The Witches Hammer DVD Review
The Witches Hammer DVD Review
Where is Peter Cushing When You Really Need Him?
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The beautiful and bold Stephanie Beacham has a small role in the vampire action flick Witches Hammer — which is a fitting wink and nod since some 35 years ago she played Jessica Van Helsing in Hammer's Dracula AD 1972. In this she's a top ranking witch running a super secret government spy program, Project 571, that uses genetically engineered bloodsuckers to do their dirty work.
In case you are wondering, Stephanie's still spellbinding. As for the movie, I am not entirely sure. I think if I were a 14-year-old boy, I would have liked it a lot better. It's a kitchen-sink martial arts actioner replete with the aforementioned conspiracies, vampires and witches, plus demons, sorcerers, inter-dimensional time warps, rough and buff kick-ass babes, and even a wisecracking, deadly dwarf.
Witches Hammer is TV-like, bringing to mind a cross between "Xena: The Warrior Princess" (syndicated) and "Being Human" (BBC). The story centers on pithy undead assassin Rebecca (Claudia Coulter), a wife and mum whose entire family was killed just as she was brought back from the brink of death by the powers that be of Project 571. In exchange for her life, Rebecca must fight other undeads for control of the mighty and ancient Witches Hammer tome (aka, Malleus Maleficarum, if you'd prefer a mouthful) — texts that have the power to bring those from the realm of darkness to the light of day.
The obviously Blade-influenced tale is told in a winding, wending manner through present-day events and the past horrors that sparked them. This is where, in my opinion, Witches Hammer loses some of its impact. I enjoyed the action, the diabolical characters and wry one-liners, but when the movie tries to get historical and serious it's not as much fun.
The movie's hardly deep and it does start to wear out its welcome towards the end, but overall I've got to hand it to indie filmmaker James Eaves (director, writer, producer and editor). Witches Hammer looks cheap, but the camera, acting and CGI is definitely passable and by far better than some others of MTI's recent direct-to-disc releases.
The DVD, or at least the check disc, does not have any additional release material.
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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson