Cults, the occult, and a witch? Sign me up! But…did I get what I signed up for with this trio of selections from Tubi that rely on simple incantations, rituals, and sacrifices? Let’s find out.
EVERWINTER NIGHT (2023)
With a 105-minute runtime, this one could be considered a “slow burn”, but the burn isn’t hot. There’s no sense of dread or suspense as we move towards the sudden amplification of action in the final act.
As if to remind us this will eventually be a horror movie, there’s a brief opening in which a couple on a road trip stops at a lodge for directions, and it’s implied that something sinister happens. It’s really not a necessary scene other than the promise it establishes of terror at this lodge.
That was 30 years ago, which would have been the 1990s. I’ll never get over the act that there we were in 1978 thinking that it was the olden days when Michael Myers killed his sister in 1963. Sigh.
Next, our modern day main girl meets up with her friend to hang for the weekend. However, her friend invites two other girls, and those two girls have met some guys who invited them to a winter lodge, and so on, and so on, and so on…. Anyway, our main girl, who just wanted a weekend with her one friend, is dragged into a big party.
Turns out this party is some sort of mystery celebration being thrown by a bunch of young men. There are masks, partying, drinking, and lots of talk and character interactions. Following that, very slowly, all the girls at the lodge begin acting…different.
Eventually, like way, way into the movie, our main girl starts to notice there’s something very Stepford Wives about these girls all of a sudden. There’s some sort of man cult, there’s a sacrifice ritual, there’s an entity that you barely see because it’s obscured by strobe light effects, and then there’s some possession for a battle to the death. It’s an entertaining enough climax, it just takes a long time to get there.
When he’s so big it feels like it goes right through you
THE BOOK OF THE WITCH (2024)
Eureka! It’s a short, simple, atmospheric witch movie with a classic scary witch, pointed hat and all. So simple yet so effective.
The opening alone sets the tone. Much like the trick or treaters silhouette in Halloween III, we see a witch grunting and struggling to drag a body along the ground with a fiery sun set as a backdrop. We get to see what she does with the body, and then we jump to our main characters.
There are two security guards, a man and a woman, working the night shift in a building, patrolling the creepiest areas drenched in red light. There’s something very Last Shift about this segment of the movie, with the bonus of some fantastic witch action.
For reasons that aren’t clarified initially, the female security guard is tracking the witch like a detective investigating a serial killer. When she pinpoints the witch’s home, she heads into the California desert to break into it, and then we discover what her plan is.
She is afraid of her own mortality due to the death of her mother, and she believes the witch uses a book of spells to cheat death. So…she steals the witch’s book!
It’s like Hocus Pocus goes full-on horror. Pretty soon, the female security guard is being terrorized by the witch and the ghost of her own mother. I’m telling you, this is straightforward, witchy fun with a dark twist.
THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT (2022)
Folk horror usually bores me to tears, and even much of this film ran a little long and slow for my tastes, but at about 45 minutes in the folk horror aspects merge with home invasion and revenge flick elements loaded with blood and action, giving me the jolt of excitement I need to keep my attention.
After a man’s wife dies in a car accident, his sister comes to stay with him at his rural home. While out hunting, he finds a hole in the ground, complete with Blair Witch sticks and all.
His neighbor tells him natives used to discard of criminals and evildoers down there before settlers turned it into a holy grail of some sort.
Pretty soon, the main guy and his sister are experiencing strange occurrences in the house, including figures lurking around corners.
Once the sister witnesses a cult sacrificial ritual in the woods, things finally take off. There’s home invasion, abduction, rape, and a surprisingly underwhelming drop down into the hole, which I would have expected to be the big shocker reveal of the film instead.
From there, it becomes a revenge hunt by the brother and sister, where things get super violent and gory, with male nudity and eventually demon eyes.
That pretty much checks off all my boxes, so I was totally invested in the second half of what is otherwise pretty familiar horror territory.
