George A. Romero’s Season of the Witch is a slow-burn feminist occult drama
George A. Romero's 1973 film "Season of the Witch" was a commercial failure despite being marketed as softcore pornography when it was actually a slow-burn feminist drama. The protagonist, Joan Mitchell, is trapped in an abusive marriage and unhappy in her domestic role, eventually turning to witchcraft in search of autonomy and escape. The film's rediscovery matters because it reveals Romero as a more socially progressive filmmaker than his horror-director reputation suggests, offering a boldly unconventional 1970s meditation on female agency.
Made on a budget of just $100,000 (approximately $800,000 adjusted for inflation), the film was damaged by distributors who removed 40 minutes from the original 130-minute cut, which has since been lost; the restored version now runs 104 minutes. Despite uneven acting, lead actress Jan White delivers an excellent performance and Romero creates a tense, occasionally hallucinatory atmosphere that culminates in an ending that is somewhat predictable yet deeply satisfying. The film is now available to stream on Mubi and Kanopy.
- Marketed as softcore porn in 1973, it's actually a feminist drama about escape.
- The film flopped; the original cut was lost but has been partially restored.
- The story explores a woman turning to witchcraft to escape an abusive marriage.
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George A. Romero is known principally for pioneering modern horror cinema, but in 1973 he made "Season of the Witch," a film quite unlike his usual work. The film centres on a woman named Joan Mitchell who becomes increasingly unhappy in her marriage and gradually turns to witchcraft in search of freedom and self-determination.
The film struggled at the box office, hindered by distributors who misrepresented it commercially and cut the original 130-minute version down to 104 minutes. This aggressive editing, combined with Romero's reputation as a horror director, obscured what the film was actually about for many decades.
Its rediscovery matters because it reveals Romero as a more socially progressive filmmaker than his famous horror work might suggest. The film stands as an uncommon 1970s exploration of female autonomy and the constraints of traditional marriage, illuminating a different dimension of Romero's work as a director.
Both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
George A. Romero's "Season of the Witch" represents a genuinely ambitious attempt to explore female agency within patriarchal structures at a time when such narratives were rare in commercial cinema. Rather than aesthetic failure, the film's obscurity stemmed from distributors' mismarketing and destructive editing practices that obscured its true nature; reassessing the restored version reveals meaningful thematic depth that expands our understanding of Romero's artistic range. Historical importance and thematic boldness matter in cinema, particularly when examining how earlier generations of filmmakers engaged with progressive ideas, even if technical execution was uneven.
The case against
Enthusiasm for "Season of the Witch" risks conflating forward-thinking subject matter with actual artistic accomplishment, a confusion that can lead to inflated reassessment of lesser works. The film's initial commercial failure may well reflect genuine technical shortcomings—acknowledged uneven acting and a predictable narrative—rather than marketing injustice or suppression. Without Romero's original cut, critics cannot properly evaluate his artistic intentions, making reassessment necessarily speculative; progressive themes alone do not obligate audiences to reconsider films that did not succeed as cinema.