Have you ever heard of “Spellbinder: A Devil’s Plan”? Probably not – and that’s a shame: the occult horror film directed by Janet Greek, shot in 1988, has a lot to offer. But There’s a reason the film has been largely forgotten in the decades since it was made…
In a parking lot, attorneys Jeff Mills (Timothy Daly) and Derek Clayton (Rick Rossovich) witness a young woman (Kelly Preston) being beaten by her boyfriend. They come to the stranger’s aid and cause the brutal Aldys (Anthony Crivello) to run away. Because the woman, who introduces herself as Miranda Reed, doesn’t know where to stay, Jeff offers to put her up in his apartment – where they become closer. But where does Miranda get her ability to learn crucial details from Jeff’s biography just by laying her hands on him and relieving him of his back pain?
Soon there are mounting signs that the woman Jeff has now fallen hopelessly in love with is a witch – and is being pursued by members of a dangerous satanic cult looking for his next human victim. When Miranda suddenly disappears and a creepy old woman appears in his office to give him a “final warning,” Jeff is faced with several questions: What’s behind the cult? Where’s Miranda? And can he even trust her?
Scientology is said to have tried to make the film disappear
It is probably not entirely without reason that Greek in Hollywood creates a parallel world, shrouded in myth, in which witches and Satanists spin their dark web and infiltrate the institutions: ‘Spellbinder’ works as both a noir-like paranoia thriller and a supernatural horror film, although it always… again produces effective horror images and stunning effects – for example when Jeff’s house is surrounded at night by creepy figures who stare motionlessly through the windows before pressing the sudden elastic band with their hands on the front of the house. In its uncompromising nature, the final act is ultimately reminiscent of the genre classic ‘The Wicker Man’.
But why isn’t “Spellbinder” itself a cult film? According to numerous consistent reports, the so-called Church of Scientology has attempted to withdraw all copies of the film from circulation. The reason: lead actress Kelly Preston was a member of the cult (just like her husband John Travolta) – who was apparently bothered by her nude scenes and the fact that the actress, who died in 2020, was featured in the film as a member of a witch cult. Only US distributor Kino Lorber re-excavated the film and released it on Blu-ray in 2016 (now out of print). It is currently available as a Spanish import disc:
Janet Greek, who previously directed the equally forgotten rape and revenge film Time of Vengeance (1985), has unfortunately not made a new film since. She sat alone in the director’s chair for individual episodes of the TV series “Crusade” and “Babylon 5”.