Witch Hunt has a clever idea but very low ambitions… or possibly not enough money to carry its ambitions. Not sure which, but what I do know is that it never really lands its ideas and then it mixes in other, unrelated horror elements until we get a wash.

Witch Hunt posits a modern America where witchcraft is real and the 11th amendment outlaws it. A family led by Elizabeth Mitchell has a house near the Mexico border where they smuggle witches who are on the run. When a pair of sister witches show up, a creepy a witch hunter FBI (FWI) agent is on the hunt. Plus ghosts? Or something?

The biggest problem with the movie is its unrealized potential. It’s a great idea and a clear political metaphor but the movie does very little with it. And the most interesting thing it does with it (IMO) isn’t at all the focus of the movie. The film wants to be a metaphor about immigration but it also has scenes where teen girls are subjected to prick tests. As in the medieval custom of hunting witches by measuring moles and skin imperfections and poking them with needles. That’s a better metaphor than the ham-handed border story.

Another and more practical bigger problem with this movie is that it feels far more like a ghost or haunted house story than anything else. Any scares in it seem to come more from a vague and nebulous force within the house… something that isn’t explained well (I mean, are ghost hauntings normal in this universe? I have no idea).

AND there’s the ending. It’s a pretty BS ending – and heavy handed AND steels from a much better movie about female oppression. It’s foolishly audacious and only lends focus to how much lesser a movie this is. It’s unearned, unwanted, and you should throw popcorn at the screen when the credits roll.

I almost gave this a slightly better review for ambition until that ending. Seriously… what a misstep. That plus the unfocused ghost story and, for the most part, the fumbling of a good premise make this overall a pretty bad movie. It isn’t without merits and I’d love to see someone else take a crack at this idea. Maybe someone with more creativity or budget.

Score: 69