The Witch (1952)

Very disappointing...

To me, this movie is perfection.

Expected more

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

I enjoyed this a lot. Not quite what I expected, less English Gothic, more Scandinavian menace. Rather creepy due to the rather unnerving but beguiling performance from Mirja Mane as the 'witch'. Naked or almost naked throughout (and this is 1952!) she completely dominates the screen and is only matched by those big skies above the sinister swamps. At first things seem a little stilted with characters moving almost as if in a silent movie and the dialogue takes some getting used to (although that may be the new translation) but once the naked bundle of Ms Mane is carried from her grave things really bubble. The women hate her and the men are totally beguiled or should I say bewitched! Much reference to the beast in man and all women being witches alluding as much to the then post war state of Finnish sensibilities as to any philosophical insight. Also much reference to dream and nightmare allowing for some measure of interpretation as we witness the men going crazy over the voluptuous seductress who will kiss and bite and disrobe at will and the women who get crazy at their men folk. A delight then, but not without a certain edge.

While excavating the bog on a baronial estate, workmen unearth the grave of a witch buried alive 300 years before. That night, a naked young woman is found unconscious in the grave and brought back to the baron's mansion where she proceeds to tear the village apart, inspiring unbridled lust in the men and hatred in the women...It's a morality tale to be sure (very much like Luis Buñuel's SUSANA in that respect) and the "Woman In The Window" twist ending is something we've all seen before countless times but in this case it reely works. The director makes the best of a low budget and some scenes are startling in their wintry beauty, making the nudity "chilling" to say the least.

Elsewhere in a review on IMDb I read that this film was based on a play - not at all to my surprise. There are loads of dialogues which make it hard to follow at times, because I don't speak Finnish and there was a lot of (subtitle) reading to do. But the dialogues aren't the most important thing here; they become chaotic at times, as much as the characters seem to be talking in circles (mostly horny talk plus arguments for and against science and old wives' tales). Then there's the use of the old 'it was all a dream'-trick in the last part, which only really works because the magical horror part can (finally) get going from there.But what's most attractive about this oldie horror, is of course 'Finnish Bööberellå': Mirja Mane, who plays the 'witch'. The full frontal nudity (well, no groin area up close) is refreshing to see in such an old horror; it is appropriate and quite tasteful. I'd never heard of her before, but she may well have become a horror icon in Finland, and with more luck, in the world, but according to IMDb she only did five films, and she died at the tragic age of forty-four after a short period of (unknown) illness.So all in all, 'Noita palaa elämään' is mostly a more than decent Finnish answer to many of the usual American and English old horror movies, but with Mirja Mane as a considerable extra.A small 8 out of 10.

I was 14 yrs in 1967 when I saw this first time on TV and the movie was just terrifying and I was really frightened. All I remember was the foggy swamp, impassioned music and horrified people talking about some awful witch who was buried there.Mirjami Mane was so powerful and crazy that she run every men to craziness. The critics didn't see her wild playfulness but thought that her acting was just helpless. In my mind she acts exactly like a girl who is not used to live attached to the present day but has been some kind of loner living somewhere for maybe hundreds of years.She is just so crazy and wild that the people don't understand her and men just fell into the snares of this unexplained witch. There are more and more evidences that she really is a witch who was buried to the swamp three hundred years ago.Also cinematography and art decorations are marvelous and they both received "Jussi" trophy (Finnish counterpart for Oscar).