Witchmaster General (2009)

This independent movie is about the evil Dr. Gorgon, who uses his magical powers to get revenge on those who pay his price!  Have a cheating wife, or a boss that is about to pass you over for a promotion?  Then Dr. Gorgon will take them out for you, as long as you give him your soul.  Everything is going well for the doctor until he gets the attention of a cop named Stone. Inspector Keith Stone is investigating the latest string of killings and discovers what Dr. Gorgon is up to.  With the help of a crusty coroner and Dr. Gorgon’s beautiful ex he collects the tools to turn the tables on Gorgon. 

This isn’t a perfect independent movie and it suffers from some familiar technical issues (more on that later) but it more than makes up for it with a great story and some fun characters.  First of all let me warn you if you sit down to watch Witchmaster General and are expecting a serious film you are going to be disappointed.  Now I don’t know the intention of the filmmaker so I hope I’m not insulting anyone, but this is a very silly movie with characters that were really funny.  I mean the Dr. Gorgon character kills people with his magic dolls that are just off the shelf Barbie dolls!  I mean one of the other characters even comments on the fact that they are Barbie dolls, so I think that means they are in on the joke.  The Inspector Keith Stone character is making wise cracks thru the movie, which are really funny.  Toss in goofy characters like the coroner Dr. Harrison, and Witchmaster General ends up with a very light and fun atmosphere.  There is even this gag with one of the characters being named Bill Bixby that I got a kick out of. 

Now if funny independent movies aren’t your thing then you still might enjoy Witchmaster General for the copious amounts of female nudity.  I’m not sure the movie goes more than 15 minutes without some lovely lady disrobing.  Now I don’t want to say that the movie is sleazy, because it really isn’t.  But the amount of nudity added to the humor did remind me of some of the funny exploitation sex comedies from the 70s. 

For a low budget independent movie this is pretty well made.  Most of the shots are well light and for the most part the picture is good.  No complaints there.  I did notice in a couple of the scenes that there were some audio issues with wind blowing on the microphone and an odd echo to another scene.  Normally this wouldn’t bug me, but this movie is really well written with some witty dialogue, so missing any of it was a bummer.  There are also some pretty cheesy special effects, including a head that falls off by itself.  But this isn’t a complaint or criticism of the movie.  These effects fit the tone of the rest of the movie and actually provided a few more laughs.

This is the first movie that I’ve reviewed for Yellow Ape Productions.  If the rest of their movies are this good I think I’ve found a real gem.  For more information check out their website at www.yellowape.net

3 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer

© Copyright 2009 John Shatzer