Film Review - Two Witches (2021)

A woman receives the evil eye from a foul hag with truly horrifying consequences for those close to her. As the carnage blossoms, it becomes clear that the malefic crone has her crusty fingers in more than one possessional pie.

Drawing heavily upon 70’s Euro-horror for the bulk of its creative choices Two Witches pillages this goldmine of decadent visuals and insane plots with style and respect. Its audacious structure, biting dissection of femineity, and crisp modernity give it an identity and transgressiveness all of its own.

Based around a central premise of hereditary witchcraft in its most literal sense, the film stockpiles genre tropes like an exploitation magpie on crack. The end result is a pacy ghost train that is more concerned with bloody mayhem than the triviality of narrative sense.

There is a developing trend for the reaugmentation of witches on film. Movies such as the fabulously spunky Hellbender, libidinous eye candy overload The Love Witch, folky Welsh stunner The Feast, and the underseen Pyewacket. A more sympathetic, charming, and glamourous appraisal that focuses on ecological harmony and female empowerment through the spirituality of the occult. An almost gentrification of the dark arts born from environmental empathy and distaste for the destructive prevalence of misogyny.

Two Witches gives zero fucks for any of that. Certainly not from the perspective of the hex happy patriarch of the piece. Some, more educated than me in all things witchy, will see this aggressive flick as a regressive step. However, it does make for a highly entertaining midnight movie brimming with campy chaos and nasty enthusiasm.

Surprisingly graphic, with some genuinely appalling imagery involving cannibalism, this spiteful slice of Witchsplotation never lets new age sensibilities get in the way of old-school slaughter by sorcery. It distils all that is vindictive and malicious in the world of necromancy where mortals are seen as mere puppets for magical manipulation.

Some of the set pieces border on the repetitive but the flick counteracts this by moving in some extraordinarily unusual directions to refresh the narrative page and utterly confound expectations. I can only speculate how much was in the budget for candles but this movie is clinically obsessed with them. Seriously, there are enough on display to supply a football stadium night vigil for a presumed-dead cheerleader.

Pierre Tsigaridis directed, shot, edited, and co-wrote Two Witches. He also tinkled the ivories on the soundtrack and probably made the read-through tea. His decision to major in cinematography rather than direction at a Parisian film school serves him well as all the strings to his bow are taut. Of course, this type of blanket involvement often leads us into the barren wastelands of fallen vanity projects. But here, Tsigaridis channels the high levels of creative autonomy to the benefit of tonal consistency and artistic synergy.

During travels as a child, he was regaled with stories by his parents including Greek myths from his dad. What began as boredom abatement fired up his imagination and drove him to create play worlds for himself and later others. This respect for the entrancing power of the narrative process shines through in Two Witches and as you would expect it is never dull.

Tsigaridis also clearly knows how to get the very best from his cast. The performances are excellent throughout in of intensifying the retro dynamics and hit the sweet spot between organic melodrama and outright pastiche. It’s a delicate balancing act typified by the work of Rebekah Kennedy as Masha, a girl who continues to fascinate despite rocking a resounding run for the hills vibe.

Much of the filming and post-production took place in the grip of the pandemic lockdown and the filmmakers should be commended for such a polished end product. One wonders how much of the innovative configuration and otherwordly atmosphere was a happy accident as a result of the restrictions.

Giving the horror junkies a Euro-horror boner has become quite the zeitgeist for some time now. Critical humping pillow Dawn Breaks Behind the Eyes, and yes, James Wan‘s polarising guilty wet Giallo dream Malignant to name but a few. Fan’s old enough to the lurid origins the first time round are loving the attention. Younger horror aficionados are quickly cottoning on to the aesthetical and dramatic idiosyncrasies they siphon and as such Two Witches should enjoy a degenerately warm reception.

Be warned, however, the film is prepared to go explicitly and emphatically where The Sadness, feared to tread.