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[tab title="Movie Review"]
I don’t know how it happened and I certainly don’t remember why. The discovery of The Witching Season was completely accidental on my part. One YouTube video after another – down the rabbit hole, you know – and then, rather suddenly, I found myself in the middle of “Princess” on a Saturday morning, watching as a child’s ugly bunny-eared doll becomes a killer with Mommy as its target. Creepy.
That was the first episode I saw of the anthology series known as The Witching Season. It wasn’t the last episode that I’d watch that day either. I was hooked.
The web series imagines Halloween as I wish it still was. It’s nostalgic and quirky, making the most out of its limited budget with solid creativity and scripts that deliver the goods across five separate episodes. I don’t know if there will be more. I hope so, but I am unsure if we need it. These are interesting stories that are worth revisiting.
Thankfully, we get an official release of this series. Watching the episodes on Blu-ray reminded me of why I liked them in the first place. That opening to each and every webisode is killer cool. The scores of Slasher Dave and Randin Graves are perfect in carrying the gravely mood, too. And the stories STILL work. Actually, there’s an improvement here because it feels like a connected movie.
The Witching Season, when viewed together, makes for a solid evening of spooks and scares.
It’s a lot of fun, too. Truly cinematic and chilling, the web series – consisting of “Killer on the Loose”, the aforementioned “Princess”. “Not Alone”, “They Live Inside Us”, and “Is That You” – arrives on Blu-ray as a single set; including over two hours of special features. Scream Team and Witching Season Films have done fans a solid with this release. {googleads}
Episodic tales of terror are rare these days. That’s where The Witching Season scores big time. Considering this series offers aliens, killers, ghosts, and all sorts of witchy things that go BUMP in the night, this single disc of stories packs a wallop. As a child of the 1970s, I ate this web series up. Completely.
Every once in a while Halloween Heads are treated by anthology efforts like Trick or Treat, but mostly we get TRICKED. This web series, complete with a moody opening sequence that resembles Haddonfield, Illinois from John Carpenter’s Halloween, works due to its service of familiar horror tropes. Horror fans will enjoy the tip of the hat.
The shorts are well-shot and obviously have high production values, echoing the look of the Halloween season from our collective past. Fans get empty fields, carved pumpkins, haunted houses, and eerie yard decorations gently blowing in the wind and that’s even before the killer strikes, the child’s doll attacks, the ghosts appear, the aliens invade, and the shadows attack!
Writer/Director Michael Ballif and James Morris’ series highlights new talents in the genre. The episodes here are directed by Morris and by Ballif, who also provides the series with its cinematography. These two filmmakers definitely create a seasonal celebration with their mutual efforts. It is, through the sales of this disc, their intention to turn the short “They Live Inside Us” into a feature film.
Alongside Allen Bradford and special effects artists Tyler Russell and Jordan Swenson, this team of creative artists gush all over the season and its themes for 10 to 15 minutes at a time. They all wear multiple hats to get this series off the ground and work it into shape so that it, too, can stand tall next to Tales from the Darkside.
Keep indie horror alive and watch nostalgia get naughty. The Witching Season has arrived.
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[tab title="Details"]
MPAA Rating: Not rated.
Runtime: five episodes
Director: Michael Ballif
Writer: James Morris, Jordan Swenson, Samuel Morris
Cast: James Morris; Karlee Brochinsky; Jordan Swenson
Genre: Horror | TV
Tagline: Halloween Tales of Terror.
Memorable Movie Quote: "Who are you talking to?"
Distributor: Witching Season Films
Official Site: witchingseasonfilms.com
Release Date: August 27, 2015
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: September 10, 2018
Synopsis: Fueled by nostalgia, this anthology of short horror films tells original tales of terror set during the Halloween season.
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[tab title="Blu-ray Review"]
Blu-ray Details:
Home Video Distributor: Witching Season Films | Scream Team Releasing
Available on Blu-ray - September 10, 2018
Screen Formats: 16:9
Subtitles: None
Audio: English: lossless PCM audio
Discs: Blu-ray Disc; single disc
Region Encoding: Locked to Region A
Scream Team Releasing presents The Witching Season on blu-ray with phenomenal results. The digitally shot web series looks amazing, bringing strong fall colors to life with crispness. The images are especially engaging with fine details noticeable in fabrics and faces. There is an explicit fear of the dark throughout the 16:9 transfer it is explored with deep blacks that never lose their depth or their edges. Blues and greys are the primary colors due to the subdued color scheme but when there is a hint of red, the transfer absolutely pops with gorgeous replication. The sound is unleashed in a lossless PCM audio presentation that never surrenders the scares.
Supplements:
Commentary:
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If you are at all interested in filmmaking, then I suggest you listen to Baliff’s commentaries included on this release.
Special Features:
Fans are going to dive the behind the scenes treasures included with this release! Over two hours of material not online is included with the official release.
- Directors' Commentaries
- Making of Featurettes
- Outtakes
- Trailers
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[tab title="Trailer"]
The Witching Season (Blu-ray) from Scream Team Releasing on Vimeo.
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[tab title="Art"]
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