#The witch that came from the sea

[365filmsbyauroranocte]

The Witch Who Came From The Sea (Matt Cimber, 1976)

[weirdlookindog]

The Witch Who Came from the Sea (1976)

[fatmagic]

[sesiondemadrugada]

The Witch Who Came from the Sea (Matt Cimber, 1976).

[grassoftunnel]

Bore ral

Underrated banger! The Bolero - Ravel homage caught me so off guard (also the wordplay of like removing the L,O,V,E in the title is cute)

[isit-allover]

saccharina is already perfection but if she had a little bit of a scottish accent i would Pass Away

[movieposters1]

[cantsayidont]

Movies movies movies:

THE WITCH WHO CAME FROM THE SEA (1976): Disquieting, bloody psychological drama, directed by Matt Cimber (later the founder of G.L.O.W., and the basis for the "Sam Sylvia" character played by Marc Maron on the 2017–2019 G.L.O.W. TV series), about a disturbed young woman named Molly (Millie Perkins, wife of screenwriter Robert Thorn), whose horrifying history of childhood abuse causes her to sublimate sexual attraction into dissociative homicidal fits, when she isn't doting on her two young nephews or drinking herself into a haze. Vibes like an exploitation movie, but too arty and surreal to really qualify as one, and it doesn't ever feel quite like a horror movie despite the lurid subject matter; probably the closest comparison is Abel Ferrara's MS.45, with which it would make an apt double bill. Demands strong CWs for CSA and suicide, both of which are pretty rough, but it definitely makes an impression, perhaps most strikingly in the later scenes where Molly's seedy boss (Lonny Chapman) and bitchy coworker (Peggy Feury) begin to grasp how unhinged Molly has really become, leading to a disturbing finale. Too unsettling to easily recommend, hard to forget.

ALICE GOODBODY (1974): Lightweight, smutty exploitation movie, written, produced, and directed by Tom Scheuer, starring Sharon Kelly as a starstruck Hollywood waitress who loves old movies and movie stars (most of whom the people she meets in the industry have barely even heard of) and who is determined to get a small part in a new musical about Julius Caesar, even though it means sleeping with almost everyone in town. A kind of cheerful low-stakes sex comedy they don't make anymore: The situation is obviously sleazy, but not in any way that ever puts Alice in any particular jeopardy (she's in far more danger on set, where she keeps suffering different workplace accidents). The movie's central running joke is that the men whose favor she's supposed to be cultivating are at least as fixated on their own weird obsessions and neuroses as on sex, something Alice just has to sort of work around as best she can, which ends up making her sympathetic and even relatable. More likable than you'd think.

SPICE WORLD (1997): Delightfully dopey Girl Power homage to Richard Lester's A HARD DAY'S NIGHT, starring the Spice Girls, Richard E. Grant at his Richard E. Grantiest, and a cast of thousands. (Just picking out all the cameos and guest stars is half the fun.) This is what I think the Greta Gerwig BARBIE movie was going for: obviously a commercial product, and making no apologies for its mercantile ambitions, but self-aware enough and full of enough sly piss-taking to be thoroughly enjoyable even if you aren't in (or never had) a Spice Girls phase. Goes on a bit too long, but Grant's outfits alone are worth sticking it out for, and the bridge-jumping climax is very funny.

KALIFORNIA (1993): Mordant thriller starring a disconcertingly young-looking David Duchovny as Brian Kessler, a young writer who blows his advance for a new book about serial killers on an old convertible for him and his horny art photographer girlfriend Carrie Laughlin (Michelle Forbes, with disconcerting bangs) to drive across the country, photographing famous murder sites. Along the way, they pick up a couple of hitchhiking hicks, Early Grayce (Brad Pitt) and Adele Comers (Juliette Lewis), to help pay for gas, not realizing that Early is a paroled convict who's just murdered someone and has no qualms about dropping more bodies along the way. Tim Metcalfe's script (with obligatory '90s voiceover narration) scores some points early on in its depiction of Brian and Carrie's obvious classism and brittle middle-class hipster intellectualism, but the story ends up validating their prejudices rather than questioning them, which keeps the film from being entirely satisfying despite its effectiveness as a thriller. The cast is very good, with Pitt and Forbes the real standouts — Pitt plays Early as a man who draws no line between aw-shucks Southern congeniality and murderous rage, while Forbes makes Carrie's mix of ambition, appetite, and roiling intensity so vivid that you come away wondering what she's doing with Brian, who Duchovny plays as a somewhat gormless jackass. As for Lewis, suffice to say this would make an interesting double bill with NATURAL BORN KILLERS, released about a year later, where she plays a variation on the same damaged theme.

[charlestrask]

one thing that i'd really like to think about and investigate more is the use of television in the witch who came from the sea. because its so interesting to me how prominent it is alongside everything else, almost just as important to the film as the incest and assault.

like something about that and the venus painting and the footballers and movie stars. something about pop culture and the internal interpretation of trauma. and something matt cimber said about the nfl players drug use and sex life in the film which at the time seemed was not as widely known/talked about as it is with sports players now and him saying in that way the film kind of acts against many different (american) institutions. something about the cultures willful ignorance around incest & child abuse being reflected in the worship of the nfl players vs their actual lives or the misogyny of tv advertising being represented thru molly's hallucinations of the tv commercial as openly sexually aggressive. i need to think on it. but outside of that i think the most important is the throughline of the television between the present day and molly's past. and the kind of immersion in this idealized fictional television reality bc of her traumatic separation from external reality/society while television also being this direct connection to her abuse

[ehaydon]

I don’t think Izzy is dead, or at least will be dead for long. Too many things point at him coming back.

[sloshed-cinema]

The Witch Who Came from the Sea (1976)

“I’m not wearing any goddamn glasses!  Well, what does he think I am, a hippie?”  Truly, Molly is the world’s first Kristen Wiig SNL sketch character.  Swinging wildly from hot to cold at a moment’s notice in any given scene, this troubled, alcoholic pill-fiend warbles out words like showtunes and finds ways to stretch a sentence in ways never before conceived in human speech.  Alternately wide-eyed with rage and super horny, is she a sinner or a saint?  All of her friends and colleagues seem to resoundingly believe she is the latter, no matter how obvious she makes the evidence to the contrary.  In a way, Millie Perkins’ unhinged performance as Molly is a true gift, twitching her eyes as the camera pushes in on her either disgusted or confused face (it’s kinda hard to say for sure).  At least she knows not to look directly at the camera when not intended to, because lord knows Doris forgot that a few times.  Perhaps all of these wild, scene-chewing choices were a coping mechanism to get through the shooting of the film.  Imagine, if you will, a competent version of this film.  Because the material is truly dark, even distasteful if handled incorrectly.  A woman lives in denial of her past as her life falls apart around her.  Slowly, we come to learn that she is a serial killer with a shattered mind, and even more slowly we learn the details of the trauma that caused this.  Her methods of murder are intimately tied to her experiences with her abusive father, who was a sailor.  She is the Venus Anadyomene writ dark, born at sea as it were and forced into womanhood at an early age.  She is her father’s little mermaid, and her psychological trauma about this drives her to kill men.  In the close, her only recourse in avoiding the law is to overdose on pills and vodka as her nephews and closest friends look on, definitely not traumatizing anyone.  Perhaps this is directed as a labyrinthian psychological thriller by David Fincher, or maybe it’s given a more edgelordy treatment by Darren Aronofsky.  But no, this is pure 70s schlock that somehow manages to circle all the way around from being borderline offensive to being borderline hilarious.  Maybe not pure camp, but certainly one of those summertime day excursion things the offer at the Y.

Speaking of the 70s, they were fucking wild.  A “tall vodka” was apparently just a full Collins glass of the stuff, served neat with an orange slice to class up the drink a bit.  Children received either feathered bangs or bowl cuts, and speedos were all the rage.  Those jeans you have: why not just apply a full coverage paisley ass patch?  Sure, it’s fun to go to parties attended by both random bar staff and movie stars.  But if you’re a bored housewife or waitress, it’s nothing in comparison to the PILLLLS, HUNTY!  Just get that back alley prescription and pop your way to bliss, with a chaser of vodka, of course.  

THE RULES

SIP

Someone says ‘treasure’, ‘grandpa’, or ‘television’.

1970s slang.

Molly has an unusually strong grip.

A flashback sequence begins.

BIG DRINK

Voices start to deepen.

The razor commercial starts.

[clonerightsagenda]

Glad everyone in the notes of that poll is in agreement that Nanny let her win.

[fatmagic]

[73chn1c0l0rr3v3l]

One of the interesting things in The Witch Who Came From The Sea to me is who counts as... trustworthy. The first time we see Jsck Dracula he scares the bejeezus out of Molly & her nephews. But he's one of the only men who doesn't creep on her - he's got her lying flat on her back topless while he tattoos her, but he just talks to her. Long John is a bit of a creep sometimes, but is shown to intimately care for her on a sincere level, despite... well, everything else. Versus the football players or the actor, who seem to only be interested in her on a superficial level. I don't know if that's actually a thing they were doing on purpose - something about who you can trust & who you can't, & it not being who you expect - but I'm still chewing on it two days later.

It isn't a... nice movie. It goes some really unpleasant places, although I really love the Lynchian dreamlike quality of the whole thing. And I keep thinking of the scene where she's getting the tattoo & talking to Jack, & the scene with Long John's head in her lap. The way imperfect people sometimes do the best they can in ways that those who are pretty enough to be on TV don't.

[cor-ardens-archive]

Hi, have you ever watched Lovely Molly? I don't know if it's your style of movie but it feels relevant to your interests. I just watched it and remembered your blog.

i have, i really like lovely molly 🖤 i've posted about it a little but it was mostly on my old blog

[cesup]

"Tarot readers are scammers, they only tell what you want to hear"

Meanwhile my readings (to me):

- quit your job

- go get help

- stop begin such a downer all the time