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OVERALL
BEASTS
BREASTS
Director: James Merendino
Writers: Michael Paul Girard James Merendino
Cast---
Charles Solomon Jr. ...  Will Spanner (as
Charles Solomon)
Julie Strain ...  Belladonna
Clive Pearson ...  Santara
Lisa Jay Harrington ...  Lily Wild
Jason O'Gulihur ...  Hal
Erol Landis ...  Lt. Hovis (as Erol Munuz)
Orien Richman ...  Pete Wild
Sunset Thomas ...  Nora Breckenridge (as
Diane Fowler)

Runtime: 92 min
WITCHCRAFT IV: THE VIRGIN HEART
(1992)

 The infamous Witchcraft series falls into my lap with the fourth and possibly sexiest entry ever. The
reason behind that is because Penthouse Pet and all around goddess of hot chicks stars as the lead
sexy girl. I am speaking of course about the one, the only, Julie Strain. If you've seen this lady at work,
you know what I mean when I say that her appearance in a film alone raises the breast count to 5
without even seeing the movie. The first film from director James Merendino (most well-known from his
underground cult hit SLC PUNK), the fourth installment is unfortunatelly not one to go on his director's
reel.

I figured since Jorge dealt strictly with the plots of the first 3 films, I would focus on providing a bit of
backstory on the series on top of the plot details, so we can fully cover the world that is Witchcraft. This
bouncy installment appears a year after the third film but 3 years in the future storywise, and is again
spearheaded by producer Jerry Feifer, who would follow the series until its supposed final 13th
installment. Charles Solomon Jr. returns to reprise his role as series hero Will Spanner for the third and
final time. The soundtrack was once again provided by Miriam Cutler, who had previously provided the
music for parts 2 & 3, but would end her connection to the series in the 8th entry, Salem's Ghost. This
was Julie Strain's 12th movie, but only her third horror film, a genre which would soon provide her her
broadest arena. In her 2nd horror film she appears with part 2 goddess Delia Sheppard, and that just
might have led to her landing the role in this movie, but don't quote me on it. As of July 2009, Julie has
appeared in 113 movies and that is a lot (A LOT) of topless scenes. There'll be some more backstory
stuff in the next review, but for now let's get to the movie.

Will Spanner is a regular Joe, a lawyer, and...a warlock. The film unspools like an old-fashioned
detective movie when a beautiful dame, Lily, walks into his office to ask for his help in defending her
brother, who is accused of a murder he didn't commit. We know he didn't commit it because the first ten
boring minutes of this movie are spent with the worst pair of actors they could have possibly found. In
fact, the entire film is jam-packed with horrible acting, but I digress. It looks like there is a serial killer
roaming the hills of California, and if Spanner's going save this kid from the electric chair then he's going
to have to catch the real killer himself. A clue at the crime scene leads him to a heavy-metal goth club
called Coven, where you are required to wear a nice dress jacket for some reason (strange thing is that
the first thing we see is a shirtless guy). Not only does the guy who killed the girl in the beginning work
here, but Julie Strain, I mean Belladonna, strips her ass off here.

Will follows her back to her place and is about to get lucky when her manager, Santara, arrives. She
stores Will in the closet and is then beaten and raped by Santara, who seems very controlling and
British. The guy leaves and Will wants to help her, but according to her there is nothing he can do
because the manager gave her her voice, and everything else. He starts to investigate Santara, but isn't
finding anything. A few days later Belladonna calls him for some quick sex in a warehouse elevator then
begs him to leave her alone (!!!). He supposedly has some kind of "power", but he never uses it. Well,
he sort of does once, but it really does nothing except get some long-haired rocker guy to tell him about
the "legend of the blues". This legend states that if you go to a crossroads at night the devil will give you
the power to play the blues. He does some research and finds Santara in a book of old blues musicians.
Even with all this evidence, on top of the fact that his stupid name is Santara, Will still doesn't
understand what's going on. Sartana starts to worry that Spanner is on his trail, but Spanner's about as
threatening as a cold pool or warn mayo. Spanner goes to the club to confront Belladonna with the
information he's found and is immediately, and quite easily I might add, kidnapped by Santara's thugs.

He is dragged out to the woods and Sartana's ghostly voice talks to him as a mysterious white light
shines down. You ready for whiplash folks? It turns out that Will and Sartana are brother (???) and were
born during the inquisition? He invites Will to dinner and the light fades, leaving him stranded in the
middle of nowhere. Will grabs a stick and runs to Santara's house. There he finds Lily bound to an altar
and Santara in a preacher's robe. After reciting some Shakespeare, Santara convinces Will to rip the
heart out of Lily. But Will is ultimately a hero, so he fights back and kills the thugs. Then he and Santara
use their super warlock powers to...choke each other. Will manages to free a hand and he rips out
Santara's heart. He goes to free Lily, but it turns out that she was evil too. The good news is that
Belladonna stabs her in the back and saves his life so this awesome, wonderful, fantastic, unforgettable
character can continue on to have more adventures...just kidding, of course, I fucking hate this guy.

This was just plain awful. The acting is attrocious, the cinematograhpy is god-awful, and the dialog is
unfathomably inane ("I'll take your saliva. We are the same"). If Julie wasn't in this, it would have been a
solid red coffin, but she is the film's one and only saving grace. I can't even describe how awkward and
retarded and amatuerish this stupid piece of crap movie was. A dull story with no energy or intensity,
coupled with a cast of hideously bad actors, makes this probably the worst Witchcraft movie ever, and
they don't even practice any witchcraft in this movie!!!! PS: Enjoy the pictures of Julie below, they have
nothing to do with the movie, but who cares? If you want to "see" more of her then go to juliestrain.com.


                                                                                            



                                                                                                               - Jose Prendes
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Witchcraft IV: The Virgin Heart (1992)
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