Coven (2020) Poster

(2020)

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2/10
Terrible start
jdorego23 July 2020
Killing off the best looking witch in the first 10 mins pretty much bummed me out for the rest of it. Might be enjoyable by a few lesbians.
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4/10
But this has essentially all been seen before in 1996...
paul_haakonsen15 July 2020
Now, I am not sure if it was intentional or fully coincidental, but writer Lizze Gordon's 2020 movie "Coven" felt an awful lot like the 1996 movie "The Craft". Was it a tribute? Sort of a reboot? A rip off? Coincidental? I have no idea.

But I do know, however, that "Coven" was not having the same impact or level of entertainment as the 1996 movie had. Sure, the 2020 movie "Coven" from director Margaret Malandruccolo was watchable, but it was by no means an outstanding movie.

The concept of the storyline was adequate. But it just felt a bit too cliché, and too much off a rip off of the 1996 movie in my opinion. And that made this 2020 movie suffer. Sure, if you haven't seen the 1996 movie "The Craft", then I am sure you'll find "Coven" to be rather good. However, if you have seen the 1996 movie, then this 2020 movie just felt like a cup of lukewarm, watered down tea.

The special effects in the movie were adequate, although it felt somewhat comical at times from the way that the witches were tossing about their magical powers. But at least the CGI effects were proper and nice enough to look at.

One thing I don't understand is why director Margaret Malandruccolo felt that she had to show so many scenes with either scantily clad women or showing off naked breasts. It did very little to serve the movie in a manner to take it serious. If the director had opted for another approach, it would have felt more like a proper movie, instead of a pseudo-sleazy late teenage movie project.

I managed to sit through the entire movie, but I weren't overly entertained. Sure, the movie was watchable for what it was, but you shouldn't get your hopes up for this movie.

My rating of "Coven" lands on a less than mediocre four out of ten stars.
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2/10
Ridiculous and boring lingerie-show.
johannes2000-126 August 2021
After some 20 dreary minutes I could't help pushing the FF-button, to see if somewhere along the line there would pop up something remotely interesting (let alone scary), but it turned out as still more of the same silly, uneventful rip-off of any other B-movie that concerns young college girls doing witchcraft. Ridiculous story, bad dialogues, cringing acting, hopeless lighting, sound and special effects: everything oozed amateurism and low (if any) budget.

Because of the lack of a decent plot or script, the director thought of bringing in as much skin as possible, so he made his actresses do their witching in an endless variation of cheap looking lingerie, which turned out anything but sexy or titillating, just preposterous.

Don't let the brazenly misleading synopsis fool you: pass this one, it's a waste of time.
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1/10
Did they really try to rip off craft????
kristycav17 July 2020
Come on.... this was such a blatant attempt at ripping off the craft ... you guys didn't try very hard. It was hilariously awful!
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1/10
You won't lose anything if you don't watch this movie.
anastasiyyaf21 July 2020
Complete disappointment. The acting is terrible, only the script is worse than it. After watching it, I had only one question: how can such a thing be filmed in our time?
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1/10
Everything Done Wrong
kevindoyledk16 November 2020
From choice of filter, cameras, angles and editing, to the acting, setting and story. It's so bad that my cringe reaction was delayed out of pure disbelief.
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2/10
Guilty of excess cattiness
selfdestructo29 March 2022
Ok, this is one of those teeny-bopper horror movies where everyone is pretty (including the guys). Wait, there is one dumb sexist hillbilly who the witches have to put in his place. Big surprise. Coven doesn't even pretend to be a ripoff of another famous young girl coven movie, it says so right on the cover!

Ok, you've got you're two catty lesbian witches that are always threatening to kiss, but never do, there's the real goofy witch, the peacenik witch, and the "new" witch who just wants to see her mother again. An accidental(?) sacrifice, a newfound "key" witch, whose most prevalent power seems to be the opening and closing of doors, and several various ceremonies later, the girls manage to summon the spirit of Ashura, who is supposed to bring great power to the coven. Only she just wants to kill everyone else, and funnily enough, make catty remarks. How old was this witch?

As you can see, not much of a story here. Could not for the life of me figure out why the non-possessed catty lesbian witch was arrested at the end. For being a bystander? For getting hit in the face with a lug nut wrench? For a bad attitude? What could they charge her with? They're going to explain a satanic ritual, an unholy battle, and a possession... to the police? Yeah, book this chick! Made zero sense.
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5/10
Undo the light and usher in the dark
nogodnomasters6 August 2020
Warning: Spoilers
This film was styled and copied wholesale from the superior "The Craft." Ronnie (Jennifer Cipolla ) takes the role of Fairuza Balk. Four college girl witches are in search of a fifth to form a coven and raise the soul of Ashura who was bound/killed 200 years ago.

If you miss "The Craft" this one might whet your appetite. It could have been better and some scenes that lasted too long in order to fill in the history. The scriptwriter knows very little about the topic and pieces together words. There is no autumn solstice. It is an equinox. Clearly no one on the set knew the difference either, but solstice sounds better. And yes it is common for meteor showers to occur on the same day every year as the earth passes through the same area of space annually. Lunar eclipses do not happen in the same location in even 200-year cycles. They run in a saros of 18 years 11 days 8 hours. Girls were cute which means we can overlook some acting ability. They needed a famous "B" star for the shop keeper or someone from the original "Craft."

Guide: F-word. FF sex. Nudity (Miranda O'Hare, Jessica Louise Long )
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2/10
Not a horror movie
RandomTard30 November 2021
What this is, is a supernatural fantasy with softcore porn mixed in. And it sucks. I have no idea of to whom is this made for? Teenage boys in the 90's before internet? Obviously this is a rip off of an another supernatural fantasy movie made for teen boys way back and way better. There is no reason for anybody to watch this horrible movie. It is very bad and would of been bad even in the early 90's when it at least would of filled some purpose for the teen boys.

Sounds are bad, acting is bad, special effects are bad, casting is bad (the teachers seem younger then the students) and the story is bad.
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1/10
Major Turn off!👎🏿
naomicoffie16 September 2021
The acting was sooww bad 😭💀, this was just a cheap rip off from the original Craft , you tried it but naw man failed like a mf seriously this was a shame! Just nope.
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8/10
Entertaining.....
bumbray995 August 2020
All I wanted to see was a good "coven movie" that's all I'm asking for.... Was this movie the greatest out there "NO" but was this movie entertaining "YES"...Case Close!
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6/10
Rip off of the craft?
jgkelley-4879724 September 2020
What does the craft have a monopoly on a movie bout girl witches? Oh brother, gimme a break, gimme a break, break me off a piece the whining little comment bar. We are 100yrs into movies being made. I still want witch movies made, vampire movies made, werewolf, slasher and ghosts. I love all genres but am big horror guy. Sry but I'm not naive enough to think anything new coming out isn't gonna have a little bit of that been there seen that feel. Doesn't mean it's exactly the same & the actors are different and characters are different so even if they were exactly the same plots and storyline, guess what, different people would be experiencing it cuz it's new characters. And we smart enough to know that even if something seems similar, there's differences if you open your eyes!!!! So tired of peeps saying rip off, or well that was original hahaha. Get outta here with that expectation after millions of movies have literally been made. Seriously I swear I don't know what some people expect. I see all these ones handed out on horror movies I've seen and tho Peeps don't Have to agree with my rating there really are those movies you know werent bad but we're far from good. They were just meh and most peeps give it that -3-6 range but u always have to have clowns who wanna hand ones out like sat down & expected best picture & best actor & best score and best cinematography and best supporting Actress and all that & the movie will actually be a Low budget thriller lmao. Be more realistic on what to expect in regards to what your watching & rate accordingly. Baffles me that people rate movies without scaling them in terms of genre & time period. For instance I'll rate 1960s Horror movies Comparing them to each other and 1980s comedies with other movies of the time period and genre. So for a movie around this time period considering it's horror and not up for an Oscar This movie was just ok. If you like the show the secret circle or movies like the CRAFT, the covenant, little witches(lowEr budget But wasn't terrible & just meh) you'll enjoy this I'm sure.
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4/10
Power to the ...
kosmasp24 July 2022
Well to those who seek it? If you mess with dark forces, you are likely to get burned (no pun intended). As far as horror movies go, I would not call this original or really good in any way.

On the other hand, I do tend to rate better than most would. I guess I am a bit of a sucker for any movie that tries. Actors are doing their best - nudity and blood included. B-movie with everything that makes it one - bake it in the (c)oven.
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2/10
The Bargain Basement Craft +1
GregTheStopSign955 October 2023
This movie is so sapphic, yet cheap, that you'd think it was written by Sappho herself as interpreted by Roger Corman. Yes, the leads are hot, and they have *gasp* boobies - with those boobies being highlighted/displayed enough to keep Corman himself happy, but they couldn't frickin' act their way out of a wet paper bag.

That being said, it's also written really badly. Neither the story nor the dialogue work at all, and it probably wouldn't even pass muster in a CW show. Not even Riverdale. I'm only halfway through as I'm typing this and if it wasn't for the fact that I'm doing other stuff, I'd have turned this off about 30 minutes ago.

Still watching it and OMG this was an actual dialogue exchange: A: "She killed another girl and you still brought me to her?" (referencing a scene early in the movie where the antagonist literally stabbed someone to death) B: "I thought it was an accident!" What the actual...?

Welp, it just ended and yeah, it's as bad as I thought.

It only got 2 stars because of the boobies. If they weren't there, it'd be a zero. What can I say? I'm easily distracted!
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1/10
This wowed me for all the wrong reasons.
icocleric28 June 2022
This wowed me for all the wrong reasons. The acting was terrible, the script dull, and was kind of ripping off the craft in a lot of ways. I mean I AM into women, and the women wearing sexy underwear showing a lot of skin was not enough to make up for how terrible this film was.

There was terrible strobe effects for no good reason, and full on seizure inducing strobes too. It was awful. The lighting was awful too.
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1/10
Definitely a knockoff
Inabagitsune24 June 2023
This is a ridiculous attempt at so called witchcraft. Everything is just cringy and it will never make sense if you practice the actual craft itself. Conjuring and entity without cleansing and protection? Definitely would invite malicious entities. Script sounds like its for a fan fiction and the "magic" looks like its a combination of The Craft and Harry Potter. One scene said last entry but page was empty.

Definitely not worth it. Don't be fooled by the synopsis. Guard your eyes from this abomination. For all the real witches out there that practices, stay away from the cringe.

Blessed be.
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8/10
Nifty witchcraft horror item
Woodyanders25 August 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Five undergrad witches come together to perform a ritual in order to invoke the powers of the lethal demon Ashura. After Ashura takes possession of the coven's most evil member, it's up to two other coven members to stop her.

Directed with stylish assurance by Margaret Malandruccolo, with an enjoyable story that unfolds at a quick pace, a pleasing sincere tone, snappy coarse dialogue, neatly drawn characters, pretty good special effects considering the modest budget, and a bevy of scantly clad hot babes along with some tasty bare boobs, this movie overall rates as a good deal of straight-up Grade B fun. The scenes with the coven conjuring up demons and using their magic are done with considerable aplomb. Moreover, it's acted with zest by an enthusiastic cast: Lizzie Gordon as the sympathetic Sophie (Gordon also wrote the compact script), Jennifer Cipolla as ruthless ringleader Ronnie, Margot Major as the perky, but timid Beth, Adam Horner as nice guy James, Terri Ivens as sweet history professor Dr. Lynn, Jessica Louise Long as the libidinous Taylor, Miranda O'Hare as the snarky Jax, and Sofya Skya as the helpful Emily. A cool little flick.
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7/10
Solid and watchable witchcraft effort
kannibalcorpsegrinder22 July 2020
Still mourning the loss of her mother, a young girl at a small college town falls in with a group fo witches trying to perform a spell that will release a trapped witch's spirit but when she learns of the true nature of the spell tries to stop a deadly prophecy from coming true.

This was a solid and highly enjoyable genre effort. One of the better features here is the films' rather enjoyable take on the spells and practices that they go through for their rituals. The opening in the abandoned ruins with the fire pit, repeated mantras and slashing that goes on before the shocking sacrificial act not only provides a nice introduction to things but allows for some solid visual flair to go along with the storyline setups going forward. The later scenes of them not only conducting spells to further their own means but start to prepare for the upcoming rituals and spells shows off their powers and dedications quite well. With their abilities given center-stage at this point, it manages to become incredibly fun in the finale where the double-cross occurs and the true intentions are known. When the ceremony backfires on them and they realize they've unknowingly performed another resurrection spell than what they thought, the race to uncover everything and turn to several fun chases and battles between the two different sides of the faction as they're out creating tons of action and chaos. Given a fine professional gloss and some added sleaze here and there, the film has a lot to like about it. There are some flaws to be had with this one. One of the biggest issues is with the rather bizarre behaviors the coven goes through despite being supposed friends. On several occasions, they cast spells against each other as a form of motivation, constantly berate and put down ideas to further their goal if they're not performed fast enough and just don't seem to have any kind of friendship chemistry at all beyond all having the same powers and end-game. It very much feels like two separate cliques within the coven rather than all being a part of one unified group which doesn't sit well at all. The other problematic flaw is the weak and chaotic storyline that tends to focus on several intriguing ideas but manages to make for a jumbled setup regardless. The main culprit of this is the shorter running time not giving this one a chance to breathe as it crams in too many storylines that don't have time to get explored, such as the romance angle that is rushed and awkward as well as the continued visits to the occult bookstore for help when the entire thing could've been laid out at once instead of jumping around to various characters. Eliminating the useless bar-scenes and then naming better reasons for her to join them would've been just as good, giving this some elements to hold it back.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language, Violence and Nudity.
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