Here I am with another Wormwood film review, and the movie under my eye this time is a new Blu-Ray edition of "WitchTrap." It's a movie that was originally released in 1989. 

The story centers around a mansion haunted by a warlock who used to own the place. A team is assembled to try to rid the home of the ghost using what is essentially a ghost trap. The title "WitchTrap" references that trap, most likely in a nod to director (and in this case producer) Kevin Tenney who had previously done the film "WitchBoard."

The movie plays a lot like a noir detective story, with James W. Quinn playing Tony Vincente as the typical snarky, hard-boiled detective. The story has quite a few cool twists and turns. There are many layers of things happening and a lot of surprises. It also has plenty of crime adventure aspects amidst the horror. In fact, the team is basically made up of two groups of people, each focused on one side of the equation. 

This was done on a very low budget, and it shows, but they make very good use of what money they had. In other words, while the effects aren't state of the art, even for the time, they work pretty well. 

You might notice that the sound feels just a little odd, and some of the acting, especially Judy Tatum's, feels flat. There is a reason for that. Once they got back from location, it was discovered that the audio had been recorded too low, so when they increased the volume there was hissing and buzzing that became audible. That meant that they had to re-record all the audio again, sound effects, actor's lines, everything. The whole audio track had to be scrapped and redone. So, it just feels a little off, but it's not something that really gets in the way of enjoying the story, at least for me. 

I should mention that Linnea Quigley is in this film. I've always been a big fan of hers, and she gives one of the best performances of the film. There is also a great interview section with her as one of the bonus features. (When she shows up, I rarely pay attention to the acting ability—Dirty Ol’ Mality)

All in all, this is a good horror movie. It's inventive and clever, but not without its blemishes, largely caused by the low budget and audio-redo. The version here has a few scenes that were cut from the theatrical release in order to get the movie an R-rating. In fact, those scenes were never seen until this version was scanned from the original 35 mm print. It should be noted that the title screen of the film shows it as "The Presence," as that was apparently an earlier title, owing, I think, to the fact that this is a version from the original unedited print. 

The extras are great - that Linnea Quigley interview being one of the best parts, and an interview with Kevin Tenney another. This also includes a cool mini-poster as a physical bonus feature. I found this movie to be captivating. It had plenty of humor, which was good because it was very dark. For some reason it reminded me just a little of John Carpenter's "Prince of Darkness." Maybe it was the old house and the assembly of a team to investigate. Beyond that, this doesn't share much with that movie.