WITCH HUNT (1994)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *metaphysical, sociological*

Somewhere amidst some forgotten article in CINEFANTASTIQUE, someone associated with WITCH HUNT may have testified as to why this sequel to 1991's CAST A \DEADLY SPELL went so sour. 

It's not just that HUNT revises various details about the magic-using Los Angeles of this alternate Earth. Despite being written by the first film's sole credited author, one Joseph Dougherty, HUNT offers a confused storyline, bad dialogue, a listless performance from Dennis Hopper (replacing Fred Ward in the role of detective Howard Lovecraft), and extremely pedestrian visuals from big-time director Paul Schrader.

Absent any such testimony, though, I have my theory. Schrader, known for penning downbeat dramas like HARDCORE and TAXI DRIVER, took on HUNT just to fill a hole in his work schedule, and insisted that Doughtery rework the SPELL universe to Schrader's tastes.

One good thing about the badness of this HBO flick is that it means I don't have to spend any time on its inelegant plot. It boils down to this: Hollywood actress Kim Hudson (Penelope Ann Miller) hires Lovecraft to dig up dirt on her husband, studio exec Gotleib, because Kim suspects he's going to dump her for a younger actress, both personally and professionally. Lovecraft bums around, gets threatened by a weird magus (Julian Sands, projecting good creepiness), and ultimately uncovers a prostitution ring that uses magical spells to alter hookers to their clients' specifications. However, Gotlieb is killed, bringing in the question of a murder-plot.

And on top of this mediocrity, the script telegraphs its intent to work in a secondary plot about McCarthyism. The magic-Earth gets no more exposition here than it did in the previous film. However, this time such backstory is necessary, to establish just how long ago Earth-denizens begin regularly using spells. Without such context, there's no sense in positing that a newly formed conservative movement (loosely linked to fundamentalism) has arisen to condemn modern witchcraft as a tool of The Devil. This is the cumbersome double meaning of the title, but Dougherty (and possibly Schrader looking over his shoulder) can't sustain the metaphor. The villain behind all the evil stuff is played by Eric Bogosian, but he can't do anything with his inconsistent character, and so ends up simply resorting to braggadocio, just as Hopper confines himself to just saying the lines and moving on. (HUNT shows why Hopper was much better playing villains and societal outsiders than noble heroes.) Penelope Ann Miller gives the most affecting performance as a beauty queen alienated by Hollywood corruption, but her arc is badly defined and hugely compromised by the McCarthyism nonsense. There are one or two decent magical effects, but these probably came about in spite of Schrader's efforts to make this movie as tedious as possible.