What "The Love Witch" Teaches Us About Allure

*Spoilers ahead for those who haven't seen it :)

Have I written about Anna Biller’s 2016 technicolor-inspired, 35 millimeter masterpiece The Love Witch yet? I don’t feel like combing through my past articles or my other writings to verify this fact, but I must have, with how much this movie is permanently etched into my subconscious. 

This film follows the coquettishly sinister, divinely feminine Elaine, a young witch who became fully introduced into the magical arts on the heels of her husband’s untimely death (which she is heavily implied to be the cause of). After his demise, she moves out west to a small town surrounded by the California Redwoods, where she meets the lovely yet naive Trish, who is…everything Elaine is not. Elaine saunters onto the scene wearing a cropped black trench coat, a red minidress, and sky high black leather boots that a dominatrix would salivate over. Trish wears a pastel pink vest over a white blouse cardigan, with her hair coiffed in a traditional 1960s housewife swoop. She is sweet, accommodating, and kind, yet Elaine’s magnetism – masterfully depicted by the siren-eque Samantha Robinson – hooks the viewer from the very first moment that we meet her eyes. Everyone in the movie is captivated and enthralled, especially the men of the town (including a studly cop, a libertine arts professor, and Richard – Trish’s hapless, quietly desperate and resentful husband). 

I first watched this movie when I was, I believe, 18 or 19. At my current age of 23, I am just as enraptured by Elaine and this entire film as I was when I was a fresh adult still within the realm of teenhood. I have always been interested in the aspect of the “divine feminine” before I even knew such terminology, and have always been inspired by and attracted to the essence of a woman who knows exactly who and what she is. Elaine Parks is one of those women, and I can confidently say I learned more from her about the art of allure, the morally gray principle of desirability, and the precarious, perpetually temporary possession of male validation. She used these ideas and the witchy, Wise Woman gift of sensuality and knowledge about men to wield power over those around her in a way that was only really visible to those who can see beyond the veil. 

Upon one of my first watches, I took copious notes about the little nuggets of wisdom I received from this incredible film and its reverent protagonist. Those notes are long gone (my collection of notebooks is endless, and has been for as long as I can remember), but I’ll try to synthesize here the things I remember highlighting and focusing on as some of the core messages from this movie on what it means to contain a true sense of allure.