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Simon, King of the Witches

By Buzz McClain -- Video Business, 5/26/2008

DARK SKY/MPI
Street: June 24
Prebook: now
> After 37 years, a trippy cult favorite finds its way to the home market.

Infused with Flower Power, 1971’s Simon, King of the Witches is a trippy slice of low-budget psychedelia and magik. It’s more low-key humor than all-out horror, although there are kitschy horror elements, as the sewer-dwelling Simon, played with wry knowing by career character actor Andrew Prine, is called on to perform ceremonies for a spaced-out community of curious, sex-obsessed thrill-seekers. Andy Warhol favorite Ultra Violet makes an appearance as a spell-chanting witch. It turns out, as you learn from the Prine interview included here, that writer Robert Phippeny was a practicing warlock, the script is autobiographical and some of the nude extras really were witches.

Shelf Talk: Out of print on VHS (from Unicorn Home Video) for years, Simon’s main selling point is its availability. Dark Sky’s presentation is impressive, with a glossy new 16x9 transfer from rare vault elements and two interviews with Prine and director Bruce Kessler. MPI will promote the title with ad buys catering to the horror crowd—Rue Morgue and Fangoria—in print and online.

Horror, color, R (nudity, language, sexual situations, violence, gore), 99 min., DVD $14.98
Extras: making-of featurettes
Director: Bruce Kessler
First Run: L, April 1971, <$1 mil.
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