Prehistoric Women/The Witches

Rating:
Summary: Women in fur bikinis and Joan Fontaine with a kooky coven
Review: Anchor Bay Entertainment continues re-issuing the lesser-known Hammer Studios films in the economical 'twofer' format with this release of Prehistoric Women (1967) aka Slave Girls and The Witches (1966), aka The Devil's Own.

Prehistoric Women, written, produced and directed by Michael Carreras, is certainly the lesser of the two films here. Using sets from the film One Million Years B.C. (1966), Prehistoric Women tells a confusing and utterly pointless tale of David (Michael Latimer), a jungle hunter who stumbles on to a tribe of scantily clad, fur bikini wearing prehistoric woman, dominated by the attractive, but cruel, brunette Queen Kari, played by Martine Beswick. There are no men present, but later we find out they are all sequestered in a nearby cave, chained and forced to make weapons and such for the women. The story involves David perusing prey into land deemed sacred by the inhabitants, according to a legend involving a white rhino. Queen Kari maintains rule, along with a group of spear wielding brunettes, over another group of women, all blonde, who are slaves. Queen Kari desires David, but David desires one of the blondes, Saria (Edina Ronay). As the brunettes force various blonde slave women into sacrificial marriages with local demon spirits, the blondes plan to rebel, with David's assistance, taking his arrival as a sign that some ancient prophecy involving the white rhino can now be fulfilled. If you like half nekkid women dancing around in fur bikinis, then look no further, because there is a lot of that here. If you like a strong plot, good characters, and a coherent story, then you're in the wrong place. Like some of Carerras other projects where he got more involved in directing and writing, instead of just producing, like The Lost Continent (1968) and Shatter (1974), Prehistoric Women is a mess of pointless plot threads, sloppy and disjointed characters, and odd and choppy dialogue. The film finally ends with what Carerras must have thought to be a shocking conclusion, but it was more predictable than anything else. Certainly not the best Hammer Studios outing, but it does have the half-nekkid women, if nothing else.

The Witches (1966) looks like spun gold next to Prehistoric Women, but is really a decent suspenseful mystery horror film starring Joan Fontaine as Gwen Mayfield, a teacher who, while working at a mission school in Africa, runs afoul of a local witch doctor and suffers a nervous breakdown as the witch doctor uses his voodoo magic to torment the woman. Returning to England, Gwen takes a position as head teacher in a school in a small English town, only to find out the town has its' own coven of witches, and she soon finds herself in the middle of some bad mojo. Fontaine plays her part well, despite the fact that this once Academy Award winning actress has settled for a part that she probably would have passed on in the prime of her career. The movie moves along well, slowly building tension as the witchcraft element becomes more pronounced, and sinister happenings increase, but falls apart a little near the end as we get to see the coven in action. They appear quite silly, dancing, bumping, grinding, chanting incomprehensible gibberish, while enjoying a sumptuous meal of dirt and muck, all being overseen by the head witch, dressed in colorful robes and wearing what looks like a lit candelabra on her head. Michael Carreras had nothing to do with the writing or directing of this film, and it shows. The film was helmed by another director, a more capable director in Cyril Frankel, who later went on to work the Hammer television series Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense (1984).

Anchor Bay Entertainment puts out a real bargain here, seeing how the movies, previously released on DVD separately, cost more for those individual releases then they do in this two-disc set. Not only that, but you get everything included in those previous, individual releases, with regards to the movies and special features. The disc with the film Prehistoric Women on it has the movie on one side of the disc, with special features on the flip side. Special features included TV spots, a theatrical trailer, television promotional spots, and a World of Hammer episode titled Lands Before Time. The Witches disc has the film and special features on the same side of the disc, and includes a theatrical trailer, television promotional spots, and a World of Hammer episode titled Wicked Women. Both movies are presented in wide screen anamorphic, and this duel release also contains nifty little reproductions of promotional material for the films, with the back of the cards listing the chapter stops of the respective films. All in all, a great way to fill out your Hammer movie collection, and save a bunch of money in the process.

Cookieman108