Director – Brewce Longo (Pumpkinman Lives, A Corpse for Christmas)
Starring – Morrigan Thompson-Milam (Bl0od and Breakfast, Crackcoon), Zoe Angeli (LoveDump, Flesh Eater X), and Josh Shafer (Busted Babies, Slaughter Tales)
Release Date – 2024
Rating – 3/5
I’ve been reviewing indie horror for over ten years and during that time I’ve reviewed everything from living placenta, killer condoms, gay Jesus, and even a haunted vibrator. Horror is filled with endless possibilities especially when genre fans get behind the camera. I love slashers, zombies, werewolves, and witches. The later two don’t get the love the other two sub-genre get.
A few weeks back I found a horror flick starring Morrigan Thompson-Milam. Those of you that read my reviews know that I’m a huge fan of hers so when I saw that she was in Coven of the Black Cube I had to grab it. The witch sub-genre doesn’t get the love it truly deserves and seeing a witch flick with a bit of an unusual story made me extremely excited to see it.
**Spoiler Alert** The film follows a young woman, named Vi (Milam) who finds herself on the shit end of a bad relationship. She finds herself in a shop owned by a group of witches who sell potions, incantations, and any other word you can use to associate magic to witches. She finds a potion she uses to make her former lover fall in love with her but it backfires. It kills her ex-girlfriend but not all hope is lost. The gorgeous witch at the shop has her eye on her and the two start dating. What Vi doesn’t know, is that her new lover and her coven secretly help women in abusive relationships move their abusers from the equation. As the two lovers get to know each other, bodies start to pile up. **Spoiler Alert**
Coven of the Black Cube is a film that a lot of genre fans will immediately dismiss. It’s a film that tries to capture the VHS look which a lot of horror fans will dislike. The modern era of films getting polished, remastered, and restored to be released on formats that provide the best possible picture quality available has many of us forgetting about the quality of films we used to watch growing up. I don’t mind the grainy, gritty looks like this one and others like it but there was a few scenes that needed a bit more light.
The acting in this one is a bit uneven but not what I would call bad. The cast is really into their roles and you can tell it was a fun project by their character’s interactions on camera. With that being said, experience does vary from person to person resulting in a few scenes where the cast felt a little stiff.
The story for this one doesn’t over stay it’s welcome and gives us just enough to hold our attention. We have beautiful women as witches, beautiful women that are not witches, unique deaths, and solid enough pacing. With that being said, the story we do have is stretched a bit thin. The movie could have about 10 to 15 minutes trimmed from it. Some of the scenes are a bit bloated and it does pull the pacing down some. The movie is fine as is but this would help the story move along much better.
Finally, the film has some deaths with a bit of blood and some limited practical effects. The film did the best with the resources they had but don’t expect a film with gore that will stick with you for days after watching it. Overall, Coven of the Black Cube is a solid no budget witch flick that surprised me. A lot of genre fans will not appreciate the film as it is but the select few that still live in the VHS age will enjoy the aesthetics. Check it out.
