For the past few years, former cult director DeCoteau has built on a franchise with his 1313 movies which consists of one hour of good-looking guys parading around a huge California mansion in various states of underwear, taking long R-rated showers or writhing on sun-drenched king-size beds before getting killed/hypnotized/possessed by an evil spirit/witch/whatever. All his movies now look the same, with extremely slow pacing, barely a storyline and not one scare or trace of blood.
Although "3 Wicked Witches" is not officially part of the 1313 franchise, it borrows the same premise and elements (though it uses a different shower). What distinguishes it from its predecessors is a cast of entertaining ladies linking the scenes together (Lisa London steals the show) and actual blood during the murders ! Looks like DeCoteau was able to rent one of his former boss's Charles Band murderous dolls (and even part of the Puppetmaster soundtrack) to give this entry a genuine horror element.
Granted, it's still not scary. If anything, it inadvertently achieves what previous entries failed to do, which is titillate. The first victim actually slips his hand a few time under his whities in furtive close-ups before being dismissed, and another victim's basket is longingly filmed counter-plunging while he pumps his biceps. It's not much, and DeCoteau doesn't look totally comfortable with it, but it's still much more than what extremely tame previous entries like "Haunted Frat" or "Night of the Widow" have delivered.
Although "3 Wicked Witches" is not officially part of the 1313 franchise, it borrows the same premise and elements (though it uses a different shower). What distinguishes it from its predecessors is a cast of entertaining ladies linking the scenes together (Lisa London steals the show) and actual blood during the murders ! Looks like DeCoteau was able to rent one of his former boss's Charles Band murderous dolls (and even part of the Puppetmaster soundtrack) to give this entry a genuine horror element.
Granted, it's still not scary. If anything, it inadvertently achieves what previous entries failed to do, which is titillate. The first victim actually slips his hand a few time under his whities in furtive close-ups before being dismissed, and another victim's basket is longingly filmed counter-plunging while he pumps his biceps. It's not much, and DeCoteau doesn't look totally comfortable with it, but it's still much more than what extremely tame previous entries like "Haunted Frat" or "Night of the Widow" have delivered.
