Simon, King of the Witches (1971)

Director: Bruce Kessler

Starring: Andrew Prine

More info: IMDb

Tagline: The Evil Spirit Must Choose Evil!

Plot: Warlock Simon Sinestrari (Prine) is determined to become a god. In jail for vagrancy, he meets a hustler, Turk (George Paulsin), who introduces Simon to his circle of hipster friends. Challenged by the nonbelievers, Simon proves the lethal potency of his powers.

My rating: 5/10

Will I watch it again? Nope.

#6 of 31 Days of Horror 2010.

#69 on Dusk to Dawn Drive-In Trash-o-Rama Show Vol. 1 (part of the TRAILER TRASH PROJECT)

Man, two missed opportunities in one night. First FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN (1943) and now this. The first hour is great and then there's the "Wait! Where did the fun go?" of the last 40. It's almost like there were two stories with one common character that were tacked onto each other.


Prine's performance as Simon takes a little getting used to. It's laughable at first because he's skirting that line of being serious or campy but he never waivers and that's the best thing about the movie. He's a real gas to watch. His sidekick, Turk, acts about as gay as can be but he's got a thing for the ladies. His outfits are the second best thing in the film.


On a challenge, Simon puts a curse on a man who dies within two days. Cool. He beds the daughter of the local police commissioner in what has to be the strangest love scene put to celluloid. It's priceless. And then he's got this mirror which requires a glowing rod of sorts in which to enter another dimension or something.

"Don't touch me. I'm a religious object."

All of this stuff is trippy but about halfway through the story changes direction involving some local dope heads wanting a curse on the D.A. (or commissioner or something) because he's cracking down on drug dealers. So it goes from stupid and fun to just plain stupid. Count me out. At an hour and forty minutes long, it's forty too much.