by Mark Murton

English Translation: The Witch in Love

Also Known As: The Witch; Strange Obsession

Directed by: Damiano Damiani

This review contains two Severe Kitty Carnage Warning!

Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!

Synopsis: Womanising historian Sergio (Richard Johnson) is lured to an old palazzo owned by Consuelo Lorente (Sarah Ferrati) who wants to hire him to organise the erotic manuscripts written by her late husband. Sergio declines the offer but changes his mind when he meets the old woman’s beautiful and beguiling daughter Aura (Roasanna Shiaffino). Sergio soon finds himself caught in a bizarre world of supernatural dark secrets and forbidden desires that eventually leads to murder.

Purr Blurs: After questioning whether there even are any manuscripts, Sergio is lead to the library by Consuelo. On the way they pass a black cat in the corridor which cries loudly at them.

After this Sergio meets Aura and is immediately smitten. She offers to show him the garden and on their way they pass the same black cat in a corridor. Again it cries at them.

In the greenhouse Aura is disturbed by the sight and sounds of three cats, a Siamese and two tabbies, fighting amongst the precious plants from which Consuelo Lorente brews a potent but mysterious tea.

Aura asks Sergio to chase them away and he picks up some stones and starts throwing them in the direction of the cats! This has the desired effect as one of the cats is seen exiting through a window opening. Aura says that she and her mother are frustrated at their inability to keep the cats out of the garden and greenhouse.

Kitty Carnage Warning #1: Moments later, while going to pick some berries at the request of Aura, Sergio notices a piece of twine sticking out from a pile of bamboo canes and pulling on it he makes a grim discovery; a dead tabby cat with the twine tight around its neck! Unfortunately it appears a real (and probably already deceased) cat was used for this scene.

Purr Blurs: Sergio discovers he has a rival for Aura’s affections, the resident librarian Fabrizio (Gain Maria Volonté), and Aura and Consuela quickly exploit this rivalry, claiming that Fabrizio is dangerous and was the one who strangled the cat. In his effort to defend the women from the seemingly unhinged man, Sergio ends up killing Fabrizio. Under instruction from Consuelo, Sergio loads the body into back of her car to a cacophony of off-screen cat cries. Having disposed of the body, Sergio returns to the palazzo and as he pulls up outside a white cat runs across in front of the gates. Again the air is filled with the sound of crying cats.

Kitty Carnage Warning #2: Later, standing on a balcony at the top of the house looking out over the city, Sergio hears a cat crying below and looks down to see Consuelo pulling a distressed tabby cat on rope which is tied around its neck! The cat’s screeches may be dubbed over but the cat actor is clearly being pulled and dragged against his or her will.

Purr Blur: There is one last shot of a cat when, after finally learning the truth about Aura, Sergio sits huddled up on a chair as the camera cuts to various parts of the house, one being the corridor where the black cat was originally seen, only now it sits silently.

Quite what the cats mean or represent in the film is open to question. Clearly the indoor black cat was welcome, or at least tolerated, by the women, implying he may have been the witch’s familiar. It’s also notable that the indoor cat was black while all the other cats were not. One wonders if the stray cats were just being eliminated because of their destructive nature to the plants or if they were actually being used as part of the witch’s magic? Or were the cats simply included because Italian horror directors never seem to miss an opportunity to mistreat cats in their films?!

Final Mewsings: Directors who abuse cats for movies are far more evil than witches.

Many thanks to Nick Wale for also spotting the cats in this film.

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