Spellbinder (1988) from Johnny Web (Uncle Scoopy; Greg Wroblewski)

Spellbinder is not a good movie, but it actually has an interesting and twisty plot with some surprises. Because of that, Spellbinder is one of those films where one must stop short of giving too much detail, because the surprise twists are the only real pleasures in what is otherwise a clumsily directed movie. In fact, even the revelation of the twists is clumsy. Along the way, it seems to be an episode of a TV show. In my opinion, the script might have produced an interesting guilty pleasure film with some macabre imagination and a better sense of pacing and suspense. Somebody with the right sensibility, like Roman Polanski for example, might have turned this script into a terrific little film. As it is, it is just too tame to be anything but a light watch if you're grading papers or something. It isn't gory or suspenseful, and it gives off no creepy supernatural vibe at all.

By the way, the script was written by Tracy Tormé, whose father was ol' Mel, the Velvet Fog himself. At about the same time he wrote Spellbinder, Tracy also wrote several episodes of Star Trek: TNG, and he has continued to script thoughtful sci-fi to this day, as a writer on Odyssey 5 and other projects.

The basic premise of Spellbinder is that a young lawyer saves a beautiful woman from a coven of witches by rescuing her from a spooky dude in a parking lot. He lets her take refuge in his house, based on the general concept that if the head warlock actually had any power, he could have taken the girl back right there in the parking lot. Not only did he have his alleged magick, but he had a knife as well, while the lawyer had nothing. So what's the threat?

It seems that the lawyer underestimated the witches. I suppose the Scary Head Witch dude was just having an off day in that first encounter. Even witches slump. At any rate, the witches eventually figure out what's going on, and they want their hot babe back, so they embark upon a systematic campaign to harass the lawyer. As part of their fiendish plan, the witches give him the ol' razzberry on his answering machine. As if that weren't terrifying enough, the coven places a curse on his favorite basketball team, the L.A. Clippers, so that they embark on several losing seasons. 

If I tell you much more, I'll spoil completely what little value the lightweight film has. Suffice it to say that the Clippers do not win the NBA finals.