The Witchmaker (1969)

**_Cabin-in-the-swamp… where witches dwell_** A team of paranormal investigators venture deep into the swamps of Louisiana to find out why numerous young females have been found dead, drained of their blood. They’re unaware that a sabbat-master lives there. Will any of them make it out alive? “The Witchmaker” (1969) came in the tradition of films like "The City of the Dead” (1960), "Masque of the Red Death" (1964), "Devils of Darkness" (1965) and “The Witches” (1966), aka “The Devil’s Own.” That last one took the topic a step further by depicting a devilish ceremony more explicitly, which might strike modern viewers as cheesy and amusing. This one does a better job with a surprisingly well-done black ceremony in the last act (which smacks of a hedonistic Viking celebration more than anything else). I included the year of release of those flicks to show the cinematic progression of witch-oriented movies in the ’60s. “The Crimson Cult” from 1968 is yet another example, aka “Curse of the Crimson Altar.” "Mark of the Witch" came out the year after this one, 1970. Then came “The Brotherhood of Satan” and “Race With the Devil” in the early/mid ’70s. LQ Jones was involved in the production of this one and “The Brotherhood of Satan.” He even appears in both, although his role here is uncredited. Now, someone might criticize that I’m mixing up witchcraft with satanism, but so do all of these movies. Take this one, where an idol of satan is used in their diabolical ceremony. On the feminine front, blonde Thordis Brandt is sharp as Tasha and Sue Bernard is notable as Felicity (you might remember her as the winsome bikini girl in “Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!” from 3 years prior). Brunette Warrene Ott is also worth noting as young Jessie. There are others but, for the most part, the director didn’t know how to shoot women (no pun intended), such as was done passably in “Mark of the Witch.” The ending is kinda eye-rolling but, otherwise, this is way better than I thought it’d be for such an obscure occult-oriented flick from the ’60s. It runs 1 hour, 39 minutes, and was shot in Marksville, which is in the heart of Louisiana; interiors, however, were done in the studio in Los Angeles. GRADE: B-