Necromancy Movie Review

Trailer here.

Necromancy is a 1972 horror movie directed by Bert I. Gordon and starring Pamela Franklin, Michael Ontkean, Orson Welles and Lee Purcell.

The movie begins with a woman who wakes up in hospital. She is looking for her baby. The woman is called Lori(Franklin), and she is at home now. It turns out that her baby was stillborn. She is married to Frank(Ontkean). He has a new job in a place called Lilith, working in advertising. They move there. His new boss is called Mr. Cato(Welles). He is a bit of an oddball. Lori isn't that happy to be moving to Lilith. They get into a car accident and the other car bursts into flames. The cops come and Lori takes a doll from the scene.  Their car breaks down and Frank has to walk into town to get gas. Lori sees a funeral but when she looks again, it has disappeared. Frank gets the gas and they go to Lilith. They go to Mr. Cato's house for dinner. He is into the occult. Lori is spooked by him.  He gives her a book to read. It is about witchcraft. 

Lori wants to leave Lillith, but Frank doesn't. A woman called Priscilla(Purcell) tells Lori that Cato owns the town and all of the people in it. Lori is disappointed when Frank says that they have one week left before they can leave. She starts to have visions of devil worship and weird things happening. She sees a young boy. She tells the doctor, Jay(Harvey Jason) all about it, but he doesn't seem to believe her. She sees the young boy again and she asks Priscilla about it.  Priscilla doesn't know what she is talking about. Lori goes to visit Cato and informs him that she doesn't have any interest in witchcraft. He tells her that he is into necromancy. He wants to bring his son back from the dead. He knows that she has power and he wants it. Jay asks her and Frank to become members of their group. They practice witchcraft. Lori is not happy and she has horrific visions. 

She looks for Priscilla and they talk but Priscilla and Jay tell her that she won't be able to leave town. Frank disappears, making everything even stranger. Lori burns the doll that she found at the car crash site. She sees herself becoming a witch. Priscilla calls her to meet and says that she will help her leave. She tells her that Frank is a witch. When Lori arrives at Priscilla's, she finds her dead. The weirdness continues. The boy appears once again and he takes her to a field where she sees Cato and his cronies at his son's grave. They are trying to bring him back to life. She gets shoved into the coffin instead. It's another dream. She wakes up at home with Frank. The events of the movie start to replay from the start. Lori is scared and she screams as she realises that everything that happened in Lillith will happen in the future and what she experienced was a premonition.

This was a weird, jumbled up movie. The ending was odd. It was a strange film , to be honest. That doesn't make it a bad film, but it wasn't thrilling, by any means. The cast were decent. It was fun to see Michael Ontkean in this. I will always think of him as Sheriff Truman! Orson Welles somehow ended up in this which strikes me as odd. He must have needed the money, I suppose. Anyway, this was a strange offering, but I think that it will satisfy fans of occult movies. It kept me watching, so I will give it a 5/10.