The release history of NECROMANCY is perhaps more lively and entertaining than the film itself. This witchcraft horror is perhaps most interesting for featuring Orson Welles in a late role as a hefty Satanist with a sinister murder plot to bring his dead son back to life. I was delighted to see it, finally, because it's directed by the incredible long-running director Bert I. Gordon, who made all of those great giant monster movies back in the 1950s.

This film is notable for being re-released under a ton of different titles around the world, with the '80s re-release entitled THE WITCHING perhaps more popular than the original version. I'm happy to say that I watched the full and unedited original here. A pity, then, after all this fuss, that NECROMANCY turns out to be a disappointing film, far too pedestrian and hackneyed to make much of an impact.

As a film it owes a heck of a lot to other witchcraft chillers from the era, particularly ROSEMARY'S BABY. There are also shades of THE STEPFORD WIVES, with scenes of creeping social paranoia brought to the forefront. There were a whole wave of these slow-paced and subtle horrors made during the era, but I found NECROMANCY pedestrian. The direction is effective and there are a handful of creepy moments, but they add up to very little that hasn't been seen before. Pamela Franklin stars, adding another horror role to her extensive resume.

There's a big bad Satanist who will drink no blood before its time, and he's trying to create a war of the worlds between good and evil. It's Orson Welles if you haven't figured that out as of yet, the leader of a coven in a town conveniently known as Lilith. It's stereotypical that a big brassy personality like Welles should be a cigar-smoking warlock, just as Shelley Winters was in a couple of TV movies (minus the cigar). The heroine is Pamela Franklin who is heading to Lilith, distracted by the tragedy of a car accident where the other car she swerved to avoid ends up going over a cliff, sending several people to their deaths. As fate would have it, they were involved in the coven, and now she must become a part of them so the dead can come back to life. It's ironic that Welles is the only mature person involved in the coven, all of the others young and ambitious to get ahead through the powers of darkness.

The title indicates the power to bring people back from the dead, something Welles has always wanted to accomplish so in his words he can be equal with God. He's fine in his acting, commanding and a bit over-the-top, given some great photography where he is seeing speaking with the fire conveniently in front of him as he appears in Franklin's mind. She has the ability to see things that aren't there which apparently includes a dead child who was in the car.

This does take the horror a step beyond what would probably be allowed on TV and that's why this would have a big screen release. Overall, it's more Erie than frightening, and I did not get chills ones even when Franklin believed she was being covered by screeching bats. It's campy on the level of many other of the movies directed by Bert I. Gordon who had several films on this team and directed nothing other than horror or science fiction. In fact, it's rather old-fashioned on many levels, certainly no rivalry to "Rosemary's Baby" or "The Exorcist" or "The Omen" or the many other truly frightening occult movies that would follow. In retrospect, it's actually a fine mix of grand guignole and unintentional comedy which means that I highly recommended on that level.

If you go to a town named Lilith to live, you should not be surprised that the town is run by devil worshippers. If Orson Welles comes to you in a robe and his name is Mr. Cato, you should not be shocked to learn that he wants to use you to raise his son from the grave. What is surprising is that for a movie promising rituals and raising the dead, Necromancy isn't all that exciting.

Directed by Bert I. Gordon (War of the Colossal Beast, Picture Mommy Dead),the master of rear projection, this film is all about Lori Brandon (Pamela Franklin, The Legend of Hell House, And Soon the Darkness),a woman who has recently lost a child. She moves with her husband, Richard (Michael Ontkean, Sheriff Harry S. Truman from Twin Peaks) to the aforementioned town of Lilith to start over again.

On the way there, they get in an accident and kill a woman, but it's totally glossed over because this is 1972. Life was cheap. At least Lori gets a baby doll out of this accident.

There used to be a sign in my hometown that said, "What Ellwood City makes, makes Ellwood City." The town of Lilith makes one thing: the world's finest occult paraphernalia. There's one great scene here with Lori sees her image inside a tarot card, a really evocative scene thrown away in a film that is otherwise less than memorable.

If you've seen Rosemary's Baby, you know exactly how this is all gonna turn out. If you are the star of a 1970's horror movie — especially if you are Donald Sutherland — expect to die. Horribly.

Much like the devil, Necromancy goes by many names, such as The Witching, A Life for a Life, Horror-Attack, Rosemary's Disciples and The Toy Factory. When Paragon Video re-released it on VHS in 1982, they chopped out tons of story and dialogue to insert scenes of nude witches like Brinke Stevens and even more Satanic rituals.

As much as I love Orson Welles — we'll have a whole month of his films at some point, I'm certain — this is not his finest hour. He has some fine speeches, but the material is Mrs. Paul's level. Beneath him.