Witching & Bitching

Wow. Right out of the gate, this film is nuts. Pure nuts. This is the sort of horror comedy that Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson used to make before people started shoveling money at them. A band of thieves, while dressed as Jesus and Spongebob Squarepants, rob some gold and hit the road. In From Dusk Till Dawn fashion, the tone of the film shifts drastically when the thieves wind up battling a coven of witches. As for the witch genre, this film makes the recent American Horror Story: Coven look like TV’s The Facts of Life. Directed by Alex de la Iglesia, it’s full of sick gore, dark humor, crazed visuals, and even boasts an elaborate musical number. It’s a movie that will have you thinking “Oh no, they didn’t just do that!” for its entire running time. When you think it has topped itself in its audaciousness, it serves something else up that makes the prior moment look tame. At a time where so many horror directors rely on the found footage gimmick or puppets (I hate the Saw movies!), it’s refreshing to see a real, balls out horror movie like this one. It has Jesus wielding a shotgun, and it is awesome.