Witchcraft XII: In the Lair of the Serpent (2004)

As Good As It Gets

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

IN THE LAIR OF THE SERPENT is the twelfth in the never-ending series of WITCHCRAFT movies. Once again this is a slice of shot-on-video nonsense taking place entirely at night. There's no plot to speak of, just endless underwear scenes and moments of couples making out. The plot, about devilish women, is led by the most wooden actor ever, and only builds to the occasional laughable CGI effect and monster. It's also dragged out to the nth degree.

Witchcraft XII: In the Lair of the Serpent (2002) * 1/2 (out of 4) The series no one wants to end reaches the twelfth entry as a man is murdered by a hooker who just isn't your typical hooker. No, she's working for the devil and sure enough the victim just happened to be friends with the one and only Will Spanner (Chip James) who teams up with a detective to try and figure out what's going on. WITCHCRAFT XII will probably only be viewed by those crazy enough to work their way through the entire series but I will at least give writer-director Brad Sykes some credit for at least trying to do some interesting things here. I thought the story itself, while unoriginal, was at least mildly interesting and I also thought we got some campy death scenes that actually works in a low-budget way. We also got plenty of nudity/sex scenes and these here really reach the point to where they're not erotic but instead just boring and obviously meant to expand the running time (did people really need these films running 90-minutes?). Another problem is something only "fans" of the series will notice but it's clear Mr. Sykes didn't watch earlier films because Will's home location is mixed up here and the two detectives that have been a major part of the series are missing here and we're introduced to a new one. With that said, WITCHCRAFT XII features some decent performances but there's still no question that it's a poor movie that's appeal is going to be very limited.

A guy and his sister go to a club where girls dance in bikinis. The guy is lured away by some ugly slut, they go back to her place and have sex, then a guy in a Darth Maul Halloween mask kills him. The sister teams up with some guy who used to be the victim's best friend and they investigate the murder. For no reason at all, the police are very against this guy helping with the investigation, even though he's the only one finding any clues. The best friend and the sister eventually get together for some sex as well. The sister is the only thing that's really any good about this thing - she's quite good looking and wears a variety of sexy outfits. She also gets nude on several occasions.Eventually they track the other sluts from the nightclub back to their lair, where they're apparently involved in some sort of witches coven.Like I say, the sister is the only reason anyone would keep watching this thing past the 15 minute mark. The movie is fairly amateurish overall, though the acting isn't too terribly bad. It's quite tolerable. The "plot" is fairly laughable, but this is one of those cheesy movies that really just exist to show off some female flesh. It succeeds in that respect.

Witchcraft 12, by far, is the best in the series. The acting is a whole lot better, the CGI effects fantastic, and the sex scenes were better choreographed. Also, I liked the woman that was in this movie. Janet Tracy Keijser. I have alot of her movies. 5 I think. And I've always found her to be the highlight. The thing about her is. She can really act. Unlike a lot of actresses in the b-movie industry these days. I give the movie a 9. I was able to get through this one in just one viewing. That shows right there how much work they put into this.