Sam Panico This is nearly an auteur film for George Romero, acting as director, editor, cinematographer and screenwriter (with his wife producing). Inspired by the occult and feminism, two major movements of the early 70s that play nicely together, the film was shot with a small crew for $100,000 (originally budgeted for a quarter million).The film had issues finding distribution, with several of them demanding hard core scenes. Jack H. Harris (producer of The Blob, Equinox, Eyes of Laura Mars and Dark Star) finally distributed it as Hungry Wives, cutting nearly 41 minutes from the films running time (the version on the Anchor Bay DVD is still missing 26 minutes, which are presumably lost forever as the original film negative and director's cut are thought to be gone forever).The film has the feel of pornography with none of the payoff, something noticed by critics. Others consider it a film that's unsure of its approach — indeed, how do you follow up a film like Night of the Living Dead which totally nails it and reinvents the horror genre without doing more horror? Romero's efforts in this period feel like avoidance — yet knowing that the grave (slumming it in the horror genre) beckons.Joan Mitchell is Jack's wife, introduced to us as walking through the woods that look eerily similar to the Evans City gravesite that opens Night of the Living Dead. Together, they live in the Forest Hills suburb of Pittsburgh (this movie is so yinzer that it thanks Foodland in the opening credits) with Nikki, their 19-year-old daughter. Much like many of the characters of Romero, they're Catholic and find their faith ill-equipped for the changes that the end of the 20th century brings to them.Read more at http://bit.ly/2yx7Om2

poe-48833 SEASON OF THE WITCH/JACK'S WIFE/HUNGRY WIVES/CONJURE WIFE isn't, as many seem to think, a train wreck. There are some good performances (including Ray Laine, more or less reprising his role from THERE'S ALWAYS VANILLA) and Romero's STYLE becomes more recognizable here. As with NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and THERE'S ALWAYS VANILLA (as well as the forthcoming shockers THE CRAZIES and MARTIN), SEASON OF THE WITCH concerns itself with sometimes-twisted Human Relationships: it's THE common Theme running through everything that Romero has done. Like Fritz Leiber's classic novel CONJURE WIFE, SEASON OF THE WITCH touches upon the notion of Witchcraft as a cure-all for what ails us; but, like most of what Romero has done, the Truth is Ephemeral at best: what ails us most is mostly just US...

Rainey Dawn "Hungry Wives" aka "Season of the Witch". OK there are movies that work better when they are fast-paced, some that work better at a mid-pace, and other films are better at a slow-pace. This film is not slow-paced it's slower than a snail's pace - it's at a dragging-pace, painfully slow.A housewife is bored. She has a husband that is not home most of the time and when he is home it's a stale relationship. She has a daughter that has her own life and really doesn't care about her. She has gossipy friends that are rather a bore as well. So she's alone most all the time and utterly bored so she decides to try witchcraft as a solution - to spice up her life I guess. Well, we finally get about 10 minutes of her witchcraft which doesn't amount to a hill of beans - a love spell of all things - this leads us to adultery which she seems to like more than her new found hobby witchcraft. At the end, she grows tired of her lover. Oh and she starts telling others "I'm a witch".I think the witchcraft is suppose to be a metaphor for real life women's lib movement that was still going on at the time of this film - but was shown as literal witchcraft in this film.There was some stink about the releasing of this film - and was marketed as soft-core porn much to the displeasure of Romero -- so I read somewhere. Makes no sense to me after watching this film... it would barely qualify as soft-core porn if it does at all. And the cut footage was cut to qualify it as soft-core porn in the 70s - do what?! Seems that is what they cut was soft-core porn bits but whatever. I just know there is cut footage that was later found and pieced back to create another release of this film. The film is boring and talky not close to soft-core porn that I can tell.2/10

haildevilman Excellent! Before Romero got too famous for his Zombies, he gave us this little gem.This was a great find. Good story, great characters, good scares.You also had hippies, drugs, swinger types, and gaudy 70's decor.The best scenes were the recurring nightmares of the prowler trying to break into her house. Every time she had this nightmare it went further. Seeing the shadow go to the side of the house and cut the phone line while she was trying to call for help was CRE-EPY.And did anyone notice there was no music on the soundtrack during these scenes? All you heard was breathing and her voice when she tried to use the phone.One of the scariest scenes of the 70's, and that's going some.This deserves to be as well known as Romero's 'Dead' trilogy. Or at least 'Martin.' See this again.