Necromancy, 1972 (A witchcraft film)
This one's been on my radar for a while now, and while I thought it was a bit slight, I did quite enjoy it.
The film opens with the main character, Lori, awakening from a childbirth gone wrong. As she pleads with the doctor to know where her baby is, he coldly tells her "You can have another baby" before having her sedated.
In the aftermath of the loss of her baby, Lori's husband, Frank, gets a new job in a town called Lillith and the couple makes plans to move there. Lori is immediately wary of the questions asked by the interviewers--are they athiests?--and their interest in her specifically. Things only get stranger once they arrive in the town. The entire citizenry lives under the thumb of a man named Mr. Cato (Orson Welles). Cato lost his own child years earlier, and he's basically converted the entire town to witchcraft in an effort to resurrect his boy.
As she navigates various strange social encounters, Lori grows more and more concerned about the role that she is expected to play in what is to come.
So I said that the film is very slight, and it is. There's very little compelling action, and much of the film is dominated by ominous, slightly vague conversations between Lori and the townspeople. The mystery of whether Frank is in on the whole thing or just a really, really bad husband hangs over the movie. There are also moments every now and then that do hint at something very sinister, such as when a woman breaks the town rule against having children (no one is allowed to have children until Cato's son is restored) and is punished via witchcraft.
While there wasn't much pulse-quickening action, I did think that the film did a good job of showing the mundane horror of living in a community where you are isolated and just slowly pressured into doing what others want. Lori has almost no agency (though at times I wanted to scream at her to just call a cab and leave the town and Frank in her dust), and the person she expects to be her ally, Frank, often belittles her or plays down her concerns. Considering the trauma of losing her child was so recent, I felt it was believable that Lori would not have the gumption to leave her husband and try to escape on her own.
The ending itself is somewhat powerful and has some interesting imagery. I did feel that the whole thing ended on a bit of a mixed note. There's an element of ambiguity (trying to stay vague here!) that I sort of liked and sort of found frustrating.
I'd give this one a tepid recommendation. It's on Amazon Prime.