aka The Presence

Dir. Kevin S. Tenney





Witchtrap is not a sequel to Witchboard (1986). And that’s a good thing. They’re more or less the same movie; a group of people get picked off one-by-one by an evil spirit and eventually the main girl gets possessed by said spirit. The evil spirits are even both played by the same dude and look pretty much identical. And while ‘Board is arguably a better movie from a production standpoint, ‘Trap is just so much more damn fun, thanks in large part to James W. Quinn, whom Witchboard, as its greatest sin, kills off in the first 20 minutes. There’s also no Zarabeth in Witchtrap, which is a huge plus.





The film begins with a Tony Clifton-looking entertainer type being chased around a house by swooping camera shots before getting thrown out a second story window to his death. This is a problem for Devon Lauder, who has inherited the house from his dead uncle Avery, but cannot sell the house to to a stipulation in his will. In order to make some money off the house, he hires a team of paranormal experts to exorcise “the Lauder House Ghost” so he can run it as a bed and breakfast. To make sure no more deaths occur, Devon also hires members of a private security firm to accompany the team. As you might guess, a bunch more death occurs anyway. Turns out Avery was a powerful warlock who’s attempting from beyond the grave to complete a ritual that will grant him immortality and unlimited power, using one of the mediums on the paranormal team as conduit by which he can manipulate objects in the living realm.





This leads to some pretty solid kill scenes. A shower head comes alive and rips out someone’s throat, a guy gets run over by his own car, a bullet propels itself through a guy’s skull with ghost magic. Later in the film there’s an exploding van, an exploding head, and even a face melting. The gore effects aren’t fantastic (that face melting looks more like a giant wax candle whittling away) but they get the job done and they’re fun to look at. The real draw in the film is James W. Quinn playing Tony Vicente, unrelenting asshole and hero of the film. A hardened ex-cop turned disgruntled private security guard, Tony wants nothing to do with this ridiculous ghost business and takes every opportunity he has to let everyone just how little he cares about them and the whole situation. He’s an endless well of fantastic one liners, referring to the paranormal team as a “grade-a group of chuckleheads” and offering “I resent your mother for taking dugs while she was pregnant” as a comeback to a relatively benign comment from his boss. Quinn chews the scenery in the best way possible in stark contrast to pretty much all the other actors in the film who deliver their lines like they’re voice actors in a PS1 era video game. Linnea Quigley shows up as the team’s video tech but gets killed off pretty quickly. And Hal Havins plays Avery’s sinister groundskeeper and assistant. I wish he was in more of the movie. And in more movies in general.





The story progression is pretty formulaic, with the cast getting picked off one-by-one by Avery’s ghost until a final showdown, but there’s a fun energy to the proceedings that keeps the film from ever getting dull. Quinn’s presence is definitely a large factor in that but it’s not the only thing that makes the film. It’s a joyous, almost funhouse-like atmosphere permeating through Witchtrap that makes it perfect fall viewing material, though its charms can certainly be enjoyed year round. It’s a nice balance of laughing at and laughing with. Come for the haunted house ghost murder shenanigans. Stay for perhaps the smarmiest, sassiest tough guy protagonist in the history of film. And I’d be remiss not to mention (without spoiling) the ending that’s so jarringly downbeat and mundane that it becomes the most hilariously surreal moment in the entire movie.











