Filmmaker Joshua Sowden’s The Book of the Witch features gorgeous cinematography, a fantastic score, and a terrifying-looking witch (Ali Williams), but it’s the psychological horror that emotes from leads Krishna Smitha (as Victoria) and Danny Parker-Lopes (as August) that does the heavy-lifting.
Independent filmmaking is difficult no matter what kind of film that you’re making, but it seems like out of all of the genres, horror is the one that has the most hits made from small budgets. It makes sense since horror taps into our primal, deepest, darkest fears and oftentimes the imagination is scarier than any prop or CGI creation. Masters such as Alfred Hitchcock have shown this to be true.
Victoria and August are a couple of security guards working the night shift in an otherwise unoccupied building. August thinks he sees a strange figure, so he calls the cops, only to be jump scared by Victoria wishing him a happy birthday with a knife in hand. They banter with natural co-worker chemistry about things like the crazy drivers in Los Angeles and not having any family other than the de facto one that they have with each other.
“…Victoria starts to get creepy vibes and visions as well…”
Strange things are afoot when Victoria starts to get creepy vibes and visions as well. We see Victoria at home with a computer screen with information about the book of the witch and immortality, next she takes her pills before having a strange neurotic episode (with stellar acting by Smitha) and then looking up on the computer a case of a missing person. This is interesting because it was the same guy who was taken by the witch in an intense scene at the beginning of the film.
The theme of death keeps coming up in conversation between August and Victoria (and with August keeping a picture of his dearly departed dog), before we get some more mysterious creepiness going on in the building, letting our mind wander to what’s lurking in the dark. That is, until we do see the witch once again, this time going after Victoria. What comes next is a terrifying sequence, sold perfectly by Krishna Smitha.
The scenes with the witch offer some heart-pounding horror moments. I could see this being a franchise because there’s so much that you can do with this character. It’s the chemistry and care that Victoria and August have for each other that makes it all work. Horror is at its best when you have characters that the audience cares about, props to Sowden for not losing sight of that.
The cast of Smitha, Williams, and Parker-Lopes do a fantastic job of creating this world of horror and the humanity within it, as does Sowden for his imagination and technical expertise. Danny Parker-Lopes does a fantastic job of being an affable character who you root for. Krishna Smitha shows off her acting chops with difficult monologues and having to show terror on her face multiple times, and she pulls it off like a true scream queen.
The Book of the Witch is more on the psychological side of the horror spectrum, while offering scary visuals when it does show instead of telling. This is a must-see for indie horror fans, while asking such timeless horror questions such as, “Is immortality worth the cost of your humanity?”
"…is immortality worth the cost of your humanity?"
