Witch Hunt (1999) Jacqueline Bisset, Cameron Daddo, Jerome Ehlers, Suzi Dougherty Movie Review

Witch Hunt (1999)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Jacqueline Bisset in Witch Hunt (1999)

Missing in Asutralia

When eight year old Hannah (Nikki Risteski) goes missing the police are called in to investigate and co-ordinate the search. What the detectives find is an unusual situation as Hannah's mother dies of heart failure and since then Hannah's maternal grandmother Barbara Thomas (Jacqueline Bisset) has been seeking custody of her granddaughter. But Hannah's father David (Cameron Daddo) not only claims that Barbara is a witch but that she is involved in his daughter's disappearance. As the detectives investigate further with David feeling like the main suspect due to others saying he is violent they listen to his side of events and how Barbara dominated his wife.

"Witch Hunt" is one of these movies whilst based on actual events is fictionalised and as such I feel like I need to be respectful of those involved in the true story from which this heralds. Yet at the same time I have to be honest as a movie reviewer and movie lover, as such I have to say that despite the unusual story "Witch Hunt" fails to be enthralling and often ends up pretty tedious.

The thing about "Witch Hunt" is that much of the movie focuses on David claiming that Barbara is a witch and that she dominated her daughter's life as such we have flashbacks of this going on. Whilst all this is going on we have the police investigating and whilst Barbara is being awfully nice she claims David is twisted. There is simply something lacking and it feels like all those involved were just going through the motions. In fact at times it feels like the movie is reliant on the star name of Jacqueline Bisset who whilst turning in a bitchy performance is forgettable as everything else in this movie.

What this all boils down to is that "Witch Hunt" whilst telling the story of a child's disappearance, the custody battle which preceded it as well as the grandmother being into the occult it is a pretty dull movie and fails to really make the story come to life in a gripping manner.


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