The Love Witch is one of my favorite films to watch every Halloween. It was directed by Anna Biller and tells the tongue-in-cheek story of a witch played by Samantha Robinson who is desperate for love. She casts love spells on men that drive them crazy, but there is one man who eludes her. The film is filled with vibrant colors and hot nude scenes. It's a Skin Central favorite for a reason!
Biller's biggest influence was Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. You can see that in the opening of The Love Witch in which Samantha Robinson is driving and glancing in her rearview mirror. Those are similar to shots of Janet Leigh driving away from town with the money she stole from her boss before she lands at the fateful Bates Motel for an overnight stay.
That's when we see Janet take that notorious shower!
There is no shower scene in The Love Witch, but Billy says that Psycho and The Birds are huge influences on this film as well as the Technicolor Hitchcock classics Marnie and Vertigo. Those seem clear when it comes to comparing the rich, sensual colors in both films - especially in the use of the color red which is very important to the film Marnie.
The colors are such a major part of The Love Witch and Biller has also said Jacques Demy was a major influence on her as a director. Gorgeously colored films such as Peau d'Anne, Young Girls of Rochefort, and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg starring Catherine Deneuve are potential inspirations as is Catherine's starring role in Belle de jour which aligns closer to Biller's first sexy film Viva.
Biller has a fascination with sex and nudity in the movies - so do we - and Viva dealt with those themes as it was made to also look like a sexploitation flick from the 70s. Anna Biller even starred in the movie on top of writing and directing it. As an added bonus, Biller acted in the buff!
Anna Biller in Viva
00:25:56 A smoke, a glass of red, a dirty magazine, and Anna Biller's boobs having a soak sounds like a recipe for 70s exploitation sexiness! (31 secs)
She was inspired by technicolor classics like Leave Her to Heaven in which Gene Tierney plays a bit of a psycho who loves a man...to death! She kills men with her love, much like the witch in The Love Witch whose love spells terrorize the men to such a point that they go mad and die. Of course, can you blame them when the witch looks like this?
While femme fatales in classic Hollywood noirs inspired the story and tense feel of the film, it has such a direct 60s and 70s horror vibe to it that it made me wonder what films of that era inspired Biller. Surely witchy classics did the trick?
Suspiria feels like an inspiration with its saturated colors, beautiful babes, and witchy villains. It does not seem like an influence plot-wise - despite the witch connections - but it certainly appears to be influenced by Suspiria in saturated color schemes
Finally, the films of Spanish director Jesus Franco are an influence on this world. His 1970s horror films were lousy with erotica from the themes to the beautiful boobie babes. His movies Nightmares Come at Night, She Killed in Ecstasy, and Vampyros Lesbos all starred Soledad Miranda who looks like the spitting image of Samantha Robinson: long black hair and a sultry naked body!
