Simon, King of the Witches isn't what you'd expect. It's not the cultist witchcraft of The Wicker Man or the nasty spell casting of Warlock, in fact you'd be hard pressed to even call it a horror movie as there's little genre elements within and, considering that it came out just after the hippie movement of the late 1960's, there's a heavy vibe of anti-authority running throughout, a heavy-handed pro-drug message wedged in there, and a whole lot of psychedelic in the finale.

"My name is Simon. I live in a storm drain." You're not likely to find a more attention getting introduction to your main character as our dishevelled title character (played by veteran actor Andrew Prine) emerges from his underground 'home' during a storm and starts to wander the streets. Upon being stopped by some patrolling policemen he finds himself in jail for the evening when they find a dagger and other occult accoutrements in his bag. While there he befriends the younger, twenty-something Turk (George Paulsin) who, upon learning Simon practises magic, offers to introduce him to Hercules (Gerald York), one of the more affluent people in town.

Simon soon finds himself doing what amounts to parlour tricks for the amusement of Hercules and his rich friends but upon being given a bad cheque by one of the rich attendees is challenged to place a curse on them. He promises, "he'll be dead in two days", and after our first glance at a magical red sphere (in one of the films few dated and dopey effects moments), sure enough he's dead when a plant pot magically falls from a ledge and hits him in the head.

From here the script by Robert Phippeny piles on a whole lot of claptrap dialogue and little else as Simon has a mild relationship with the District Attorney's daughter Linda (Brenda Scott), takes a side trip to meet a coven of supposed witches (which gives director Bruce Kessler the chance to stage a ritual involving goats, nudity, and sing-song chanting), and tries to draw a magnetic charge from within a human victim to allow the "divine effluvial condenser", which is basically a steel bar, to open a gateway to a new dimension where he'll become a powerful God. Then there's the finale, which tries to make a social statement while keeping everything vague enough to try and make you question if Simon really can perform magic or if he's just bat shit crazy and everything happens to be a coincidence.

Make no mistake; this is Prine's show. Even when he's forced to spew out as much blather as the script brings to the table he still brings a quiet strength to Simon and portrays his character's determination and beliefs well. Everyone else doesn't make much of an impression as Paulsin plays Turk with almost too much enthusiasm and Scott is bland at best as the film's love interest. It is worth noting that Linda's father is played by Norman Burton who any self-respecting B-movie fan might recognize playing numerous authority figure-types in such fare as The Gumball Rally, Bloodsport and Pray for Death.

In the end, Simon, King of the Witches, is a pretty messy affair. Not a whole heck of a lot really happens, Prine is forced to spit out way too many New Age-y dialogue passages, a scene involving a spell victim who's homosexual comes across as awkward, and Phippeny's script makes his protagonist go from being likeable (if a bit wacky) to rather annoying. There's just not much of a flow to the proceedings and if it wasn't for the fact Prine gives a commanding lead performance there'd be little here to talk about - if you don't count the bad 70's fashions on display or some brief nudity by Scott. (Chris Hartley, 10/13/08)

Directed By: Bruce Kessler.
Written By: Robert Phippeny.

Starring: Andrew Prine, Brenda Scott, George Paulsin, Norman Burton.

Picture Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen.

Picture Quality: Dark Sky continues their tradition of bringing fairly obscure movies to DVD with better-than-average transfers. There's some scattered specking throughout and some moments of mild grain but, considering this is over thirty-years-old, it looks pretty darn good.

Extras: While there isn't tons of material here, the bonus features included are worth checking out. There's a trailer and radio spot that are of interest to see how the film was advertised as more of a horror movie than it actually is as well as two interview featurettes sure to please fans of the film.

In, "Simon Says", star Prine gets to reflect on his acting career, tells us about his methods, and talks about his involvement in the film. There's some good stories here and it was a breezy seventeen-minutes. "Making White Magic" has director Kessler taking about his experience and how the movie came to be made. There's some decent information here and it's interesting to note that after making this Kessler went on to a hearty career helming episodes of various television shows and "movies of the week".

Visit Dark Sky for more info.