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Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Simon, King Of The Witches (1971)

Starring Andrew Prine, Brenda Scott, George Paulsin, Norman Burton, Gerald York
Directed by Bruce Kessler
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

A self-proclaimed warlock with the power to cast spells on others for good or for evil, plies his craft for money, while seeking a way to project himself into the realm of the gods.

I just wasn't fond of this picture- Prine gives a good performance as Simon, but no one else around him stands out, and a meandering plot and weak special effects don't help matters.  A pulsating red circle that delivers Simon's victims to their fates is almost comical when it murders by knocking a potted plant off a high building.  Adding confusion to the mix is some scenes as scripted don't make a lot of sense, as if other scenes setting them up were cut out of the film.  Perhaps I'm not the target audience for this picture, as there are a lot of references to drug use, which becomes pivotal to the climax, and a trip by Simon to "the other realm" features a lot of psychedelic imagery.  I admired some speeches for Simon in the screenplay that gave a serious background to his character's origins and abilities, but the rest of the movie surrounding his character is pretty weakly assembled.

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