This is a wonderful film, psychologically complex, well-made, written, paced, edited, and acted. It tells a compelling tale of a housewife's experimentation with witchcraft as she tries to free herself from a monotonous and unfulfilling life. The off-the-cuff, naturalistic acting and camera-work are refreshing and feel very real and palpable. Jan White is beautiful and competent as the lead. This is an important '70s feminist drama, and my favorite Romero film. It deals with the real reason that women get into witchcraft, which is to find meaning for themselves in a man's world. Some of the dialogue sequences are reminiscent of Cassavetes' work, as characters talk in an improvisational style and emotions fly high. Especially chilling is a scene in which the jerky young college professor turns a middle-aged woman on to pot and then needles her about her insecurities until she is hysterical. The protagonist and the other women she knows are trapped in dead-end suburban lives with controlling husbands, and witchcraft here is equated with women's lib and the taking back of their own freedom, feminine energy, and sexual power.
Review of Season of the Witch
