David C. Hayes, Author at Diabolique Magazine

It is the longest-running direct sequel horror franchise in history, and still going for all intents and purposes. This iconic film series began in 1989 and the latest entry premiered in 2016. Unlike its contemporaries, like the eighteen-film Amityville series or the combined twenty films of the Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th shared universes, these are sixteen films that are direct sequels to one another. Not even the Godzilla or James Bond films are direct sequels, giving this series the honor of being, as stated at the top, the longest-running direct sequel horror franchise in history. The kicker is: most people aren’t even aware they exist. Ladies and gentlemen, it is quite an honor to be able to put into its proper historical context the Witchcraft series of films. Yes, Witchcraft. Any pseudo-academic appraisal, even in the world of schlock filmmaking, needs the proper process. For this investigation, the series has been divided into four phases: Phase One – Genesis and Solomon, Phase Two – Will Power, Phase Three – S.O.V Magic, and Phase Four – Triple Crown. These eras in the Witchcraft series function as distinct tonal and contextual shifts. Keeping these phases in mind, our exploration of these films, naturally, has to begin at the beginning. Without further ado, we present Phase One: Genesis and Solomon. Genesis is self-explanatory, of course; Witchcraft is the first film in the series. Solomon refers to Charles Solomon, the actor behind the character of Will Spanner. His involvement lasted through Witchcraft IV: The Virgin Heart before he went on to greener pastures (which weren’t nearly as green, but they were different). Let’s begin. Witchcraft (1989). Directed by Rob Spera and written by Jody Savin, the film was one of the first for executive producer Jerry Feifer (a name that will appear again and again in this franchise). The film stars Gary Sloan and Mary Shelley as a witch and warlock burned alive during the Inquisition. Their dark arts allow them to manifest in the late 1980s where Shelley poses as Sloan’s mother and the pair seduce a beautiful woman, Anat Topal, into marriage and eventually childbirth. The result of that union is William, played by a very young Ross Newton, and he is the character that binds the Witchcraft universe together. Of course, he was conceived to bring Satan to Earth, end the world, resurrect witches… any of the above, really. The film itself isn’t as awful as many people give it credit for. Even if the writing and performances are a bit off, the yeoman craftsmanship is apparent (it was shot on film, for Pete’s sake) and a moody performance by Mary Shelley really cemented the film’s cult status. And, for better or worse, it spawned fifteen sequels. Witchcraft II: The Temptress (1990). Directed by Mark Woods and written by Jim Hanson and Sal Manna, the sequel takes up at the end of part one, complete with smoldering witches. The young boy, Willliam, is adopted by a white witch couple (John Henry Richardson and Cheryl Janecky) and raised to be a good lad. The adult-ish William is played for the first time by Charles Solomon, introducing the world to the laid back, sleepy-eyed warlock hero with a vague and mysterious southern accent. William slowly learns that he is a powerful warlock, stalked and menaced by Mary Shelley, returning from the first film. What the franchise would become is hinted at here with the distinct shift in tone to a sexy erotic supernatural thriller… or the attempt at one. Shelley recruits a buxom bombshell in Delia Shepard, the Witch of Lust, to destroy William before he realizes his true potential. That doesn’t work, of course, and William learns the truth. Again, the film work is basic, but the difficulty of shooting on film itself can’t be overstated. There is a level of craftsmanship that must be present to just get an image to appear on celluloid, a craftsmanship that isn’t necessary when the series turns to consumer-grade video technology in a decade or so. Witchcraft III: The Kiss of Death (1991). Directed by Rachel Feldman and written by Jerry Daly, part three marks the return of Charles Solomon to the role of William Spanner. A bit older, but still underacting like a champ, our warlock has chosen to live a normal, non-magical life. As a lawyer, Will Spanner sucks, but he tries. Unfortunately for him, he runs into another warlock, Domonic Luciana, that doesn’t mind using his powers for evil and that includes enslaving Will’s girlfriend, Lisa Toothman. William is way out of his league and is forced to turn to the uncle of a client accused of murder, William Lewis Baker, who is, conveniently, a voodoo practitioner. William saves the day, but only after embracing his sorcerous heritage. The third film in the series really doesn’t do much to improve on the quality, but it appears as if Vista Street, the production company, is finding their feet. The sexy horror formula is in full effect here and works to a certain extent. Remember this, the series has officially peaked. Witchcraft IV: The Virgin Heart (1992). Directed by James Merendino and written by Merendino with Michael Paul Girard, the fourth entry sees the final performance of Charles Solomon as William Spanner. It is truly the end of an era and Solomon leaves the franchise with a whimper as a distinctly different approach to the film fails on most levels. This time around, the lawyer Spanner just wants to live a normal life but is recruited into a game of Satanic cat and mouse as a woman, Lisa Jay Harrington, recruits him to help her brother accused of murder. The police think the young man is a serial killer, but he is being framed by an entity collecting the souls of musicians for Satan in trade for success. Julie Strain, scream queen, is featured here as a young singer in one of her early roles. Will Spanner must use his magical powers to save those souls… in between stripteases and simulated sex. The big problem here is that the quality, in terms of both performance and tech, is very poor. Sound issues and lighting foibles plague the picture and the structure is just… weird. It is presented as a hardboiled detective story, complete with a Solomon narration that lulls one to sleep. Spanner saves the day, again, and Charles Solomon exits the role and we close a chapter on the Witchcraft franchise. Closing that chapter opens a new one, though. Thus, we begin, Phase Two – Will Power. Witchcraft V: Dance with the Devil (1993). The film was directed by Talun Hsu and was written by James Merendino and James Tymon. Merendino, the director of part four, co-scripted and that means that we are going to be dealing with the same level of plot work. The performances, at least from the side characters, is vastly improved this time around but it is largely wasted on the material. An emissary from Hell, David Huffman (in a wonderfully over-the-top community theater performance) is on Earth collecting souls. He does this by performing a night club act and using a horribly rendered example of early computer graphics. Our hero, Will Spanner (this time played by the equally wooden Marklen Kennedy), is taken under control by Satan’s assistant and helps him to collect souls until, yet again, Will wakes up and uses his magical heritage to fight the evil within and without. Just like always, Will’s current sex partner needs to be in danger for that to happen. As that plays out in cheesy, early 90s goofiness, there are copious amounts of breasts, simulated sex, a horrible sword fight, and lots of horrible music. Sadly, this would be Kennedy’s one and only turn as Spanner, effectively becoming the George Lazenby of the franchise. This shift in the narrative is really a shift in the presentation of rampant nudity and bizarre, porn-esque sexual set ups with Spanner as a backdrop to the proceedings. The multiple actors to eventually fill the Will Spanner role will find themselves in this predicament time and time again and, to be honest, as we approach the end of the series, Will Spanner with less screen time is a good thing. Witchcraft 666: The Devil’s Mistress (1994). Directed by Julie Davis and written by Davis and Peter Fleming, the franchise fully embraces its softcore porn roots here. In this entry, there is a serial killer targeting women with gold crosses. What the sixth film does for the franchise is to introduce two more recurring characters: the detectives Lutz and Garner (Kurt Alan and John E. Holiday, respectively). Stumped, the cops call in Will Spanner! Will is now played by Jerry Spicer (who is pretty charismatic) and, apparently, Will is now a divorce lawyer (not criminal), well known for helping the police in occult cases (what?) and everyone knows about his magical stuff. So, yeah. The character of Kelli returns (this time played by Debra Beatty and her breasts). The cops and Will Spanner find that, lo and behold, the devil is back in town! Bryan Nutter stars as the villain, out for souls, which is a lot like the first five films. Nutter, like Huffman in number five, really eats the scenery in this one. Virgin sacrifices, new psychic powers for Will and the requisite sexy temptress trying to get Will on the side of evil round out the film. Lots and lots of boobs fill out the sequel and we are finally able to see exactly where the series is heading. Don’t worry, Will, Lutz, and Garner will return! Witchcraft VII: Judgement Hour (1995). Directed by Michael Paul Girard and written by Peter E. Fleming from a story by Jerry Feifer. If the last film was embracing the softcore roots, this entry sold them into sex slavery. From the onset, the viewer is besieged by sex scene after sex scene with a modicum of gore-type stuff to cut the steamy eroticism from time to time. We are back with Will Spanner, one more time. This time Will is played by David Byrnes. New to the role, David takes the approach to the role back to the sleepy-eyed Solomon, sans the accent. Oddly, Spanner is more of...