The Witching (2016) Poster

(2016)

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3/10
Not impressed
CourtenaySutton28 October 2018
The short little blurb to describe the movie sounded alright, decided to watch it and wasnt very impressed. Didn't like how the movie jumped.
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3/10
Badly acted highly predictable horror flick
eventlaunch1 June 2019
This is more of a TV movie you know one of those straight to dvd types. I was tricked into watching this movie and boy was it boring predictable and uneventful damn
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3/10
Useless
msohn-5496927 June 2021
Teenage old material, not original. Waste of time.
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2/10
The Lying
dcarsonhagy10 November 2016
Warning: Spoilers
"The Witching" describes itself as a story about a forest haunted by an evil witch, who was put to death years before, and blah, blah, blah. So, a group of podcasters get together to bore you to death.

As I have stated many times "caveat emptor" (let the buyer beware). In this case, it is the viewer who should be made aware. This movie's premise is just a big old lie. What you have to sit through is an anthology of unoriginal, unimaginative, poorly written, and badly acted tales. The "witch" story lasts all of about 30 seconds and is (naturally) the last one.

Rated R for violence and recommended only if you want to be put to sleep real quickly.
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1/10
Avoid at all costs
enricoispixelated3 November 2016
A cheaply made and terribly acted horror anthology bore fest the synopsis of the movie is shockingly misleading and is obviously a ploy to draw idiots (like me) into watching the film please do make the same mistake as me and save yourself 1 hour and 20 minutes of your life! As a matter of fact call your friends go camping on a Halloween night even if you spend the night reading books about accounting and maths it will still be more interesting and scary than this movie I once walked into a dentistry conference in which they discussed revolutionary advances in adolescent dentures and it was still more gripping and tense that this pile of utter garbage

DO NOT WATCH!
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2/10
You'll be itching for switching off The Witching.....
FlashCallahan22 November 2016
Warning: Spoilers
On All Hallows' Eve, and Halloween only hours away, the members of a popular podcast, The Witching Hour, gather to swap scary stories in the dark of the night.

But they bargain for more than just ratings when they venture to the site where the Woodland Valley Witch was brutally murdered a few decades before, and have to contend with some horrific acting, and a deadly low budget.......

There are many Podcasts where the presenters over exaggerate a topic of a fact within an inch of their life, trying to make their opinion come across as something more than just that.

Now imagine a group of actors, with that motivation, but not doing a very good job of genuinely over exaggerating. Their excitement about their subjects, stories, and podcast fail, because they have no emotion in their amateurish eyes.

And wouldn't you know, it's another anthology film. Now I'm in the camp that loves a good old anthology film. From Seeing Peter Cushing telling a young Donald Sutherland how he will meet his maker on a train, to the quite brilliant V/H/S series, there is always so etching comforting and predictable in anthology films.

You will always get a wonderful story, a terrible one, be bookended by consequence, and have a very cinematic feel to it.

The Witching has one of these, and let's just say a wonderful story isn't one of them. The stories feel like they were rushed, and gave about as much cinematic feel as a reconstruction on Crimewatch.

The one story that sparks any interest is the one about the egg-timer. It would sit well in any horror anthology film, but despite the fantastic story arc, the acting just let's it down.

As does the rest of the film.

The other stories are terrible, forgettable trash, and the bookending part of the film is just us going back to these horribly smug podcasters, who try to usurp each other in the story league.

By the time the inevitable happens (which you can see coming from minute one of the film) you breathe a sigh of relief rather than shock, because you know the film is about to end.

I wouldn't bother if I were you, even though the egg-timer story is pretty sound, it's not worth wasting your life watching this.
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1/10
Nothing bewitching here
TheLittleSongbird31 May 2018
'The Witching' drew me into seeing it, with a cool poster/cover, an intriguing if not creative premise and as someone with a general appreciation for horror. That it was low-budget, which from frequent personal experience is rarely a good sign due to that there are so many poor ones out there, made me though apprehensive.

It is sadly however yet another film seen recently, hence some reiteration because the exact same strengths and flaws are here present in those films, that to me was incredibly disappointing considering its potential which it doesn't do anywhere near enough with. 'The Witching' is terrible, with a plethora of problems (huge ones too) and doesn't do enough with its potential, which was hardly small. There is next to nothing to recommend and it is the complete opposite of what the deceptive title promises.

Lets start with the sole positive. The scenery is atmospheric and spooky.

Unfortunately, it is not done justice by the rather direct to video schlocky way it's shot and edited, it was very clear that the film was made in a rush with no care or enthusiasm.

Going on further to the negatives, the story does feel paper thin, disjointed and over-stretched and some of it feels vague, under-explained in the last third where the film especially became duller, more predictable, more senseless and less scary. Too many characters are too sketchy and with nowhere near enough to make one want to endear to them. Their annoying and illogical decision making and behaviours frustrates.

Making the film feel bland and forgettable with not enough heart put into it. The effects are ropy at best, the sound quality is obvious and utilised cheaply (being too loud in the build ups and people's reactions) and it's best not mentioning the uniformly lumbering and histrionic acting.

Dialogue can be stilted and rambling while the pace goes to a standstill after the promising opening and drags on forever, never recovering. Found too many the supposedly shocking moments not surprising or scary and the supposedly creepy atmosphere dreary, due to the excessive obviousness, a lot of dumb and vague moments and explanations and the lack of tension and suspense.

A lot of 'The Witching' has underdeveloped plot elements and often nonsensical and confusing character motivations, while too many of the things to make you jump or shocked are far from creative or scary and are pretty tame. The ending makes the film finish on an incomplete and confused whimper.

There is not enough threat here and what there is of it tends to be used poorly, while the psychological elements are unimaginative and are more odd than scary, completely failing to show any sense of horror. Some badly sagging momentum too. The direction is leaden, got the sense their heart was not in it, and the music doesn't really fit.

Concluding, irredeemably awful. 1/10 Bethany Cox
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2/10
Couldn't watch it.
The sound of this movie is frustrating.

They're either whispering where you can't hear them or screaming and music at Volume 100 so you're reaching over to turn it down....then turn it back up once they start whispering again.

Ugh.
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7/10
Entertaining and fun
Impetusskoven26 August 2020
I think the bad reviews are unfair to this movie. The actors and actresses are fine. They are realistic, absent-minded in a way (as people often are) and not once did I think anyone was posing or playing a role. It is a movie which is almost cartoonish in parts, which is pure fun and the stories are imaginative snippets to be enjoyed. I was entertained in a good way.
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1/10
Waste of Time
jordansaldana-1692928 January 2017
I walked in expecting a sort of Conjuring themed movie, but all I got was a poor man's Goosebumps that has nothing to do with its picture (talk about false advertisement) and what felt more like a comedy given its blatantly awful, well, everything. The stories were cheesy, predictable, and not in the least bit horrifying or memorable. The special and practical effects were low budget and low standard (not that they're necessary for a good movie, but it just made something awful worse). The only thing truly horrific about the movie was the acting, both inside and outside of the stories. I would have enjoyed watching a bunch of monkeys screaming around a campfire rather than watching the unmemorable actors.
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9/10
A good movie that keeps the momentum going
csushant-924-63691017 November 2016
i loved this movie. a series of short horror films packed a punch. it surely deserves a better rating. some actors performed really well. enough well planned scares. the director has done a good job. the ending could have been a little better. overall i would still rate this as a good horror movie. i found some of the stories very creative. a well thought out movie. there was nothing that can be termed as boring. interesting right from the start.

cant give a higher rating than 9 because not everyone acted well. some scenes could have been scarier. Nevertheless an overall fun movie to see.
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6/10
What am I thinking now?
nogodnomasters6 September 2017
Warning: Spoilers
This is an anthology film of five tales plus the witching tale in which our narrators live taking place on October 30th. The first feature was as short and pointless ghost tale. The second was a longer and better, a story about the Sleepwalker. I liked the remaining three features of necromancy at a radio station, a magic hourglass, and the night time security guard. The last three had a slight twist.

The pentagram depicted on the cover art was not in the film, nor was the "nude" girl sitting in the center. The artwork was most likely commissioned to Korea and done by folks who didn't see the film. The stories never created engaging characters due to their length. I have a hard time imagining young adults going off into the woods to engage in smores, blogs, and story telling...boring enough to make me crave a deranged man in a bunny suit. The acting was a bit uneven.

Any reason they gave the devil a British accent? Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity
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1/10
If you're up for a comedy, this movie is for you
pearyb6 July 2022
Literally the worst horror movie I've ever watched. There is no plot, the acting is horrible and sad to watch.

But I have to add that the movie is so bad, that while watching it you can actually have a good laugh. So I don't recommend it if you want something scary, but if you'd like to cringe out with your friends or if u can't find a good comedy movie, I suggest this one.
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2/10
YAWN.
ravenhair70230 May 2022
I watched the trailer to this and what I saw was pretty scary and there were genuine moments of goosebumps. However, what I thought was normal movie was a series of short stories that kind of reminded me Creep show...only that was a good movie. Creep show stories all had endings. All of these were cut short with no real closure. They all told stories around the campfire to promote their podcast in the middle of a haunted forest. The last story was their last. It was interesting, but not something I would recommend to watch. Only a few jump scares. Just don't do it. Peace.
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9/10
The Witching
a_baron20 December 2016
A small group meet up in the woods late at night for a podcast and to share ghost stories. As you might expect this is a series of cameos, beginning with a young mother who cannot stop grieving for her dead son. She is having hallucinations, or is she? Then there is the young widow who is in a similar position. The best of them is probably the cynical DJ/talk show host who invites a psychic onto his programme; two somewhat unusual people call in, and for obvious reasons he does not believe they are who they say they are.

The young mother with an inattentive husband is likewise original; she finds an hour glass which once belonged to her husband's late mother. Rather than being an ornament it has an extremely practical application: it will stop time for a whole hour except for the user. Well, a woman's work is never done, but the massive caveat is that it must be used only once a day, use it twice and there will be a terrible price to pay. You know what happens next.

The night security man is a very short encounter which does not have an unhappy ending; alas the same cannot be said for the young woman driving alone on a deserted country road, which brings us back to our group. Like the man said, if you go down to the woods today, you're sure of a big surprise, only this is no teddy bears' picnic.
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