"Hungry Wives" aka "Season of the Witch". OK there are movies that work better when they are fast-paced, some that work better at a mid-pace, and other films are better at a slow-pace. This film is not slow-paced it's slower than a snail's pace - it's at a dragging-pace, painfully slow.A housewife is bored. She has a husband that is not home most of the time and when he is home it's a stale relationship. She has a daughter that has her own life and really doesn't care about her. She has gossipy friends that are rather a bore as well. So she's alone most all the time and utterly bored so she decides to try witchcraft as a solution - to spice up her life I guess. Well, we finally get about 10 minutes of her witchcraft which doesn't amount to a hill of beans - a love spell of all things - this leads us to adultery which she seems to like more than her new found hobby witchcraft. At the end, she grows tired of her lover. Oh and she starts telling others "I'm a witch".I think the witchcraft is suppose to be a metaphor for real life women's lib movement that was still going on at the time of this film - but was shown as literal witchcraft in this film.There was some stink about the releasing of this film - and was marketed as soft-core porn much to the displeasure of Romero -- so I read somewhere. Makes no sense to me after watching this film... it would barely qualify as soft-core porn if it does at all. And the cut footage was cut to qualify it as soft-core porn in the 70s - do what?! Seems that is what they cut was soft-core porn bits but whatever. I just know there is cut footage that was later found and pieced back to create another release of this film. The film is boring and talky not close to soft-core porn that I can tell.2/10

Season of the Witch (1972)* (out of 4) This notorious film from George A. Romero was at one time considered one of his two "lost" movies but while this one here was easily available in bootleg form, most people didn't see it (or the previously made THERE'S ALWAYS VANILLA) until released to DVD by Anchor Bay. The film tells the story of a bored wife named Joan (Jan White) who is ignored by her husband so she finds some new friends who just happen to be into black magic and sure enough things take a turn for the worse. This Romero film was originally released at 130-minutes as HUNGRY WIVES but when no one went to it it was then shown overseas as JACK'S WIFE with a 104-minute running time. It was then again cut down but the version on DVD now is this 104-minute version but it does carry the SEASON OF THE WITCH title card. No matter what you call it there's no denying that this is a downright horrid film that is just shocking to watch not because of it being scary but because it's rather hard to imagine the same person behind this film also made NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. Romero himself has called this a piece of crap but the filmmaker might be too kind with those words. It's said that Romero made THERE'S ALWAYS VANILLA because he didn't want to be known as a horror director and I think this thought has a lot to do with the issues here. It's clear that Romero didn't want to make just another "witchcraft" film so he tried to do something different with the material, which I can appreciate but sadly the end results are just horrid. The majority of the blame has to go towards the screenplay because it just contains one long, drawn-out dialogue sequence after another and you can't help but lose focus of what the characters are saying because the stuff they're saying is just so bland. You'll be watching two of the characters talk but their dialogue just goes in such direction that you can't help grow bored and simply tune out. At 104-minutes the film is way too long and I can't help but thing what torture the original version must have been. The performances aren't very good either with none of them really standing out and there's some really bad editing that doesn't help matters either. SEASON OF THE WITCH probably would have been best served had it remained missing because there's no question that the director is embarrassed by it and he should be.

A woman (Jan White) feels kept down by her husband, and pursues witchcraft as a hobby. That has some negative consequences, as well as her new interest in adultery.This is the first film solely written by George A. Romero and a break from most of the Latent Image crew who had made "Night of the Living Dead". Some familiar names return. Bill Hinzman appears as "the intruder" and did some lighting and photography. Master bamboo flutist Steve Gorn returns as composer. Gary Streiner, who did sound on "Night" and "Vanilla", is now a producer. And actors Robert Trow and Raymond Laine from "Vanilla" are back. Outside of the two Romero films, Trow is best known for appearing in 266(!) episodes of "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood".The opening scene features a woman being swatted by newspaper, slapped by tree branches, and dragged on a leash into a kennel. It is very artistic, and shows early on why Hollywood Reporter called the film "a nightmarish vision of female oppression." Let us put the film in its historical context. Wicca and neopaganism began in England thanks to Gerald Gardner but really took off in America around 1970 thanks to Paul Huson's book "Mastering Witchcraft". This coincides with the rise of "second wave" feminism lead by Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem. Though the themes today (2017) may seem quaint, they were hot topics in 1973.Mike Mayo gives the film a solid three out of four, the most complimentary review I am aware of. Yet, his write-up raises questions of his sincerity. He says the film "had more social relevance than it does now", is "too-talky" and is "not nearly as suspenseful or engrossing" as "Martin" overall. This gives the impression he wants to like it as a Romero fan, but cannot fully commit himself. Had Mayo watched it, not knowing Romero was involved, would he have been so rewarding?The film's original title "Jack's Wife" succinctly captured the essence of the film, being about a woman who was not seen as her own person. The later and more common title is "Season the Witch", which plays up the very limited horror aspect and probably disappointed many expecting a supernatural tale. (I originally saw it at a horror marathon, which was unfortunate.) Yet another title was "Hungry Wives", suggesting a sexploitation film, which this absolutely is not.The movie was originally released by Jack Harris (best known for "The Blob"), shortly after Harris distributed John Landis' debut "Schlock". Harris also distributed John Carpenter's debut "Dark Star" (1974). While his creation of "The Blob" is appropriately celebrated, perhaps Harris deserves even more praise for aiding the careers of not one, but three masters of horror! The Arrow Blu-ray provides multiple cuts of the film, but its best new feature is an hour-long conversation between Romero and Guillermo del Toro. Of course, this dialogue is not strictly about "Season of the Witch". But that is what makes it so great, because few filmmakers have the love for genre cinema that del Toro goes, and he can get to the heart of Romero's visions.

This thin and sometimes uncertain movie is never a mess, not even when it seems improvised: the 'arty' cutting is too assured. This is a surprise even though we are dealing with Romero after all who knows what he's doing. But we are only used to him applying his talents to horror, and that's not what 'Season of the Witch' is - it's Diary of a Mad Housewife with exploitation frills and an upstart feel that definitely ain't radical chic. Romero shows a lot of compassion for this landlocked suburban housewife, and explicitly distances himself from her hipster love interest's contempt. But after this weird Cassavettes thing in the first act, everything gets verrry metaphorical - the secondary characters are metaphors for housewife's emotions, housewife is metaphor for social repression - and this works better in horror than it does in drama. Leaving us with a very weird, arty, failed yet accomplished experiment by a guy who loves his medium, kind of a pre-Martin notepad sketch.