The Witch Who Came from the Sea

Plot

The film concerns a dysfunctional and disturbed woman called Molly (played by Millie Perkins) who, after suffering repeated sexual abuse as a child at the hands of her seafaring father, embarks on a spree of gruesome sexual encounters with men who she meets during her job as a waitress in a seaside bar.

Cast

Censorship

In 1983, the United Kingdom Department of Public Prosecutions compiled a list of 72 video releases that were not brought before the BBFC for certification and declared them prosecutable for obscenity. This list of "video nasties" included The Witch Who Came From the Sea, but it was in the sub-group of 33 titles that were unsuccessfully prosecuted and was soon dropped from the DPP list. In the United Kingdom, the film was eventually released completely uncut in 2006 with a complete running time of 87m 43 secs.

Reception

The Witch Who Came From the Sea has been recommended by film critic Mark Kermode as one of the best video nasties of the era. One critic viewed the film as not being a horror film but actually representing a scathing indictment of child sexual abuse as well as a study of a troubled woman's descent into madness; "a study of a woman whose sanity teeters on the edge". Another completely dismissed the film as representing nothing more than "an absurd story with no redeeming qualities. Highly recommended for lovers of bad cinema".

The 2004 DVD release of the film (whose 16:9 transfer was overseen and approved by Dean Cundey) sparked renewed interest, with one reviewer remarking that The Witch Who Came From the Sea is "an unsung psychological gem" among 1970s exploitation films.