A horror comedy with a body horror and a religious potential was a pleasant surprise from BAD Witch. Let's just say that I worked well with dry and subtle humor and body horror. After succeeding in the revenge of a jealous betrothed boyfriend, Xander (Kozlowski), Bad Witch starts with his best friend Henry (Hennigan). Xander is a witch and promises Henry that, despite his fulfilled retreat expectations, he "used" his drug of "black magic" if he stops.

Needy to turn his life around, Xander is hired as a dishwasher for a restaurant in the town where he is friendly with Roland (Jackson Trent).

Needing to turn his life around, Xander is hired as a dishwasher at a local diner, where he befriends Roland (Jackson Trent), a friendless high-school senior who is the bullying target of Conrad (Jonathan Helwig), embodying very much the same bully-bullied dynamic of Crispin Glover’s George McFly and Thomas F. Wilson’s Biff in Back to the Future.

In a similar vein of 1989’s Teen Witch (but without the cool hip-hop battle), Xander uses witchcraft to make Roland cool (while also teaching Roland witchcraft) and to make Conrad’s life miserable.

Unfortunately, Roland’s and Xander’s friendship flies a bit too close to the sun, and, when Conrad grows suspicious of Roland’s newfound popularity, his desire to avenge a dermatological nightmare threatens to expose Xander and Roland for the bad witches they are.

Subtle humor + body horror = a pleasant surprise of a horror comedy

Given this synopsis, it might not be obvious that Bad Witch is a horror-comedy. After you watch it, it might not be obvious either, primarily because Bad Witch is very subtle with its humor.

From its well-timed one-liners and periodic humorous imagery to an overt dryness in both its actors’ deliveries and reactions. And also, a PowerPoint presentation that might muster a B-minus.

Bad Witch also excels in its subtle use of body horror (again, not as overt as films such as Slither or The Thing). I’d like to think I have a pretty strong stomach, and a movie has not left me as squeamish at times as Bad Witch did since the ending of the 2013 remake of We Are What We Are.

Watch Bad Witch on-demand starting April 27

Bad Witch made its rounds at film festivals in 2020, earning the award of “Best Horror Film” at the Wisconsin MidWest WeirdFest and “Best Actor – Feature Film” (Kozlowski) at South Carolina’s Crimson Screen Horror Film Fest.

Along with unexpected-but-it-actually-worked 80’s-synth background music, Kozlowski’s performance and his good chemistry with Trent’s Roland, along with the highs and lows of friendships, were convincing, rounding out a film that has cult-classic potential.

Despite these strengths, Bad Witch’s greatest weakness was a screenplay that couldn’t quite catch up to its clever idea for a film. However, even with its uneven pacing, occasional clichéd dialogue, and an ending that was just a bit too abrupt and ambiguous, Bad Witch was a worthwhile horror-comedy from a writer and directors with not a lot on their resumes.

Bad Witch’s dry humor, which requires a bit of attentiveness on behalf of the viewer, may not be everyone’s cup-of-tea, but deserves 3/5 stars, nonetheless.

Recommendation: Stream it, but don’t pay too much (if anything at all) to do so.

BAD WITCH is out on Demand, DVD & Blu-ray on April 27, 2021.

Details
Directors: Victor Fink, Joshua Land
Writer: James Hennigan
Stars: Chris Kozlowski, Jackson Trent, Clare Lefebure, James Hennigan

Plot
Xander is a witch whose abuse of black magic has led him to disaster after disaster. After trying to go clean of witchcraft, Xander befriends a young loner, helping Roland with bullies, girlfriends, and other teenage atrocities.