikki
compliments her mother on her nice figure – Joan might be older, but she’s not
dead. Another catalyst in Joan’s transformation arrives in the form of smug
college professor Gregg (Raymond Laine), who challenges her staid notions of
domestic life. Even though he’s never meant to be more than a fling, his
bluntness provokes something inside her. Ultimately, it’s not a man that
ignites her passions, but the siren call of witchcraft. While Season of the
Witch is arguably not a movie about witchcraft, it plays a pivotal role for
Joan, representing a means of asserting herself as an individual with agency
over her life Whether she really evokes the supernatural isn’t important – it's
her belief in herself that matters most.
* Fun Fact #7: Jan White was initially reluctant to accept
the role because it required nudity. She relented after Romero assured her that
extra sex scenes were added to the script only so he could attract funding for
his movie. A body double was provided for the film’s penultimate scene, when
she’s initiated into a coven.
George A. Romero commented that of all his films, he would
like to have done a remake of Season of the Witch, because he didn’t
feel he was mature enough to tackle the subject at the time, but that seems to
be selling himself short. It’s a vast topic that could never be contained in
one film, but while the results are sometimes rough around the edges, Romero handles
the subject matter with sensitivity and compassion. Romero focused on one
particular character, Joan, and her personal struggles for autonomy and
significance in a society where she was effectively a second-class citizen.
Romero’s character-driven film likely baffled audiences expecting another
horror flick. Instead, it was neither erotic nor horrific enough (at least from
a surface glance) to please viewers expecting these elements. Instead, we were treated
to a thoughtful drama with horror-adjacent elements. Rather than an outlier, Season
of the Witch fits neatly in Romero’s filmography, including themes he would
explore again and again: criticism of the status quo, performative religious
practice, and infuriating authority figures. As much as I’d like to say Joan’s domestic
prison is a relic of the past, this attitude has somehow managed to persist in
modern society like a virus that refuses to die. Unfortunately, due to lazy
marketing, the film failed to connect with audiences. As a title, Jack’s
Wife was perhaps too generic to capture anyone’s attention, while Hungry
Wives was simply misleading. Season of the Witch was probably the
best title, since it wasn’t entirely inaccurate, but whatever you care to call
the film, it’s a significant achievement in Romero’s filmography.
* Fun Fact #8: According to film writer Travis Crawford,
this was the first of Romero’s movies to feature a tracking shot (in the scene
where Joan shops for tools of the witch’s trade).
Sources for this article: “Digging up the Dead: The ‘Lost’
films of George A. Romero,” interview with George A. Romero (Anchor Bay, 2005);
“The Secret Life of Jack’s Wife,” interview with Jan White; Arrow Blu-ray
commentary by Travis Crawford; “This ‘Mister Rogers' Neighborhood’ Segment Was
Directed by a Horror Icon,” by Andrew McGowan, Collider (June 30, 2023);
“George Romero on Zombies & Season of the Witch Remake?” by Ammon Gilbert,
JoBlo (2010)
