Truly bad special effects and some downright rotten acting by some usually pretty good actors turn this obscure remake of "Weird Woman" (1944) and "Burn, Witch, Burn!" (1962) into something so remarkably bad that the true mystery is why such usually interesting actors like Teri Garr, Richard Benjamin and the legendary Lana Turner would accept it. The answer lies in a downright awful script and some really bad direction, as the actors seem to be trying to bring some life to it, but fail miserably. Once again, it's about a bunch of professor's wives involved in black magic desperately trying to outdo each other to make sure that a family member gets the open head of psychology department position, even though they each know that the other one is involved in the dark arts. Lana Turner, having only made a handful of appearances on film and TV in the 1970's, looks tired here, given too matronly a wig and covered in costume rejects from the "Maude" TV series. She's the head witch, adept at the art of black magic, and seemingly nobody you want to mess with. She's also immensely powerful it seems just as a woman, riding around in her limousine and being quite imperious, coming off as graceful, but obviously up to no good. Her mission is to get her soul out of her dying body and into a new body, and this leads to Garr's soul ending up in Turner's body while she is on life support.
Perhaps on paper, it sounded interesting, and it might have been, had it been produced as a "TV movie of the week" of which there were many of around this time. In a sense, it's very similar to 1978's "The Initiation of Sarah" which at least had the benefit of some decent, if cheesy, special effects, and a campy, over-the-top performance by Shelley Winters. Here, Turner (having recently been a witch in a tour of "Bell, Book and Candle") comes off as just a one dimensional nasty rich lady, and Garr is completely miscast and just utterly annoying, as is Benjamin as Garr's cuckolded husband. The presence of "Dark Shadows" leading lady Kathryn Leigh Scott adds a gothic connection to the plot, but if you sit there waiting for any attempt at "Hocus Pocus" style humor, you will be sorely disappointed. There's some strange plot twists along the way such as Benjamin being accused of attempting to molest a male student and one of the women suddenly spotted on a roof with an open rifle taking shots at innocent passers by. While this may have been Turner's last big screen appearance (actually more small screen; I couldn't even find a copy of the poster or any reference to a big city this might have played in), she would not go out with this as her last credit, fortunately. A different type of witch's brew followed just 2 years later when she went up against Jane Wyman's Angela Channing on "Falcon Crest", looking much more rested and returning to her glamorous image.
Perhaps on paper, it sounded interesting, and it might have been, had it been produced as a "TV movie of the week" of which there were many of around this time. In a sense, it's very similar to 1978's "The Initiation of Sarah" which at least had the benefit of some decent, if cheesy, special effects, and a campy, over-the-top performance by Shelley Winters. Here, Turner (having recently been a witch in a tour of "Bell, Book and Candle") comes off as just a one dimensional nasty rich lady, and Garr is completely miscast and just utterly annoying, as is Benjamin as Garr's cuckolded husband. The presence of "Dark Shadows" leading lady Kathryn Leigh Scott adds a gothic connection to the plot, but if you sit there waiting for any attempt at "Hocus Pocus" style humor, you will be sorely disappointed. There's some strange plot twists along the way such as Benjamin being accused of attempting to molest a male student and one of the women suddenly spotted on a roof with an open rifle taking shots at innocent passers by. While this may have been Turner's last big screen appearance (actually more small screen; I couldn't even find a copy of the poster or any reference to a big city this might have played in), she would not go out with this as her last credit, fortunately. A different type of witch's brew followed just 2 years later when she went up against Jane Wyman's Angela Channing on "Falcon Crest", looking much more rested and returning to her glamorous image.