Season of the Witch DVD Details

October 18th is going to be a busy day at the DVD retailer.  It seems that all I have done over the last few days is report on releases on that date.  Today we have the final disc specs for George A. Romero’s Season of the Witch.  This disc is actually a double feature disc as we will also get the elusive film There’s Always Vanilla.  Here is the official line from Anchor Bay:

Joan Mitchell is a desperate housewife – but desperate enough to turn to witchcraft? IDT Entertainment’s Anchor Bay Entertainment, revered for its dedication in bringing classic and contemporary horror films to DVD, will release Season Of The Witch, an early masterpiece from legendary horror filmmaker George A. Romero (Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead and the latest installment in the Zombie Saga, Land Of The Dead) on October 18, 2005. Available at an SRP of $19.98, Season of The Witch is newly restored from the best available film materials and at 104 minutes running time, represents the longest, most complete version available to date. In addition, the DVD also contains a special bonus feature, Romero’s 1971 psychological study There’s Always Vanilla, appearing for the first time on DVD and up until recently considered Romero’s "lost" film.

Also known as Hungry Wives and Jack’s Wife, Season Of The Witch was written and directed by George Romero and released in 1973. Joan Mitchell (Jan White) is an unhappy housewife pushing 40, who has an uncommunicative husband (Bill Thunhurst) and a distant 19-year-old daughter (Joedda McClain). Frustrated at her current situation, Joan seeks solace in witchcraft after visiting a local tarot reader. Soon, Joan believes herself to have become a real witch, withdrawing into a fantasy world until the line between fantasy and reality becomes dangerously blurred. In telling the story of bored housewives and suffocating lives, Season Of The Witch delivered what film fans the world over would come to expect from any horror film by George A. Romero, combining fear and terror with social commentary (in Witch, he targets the feminism movement of the 1970s).

There’s Always Vanilla, the film George Romero made right after the 1968 zombie classic Night Of The Living Dead, tells the very un-supernatural, but just as insightful, story of Chris Bradley (Ray Laine), a Vietnam veteran who has returned home to Pittsburgh and becomes involved with Lynn (Judith Streiner), an older woman who starts supporting Chris financially and emotionally. When a series of unforeseen events challenge Chris and Lynn’s foundation for their relationship, each must confront their very real "demons" – borne out of the human heart, not from the grave.

For this latest addition to its extensive library of horror DVDs, Anchor Bay Entertainment has stirred up a cauldron of value-added extras for each film:

Season of the Witch

  • Widescreen Presentation
  • Theatrical Trailers
  • Poster And Still Gallery
  • Season of the Witch: The Secret Life of Jack’s Wife
  • The Directors: George Romero – a 60 minute documentary examining Romero’s career, including interviews with cast and crew member
  • Season of the Witch Trailer
  • Hungry Wives Trailer
  • Hungry Wives Credit Sequence
  • Jack’s Wife Credit Sequence
  • George Romero Biography

There’s Always Vanilla

  • Theatrical Trailer
  • Digging Up The Dead: The "Lost" Films of George A. Romero
  • George Romero Biography