Witchcraft (Evil Encounters) (1988)

Interesting facts

• Filmed in: Massachusetts

Witchery is a 1989 Italian horror film directed by Fabrizio Laurenti and starring David Hasselhoff, Catherine Hickland, Hildegard Knef, Linda Blair, and Annie Ross.

Production

The financial success of Ghosthouse (1988), which was titled La casa 3 – Ghosthouse in Italy, led to producer Aristide Massaccesi and distributor Achille Manzotti to develop an in-name only sequel. The director of the initial film, Umberto Lenzi, suggested a story for a sequel which he described as being similar to Psycho (1960), but felt that the producers had no interest in it.

Lattanzi urged producer Massaccessi to hire actress Bette Davis for the role of the witch in the film, but later cast Hildegard Knef in the role. Other cast members include David Hasselhoff, who was popular in Italy due to his series Knight Rider and, under Lattanzi's suggestion, Leslie Cumming, who had previously been in Killing Birds (1988).

Cozzi was in turn replaced with Fabrizio Laurenti, who had previously debuted with his 30-minute vampire film titled The Immigrant (1986). Massaccesi said he liked The Immigrant enormously, but noticed on set that Laurenti had difficulties working with an international cast, including Blair and Hasselhoff. Massaccesi agreed to finance Laurenti's next film, despite feeling the director "still [had] a long way to go".

Filming for Witchery commenced on March 16, 1988, in Scituate and Cohasset, Massachusetts. The film's score by Carlo Maria Cordio was taken from Killing Birds and was used again later in La Casa 5 (1990).

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