Director: Sidney Hayers
Date Watched: 10-6-2024
Where: At home, on a Blu-ray I own
Rating: 6.5/10
I read Fritz Leiber’s Conjure Wife earlier this year, so when I saw a Blu-ray was being released with a new 4k scan from the original camera negative it seemed time to finally watch this film. I remember seeing stills from the film in old issues of Famous Monsters of Filmland when I was a child, but it never came on TV, or if it did, I missed it.
The film isn’t as scary as I hoped it would be when I saw it was originally rated X in England. The movie vacillates between witchcraft being psychological and reliant on hypnosis, and real, and never fully commits to exploring the magical aspects of witchcraft, instead remaining quite tame and focused on the intellectual side of belief vs. non-belief. That made for a very interesting and intellectual film, but left me wanting more from the horror film side of things.
The blu-ray has both the original British film, Night of the Eagle, and the American release, called Burn, Witch, Burn. The only difference seems to be a voiceover incantation read by Paul Frees before the opening credits of the film, and the final “the end” replaced with “do you believe” in the American version.
The film takes elements of the story, but, as is often the case when adapting a book to film, leaves out more than it includes. The book is much scarier, and far better, and the film is quite tame, and has a quick, pat ending. It’s still pretty creepy, and has a nicely filmed scene where a statue of an eagle comes to life and attacks the film’s protagonist.
