By Rohan Coleman
Anna Biller’s The Love Witch combines technicolour terrors, a spooky score, and mystical messaging to create an enchanting feminist love letter to horror movies of a bygone era. Filled to the brim with explorations of the treatment of women, love, and obsession, this bewitching film captures the aesthetic beauty of 60’s and 70’s horror flicks paired with a satirical critique of the repressive gender ideologies that plagued a vast majority of the time period’s pop culture.
Saturated in vibrant colours, dreamy visual effects and expressive costuming, The Love Witch immediately establishes its laser focused aesthetic identity. Writer, director, producer, editor, costume designer, and composer Anna Biller pays respect to pioneering horror classics, such as Suspiria and The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, creating a weird and wonderful melodramatic atmosphere against which her gender commentary and criticism begins to take its form.
By creating an environment reminiscent of retro Italian giallo movies, Biller ensures her social commentary makes its mark, as the unsubtle, unflinching and unobstructed discussions of patriarchy and women’s sexuality are incredibly stark when placed in an old-fashioned setting. Progressive discussions against a remarkably vintage backdrop inject the film with a satirical tone, one that will be replicated countless times throughout the film. Biller isn’t scared to show off her extensive research, proving her understanding and control of the medium, as she expertly uses misguided and reductive gender norms to directly comment on those exact gender norms. What results is a wickedly humorous and direct exploration of harmful gender stereotypes.
Biller’s presentation of preposterous old school social ideas are only made more absurd by the over-exaggerated performances of The Love Witch’s incredible cast. Led by the magnetic Samantha Robinson as the titular love witch, the entire ensemble deliver memorable, over the top and layered performances, weaving drama and horror with absurd comedy effortlessly. As Biller’s narrative jumps from eerie supernatural glimpses to sarcastic and melodramatic, her cast follows along without missing a beat.
Samantha Robinson fits right in as the ever-charming Elaine Parks, acting as the emotional centre piece of the film. As Elaine comes into her power and explores her control over men, Robinson paints a wonderfully nuanced portrait, as she goes through the motions of control versus freedom, love versus obsession, man versus woman. Robinson’s astoundingly cool façade of beehive hair and powdery eye makeup masks an underlying sadness, longing and insecurity that peeks out between the cracks of her outer image. Her enchanting performance calls upon the inflated and stylised acting of the past, often mixing high emotional peaks with low, sombre valleys.
Robinson’s powerhouse role is only amplified by the multitude of wacky and conflicting side characters found in The Love Witch. Whether it’s the unnerving coven leader Gahan played by Jared Sanford, Elaine’s quaint and gentle friend Trish played by Laura Waddell, or the variety of exceedingly gullible men that fall prey to Elaine’s love schemes, this ensemble joins their individual talents to magnify both the humour and unease of the film spectacularly.
Anna Biller’s talents don’t end at set design and art direction, however, as her script is both superbly direct in its subject matter and astonishingly open for personal interpretations. Put plainly, Elaine is desperate for love and thinks the best way to receive it is to lean into what men think women should be, in her mind using patriarchal ideologies against men in order to get what she wants – love and affection.
As she preys on and manipulates these men, she begins to question what she has been taught, and how she has been treated, in a dramatic and theatrical turn of events. While Biller has a clear sense of how Elaine’s plans and ideologies work out for her, enough of the film is left unexplored, or rather hinted at in order to allow audiences to apply their own experiences, theories and conclusions to this technicolour tale. When tackling such a broad social concept, Biller cleverly tiptoes the line between direct social commentary and interpretative engagement, as she allows plenty of room for personal perception, criticism and evaluation from her viewers.
Anna Biller’s The Love Witch is a masterclass in timeless filmmaking, as she pairs classic and nostalgic visuals and technical elements with an incredibly modern story and social setting. This thought-provoking fable explores the politics of power, gender, and love with an awe-inspiring style, and unending wit.