Following the tragic death of their parents, a sister and brother take a group of friends to rural Florida to stay at a rickety old house which they’ve recently inherited. Little do the youngsters realize that some decades before, a woman suspected of being a witch was burned at the stake on the property by the zealous townsfolk. With the group settled in for a few days of drinking and partying, the demonic forces that reside in the house are quick to take hold - possessing a number of the teens and prompting them to take up knives, axes and chainsaws against their friends in an orgy of death and dismemberment. As the carnage escalates, the few remaining members of the group are forced to seek out the assistance of a local aged priest, in the hopes of putting an end to the horror.
The directorial debut of Alessandro Capone, who had previously penned Ruggero Deodato’s slice-and-dice effort Body Count, WITCH STORY (which was originally marketed in the US as a sequel to the 1982 supernatural slasher Superstition) is a prime example of late 80s Italian splatter, featuring an astonishing array of nastiness with numerous bodies being hacked, slashed and generally beaten to a pulp. Frantically blending The Evil Dead, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Exorcist and slasher elements in a way that only the Italians can, the celluloid sorcerers at Vinegar Syndrome have conjured up WITCH STORY for its world UHD debut, newly restored in 4K from its original camera negative and loaded with a bewitching assortment of new and archival extras.
directed by: Alessandro Capone
starring: Amy Adams, Pierre Agostino, Jeff Bankert, Ian Bannen, Bob Bouchard
1989 / 97 min / 2.35:1 / English & Italian DTS-HD Master Audio Stereo
Additional info:
- 2-disc Set: 4K Ultra HD / Region A Blu-ray
- 4K UHD presented in High-Dynamic-Range
- Newly scanned & restored in 4K from its 35mm original camera negative
- Presented in its original English language 2.0 stereo soundtrack, as well as its Italian language dub soundtrack (untranslated)
- Commentary track with film historians Troy Howarth, Nathaniel Thompson and Eugenio Ercolani
- Directing a Witch Story (32 min) - an interview with director Alessandro Capone
- Producing the Witch (34 min) - an interview with producer Giuseppe Pedersoli
- The Light of Witches (12 min) - an interview with cinematographer Roberto Girometti
- The It-Brit Connection: British Actors in Italian Horror (17 min) - video essay by Mike Foster
- An Italian Witch in Florida (44 min) - archival making-of documentary featuring interviews with director Alessandro Capone, cinematographer Roberto Girometti and composer Carlo Maria Cordio
- Raw audition footage (45 min)
- Image gallery
- Reversible sleeve artwork
- English SDH subtitles
