Title: The Love Witch
Year: 2016
Director: Anna Biller
Writer(s): Anna Biller
Producer(s): Anna Biller
Costume(s): Anna Biller
Cinematography: M. David Mullen
Starring: Samantha Robinson, Gian Keys, Laura Waddell, Jeffrey Vincent Parise, Jared Sanford, Robert Seeley and Jennifer Ingrum
The color that everyone associates most witches with in the media is black. Black is ominous, mysterious, secretive. It conveys evil and fear, sadness and power. I guess in a way, witches wearing black is a trope. The Evil Queen as the old witch in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz, the 4 ladies from The Craft, The Evil Queen in Once Upon a Time, the Coven season of American Horror Story. Now granted, a lot of that is more historically based mixed with urban legends and myths and not every witch adaptation is not just the traditional look and somehow when it comes to Halloween, it’s the go to color choice. However, there is one film that we’ll look at today that broke all those tropes.
But the bigger question is do you know what this film has?
Color.
Tons of color.
It’s one of the more colorful horror films I’ve seen in awhile. The Love Witch is a quirky horror/comedy film that is full of 1960s references and bathing in bright colors. It’s about a witch using her spells and craft to find love but it backfires as she continues to try to find true love. Our lead, Elaine (played by Robinson) is sensitive, smart, vulnerable, cunning and beautiful. She paints and wears amazing clothes that are a mixture of femininity and a product of what her inner energy represents.
And what she wears reflects the environment that she lives in. And it’s beautiful. It’s lush, luxurious, visually pleasing until the devastation hits that love no longer exists for her. The color that continuously pops up on screen is red. Red is passion, anger, love, danger, warm and exciting. It represents our main girl Elaine.
Second most common is blue. It’s calming, cool, loyal, and confident. The negative is sadness, coldness, being aloof. Again, these represent Elaine and the world she lives in. Even when we are thrown into darker moments of the film, they aren’t truly dark. And that is purposeful under the eye of Biller.
And now learning that she herself was/is a visual artist herself, it shows when you look at this film. It’s quite amazing when you find out that anyone who present something to you in a medium like film who also maybe does photography or art on the side, anything to showcase an in depth look into what else they can bring to the table, it’s really cool.
The Love Witch is available through Shudder, Prime, Vudu (free), iTunes and other streaming platforms.
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