Klaus Vogel - Virgin Witch

[dem]

Klaus Vogel [Beryl Vertue] - Virgin Witch (Redemption, 1995: originally Corgi, 1971)

Blurb:

"The girl lies on the ground, her wrists bound by leather thongs attached to stakes driven into the earth. The incantation rises to a crescendo as the leader approaches the girl.

Now her scream is released and it rends the air, absorbed by the trees before it reaches outside ears. Again and again she cries out. Another witch has been initiated ..."

One of Redemption Films most popular releases, this book is the perfect companion to the video, capturing as it does the stunning dialogue and kitschy sleaze of its' creator . "Click. Click. 'Now lift one foot out.' Click. 'Now the other.' Click. 'Now pick them up and dangle them between your boobies' ...."

Seventeen year old twin sisters Christine and Betty Lane flee the Midlands and their brutal, drunken father, for the bright lights of London. Hitching a ride isn't quite as easy as they thought, especially as Christine is choosy about their transport. Cold and fed up, she steps out in front of a flash motor driven by Johnny Dixon, the crafty cockney, who, lucky for our two smashing dolly-birds, happens to be going all the way! Johnny is some kind of errand boy to Abby Drake the famous pop singer. He spends the entire journey warning the sisters of the perils of hitch-hiking, telling them how easy it would be for him to rape them both if he were a sex-maniac, and generally behaving like a refugee from a Richard Laymon novel. It comes as a relief when Dixon not only delivers them to the capital unmolested but even arranges digs at his Mum's place.

Christine, who recently won a local beauty contest, has her heart set on becoming a model. She makes her way to super-agent Sybil Wait's studio in Kings Road and blags an interview. Sybil Waite, a TOTAL BUTCH LEZZA, suggests she strip off for some preliminary shots. Arriving back at the bedsit, Christine breaks the great news to Betty. She's landed her first paid modelling assignment - a nude cider promo shoot in the English countryside. She and her sister are to spend the weekend at 'Wychwold,' a posh estate with it's own druids circle!

It's quite an adventure. While Christine is posing for/ being felt up by Peter Martin, ace photographer, her timid sister is terrified half to death by a prying randy milkman and an old duffer with a shotgun. Running from the latter, she trips and bangs her head. She's tended by silver haired smoothie, Dr. Gerald Amberley, who explains why she felt frightened. "You think they are looking at you as if to say 'I wish she were my girl. I wouldn't mind, er ... How shall I put it these modern days? ... taking her for a rave-up weekend!'"

Amberley leaves her to recover but his black cat, Lucifer, which has the run of the property, is restless and sets off on the prowl. Betty follows him down a secret staircase. Later she will report to her sister:

"There's a cellar downstairs. Decorated like some sort of chapel ... The funny thing is there's no cross on the altar. Just a dagger and a horrid looking whip. And chains and iron things, and stuffed bats hanging from the ceiling. "

What can it all mean? Christine has a shrewd idea. "Witches' rites. Great!"

Incredibly, we've reached p. 80 (of 160: not including the porno photo insert) with both girls virgo intacta.

[helrunar]

Yowza! I'm quite pleasantly surprised that that Redemption video cover has a "Phwoar!" moment for yours truly. Thanks, Dem!

I'm one of the few people I know who completely enjoys Virgin Witch (the film--I did not know there was a tie-in book).It was directed by Avengers (of course, I mean the classic British cult series, not the dreary parade of comic-book knockoffs from the present century) stunt director alumnus Ray Austin (mostly worked in TV), and scripted by Hazel Adair under the alias of Klaus Vogel. For me Patricia Haines is the highlight as the conniving lesbian High Priestess Sybil. Haines fiercely works the camp angle and extracts maximum potential from material that is strictly middle of the road 70s occult frou-frou. The two leading ladies were sisters--I've read that the film was crossed off their resume long ago as they considered it somehow beneath them. 

I think it is a good film to watch on a rainy Saturday night if you enjoy the atmosphere of rather tame British early 70s sleaze and Witchy high-jinks. If you're looking for serious t&a or actual horror, probably best to go elsewhere. It's on my list to acquire for my personal library, someday (I viewed it several years ago through a subscription service).

H.

[andydecker]

May 15, 2019 21:15:44 GMT helrunar said:

I'm one of the few people I know who completely enjoys Virgin Witch (the film--I did not know there was a tie-in book).
H.

Yor are not the only one! I love it in all its splendor. On my shelf it stands proudly next to Vampyres and Satans's Slave (which btw will get the Blue-ray treatment in a box of 5 Norman J. Warren horror movies in august with truly overwhelming extras). With a little more effort and one re-write or two Virgin Witch could have been a true english horror classic.

[dem]

May 15, 2019 21:15:44 GMT helrunar said:

Yowza! I'm quite pleasantly surprised that that Redemption video cover has a "Phwoar!" moment for yours truly.
H.

It's actually the Redemption paperback cover. You'll find the video cover - plus Franklin's ace film review - on the Crossroads thread.

"Look here, young man. I don't know who you are or where you come from but we don't like strangers around here. We're a quiet little spot in the backwaters, and we don't want it disturbed by interlopers who can't even speak the Queen's English." - Colonel Cruikshank affords a warm country welcome to Londoner Johnny.

From innocent waif to Supreme Ruler of British Black Magic Scene in under 24 hours! Man, I thought that kind of thing only happened in Satanic Survivor "Non-fiction."

For me, the best thing about the novel is that Herr Vogel's adopts the salacious News of the Screws approach to witchcraft, dispensing entirely with all the boring worthiness. To the villagers, the Wychwold coven provides an excuse for a monthly orgy in private surroundings. If the organiser insists on fancy dress, mumbo jumbo, and prancing naked around a druid's altar, that's fine by them. There is a power struggle between Dr. Gerald Amberley and Sybil Waite even before Christine's steamy initiation. Amberley, the High Priest is a White Witch (i.e., he's in it for the sex WITH GIRLS, flagellation and annual subscriptions). His High Priestess, self-serving Sybil, favours the Dark Side (she's in it for the sex WITH GIRLS and working evil to further her lucrative business). They clash over which of them gets first dibs on Christine. Losing out, Sybil fatally turns her attentions to Betty. Christine, who is the natural born real deal, effortlessly destroys her, ousts Amberley, takes control of the Coven, turns it to the Black.

Not much of a story, not even particularly raunchy, just titillating enough to keep the reader interested. The dialogue has its moments as when Johnny advises Betty re Sybil/ lesbians. "Friend of mine pulled a very funny face when I mentioned her. She's supposed to fancy young girls ... Don't imagine there aren't women like that. As randy as dirty old men. Worse, some of them."

[helrunar]

I found this disc priced very reasonably on an online retail site and it arrived a couple of nights ago in the post. I watched some of it last night, and absolutely LOVED the lurid early 70s art direction, tatty London street scenes, and gloriously Seventies mod scoring. Patricia Haines' performance as conniving Sybil Waite is even better than I remembered. Sybil is summed up thus by an acquaintance to his friend, who has his eye on one of the sisters who are the putative heroines of this romp: "I'm telling you, her models have to wear armor-plated panties. She's down to the ground lezz." Ah, the Seventies.

Tits FOR DAYS in this film. I'd forgotten that the Christine actress does full frontal nudity in the photo shoot sequence on the manor grounds. Shocking!

I can imagine Russ Meyers watching it at his local and muttering to himself, "what skinny little girls, with such tiny titties. They needed to cast REAL women in this thing!"

The screenplay, by Beryl Vertue CBE, actually turns the typical explo girls-stranded-on-remote-country-estate-terrorized-by-Satanists scenario on its head. I start to lose interest when Pat Haines exits.

A funny film--a lot of people I know would be appalled by the blatant sexism. I wonder if I'm a bad person for finding it all great fun. Can understand though why the lead sisters scrapped it off their resume.

cheers, H.

[andydecker]

Aug 24, 2019 13:58:08 GMT helrunar said:

A funny film--a lot of people I know would be appalled by the blatant sexism. I wonder if I'm a bad person for finding it all great fun.

Be assured, you are not a bad person. You may be just not as deeply hypocritical or have this risible a-historical attitude to former times as this lot of people have. If this is "bad", more power to you. And btw, the people with the most power in this movie are the woman.

[helrunar]

Hi Andreas,

There's this one throwaway moment early on in Virgin Witch where "Christina" is dashing across a street and some attractive bloke lightly does a quick grab of her derriere. She just giggles and runs along. Nowadays, this snippet would be posted on social media and uncounted sums of bytes would be spilt deploring the infamy of it all.

It's a fantasy film but in other ways a snapshot of a now long-vanished era. (Of course, girls and women are still getting "grabbed" by various parties, mentionable and un- ; and it's often quite nasty and damages the people who were victimized for a very long time-- I don't think that will ever change. Unfortunately)

cheers, Steve