Does a pair of stories become enough to make a movie an anthology? If so, 2021’s Two Witches provides an anthology that follows the implications of its title.

In the first story, pregnant Sarah (Belle Adams) feels an old lady (Marina Parodi) gives her the “evil eye” while out for dinner with husband Simon (Ian Michaels). This leads her to feel more and more out of sorts, with increasingly bizarre ramifications.

For the second narrative, grad school student Rachel (Kristina Klebe) takes in Masha (Rebekah Kennedy) as a new roommate. After Masha brings home a sexual conquest (Jacob DeMonte-Finn), violence and other problems ensue.

Given how often I complain that so many horror movies stretch their thin stories across too much running time, I should embrace anthologies more than I do. I guess I see too many that simply lack much more than quick scares without much else behind them.

Since Witches consists of only two stories, it feels like a project that should hit a sweet spot. The movie gives its tales enough room to really develop but it keeps them brief enough that they don’t wear out their welcome.

In theory, at least. As depicted in Witches, the theory fails to become reality.

Of the two, Sarah’s story becomes the weaker one. It mostly feels like a tedious experience occasionally punctuated with overdone jolts.

Sarah’s part simply lacks much substance. The characters muse about potential problems but little actually occurs, and the tale lacks tension despite those sporadic jump scares.

The “Masha” sequence fares a bit better, but it veers too far in the opposite direction. Whereas the “Sarah” segment plods, “Masha” goes far the gusto right off the bat.

This doesn’t really work either, as the lack of exposition means we don’t feel the stakes when the action launches. The absence of a build undercuts the potential terror.

From there the story feels more focused than its predecessor, but “Masha” fails to become substantially more involving. Like “Sarah”, “Masha” just comes across as a collection of scares more than a coherent narrative.

It doesn’t help that Masha herself seems unhinged from the start. The sequence mixes “psycho roommate” themes with a female predator vibe to seem like influences without much originality.

Eventually Witches connects the “Masha” and “Sarah” elements, but it does so in a contrived and unconvincing manner. It feels clever-clever and seems unnecessary, as there’s no compelling reason to make the segments intertwined.

It doesn’t help that the various sequences run too long. Even with their relatively brief running times, they go on for extended periods that rob them of potential drama.

The unneeded “Epilogue” – which acts as sequel bait more than anything else – becomes the nadir of this tendency. Despite a running time under 100 minutes, I eventually said “enough already” and wondered if the film would ever conclude.

Which it did, but it wore out its welcome well before it got to that point. Some aspects of Two Witches display potential, but the final product lacks engagement or thrills.

Footnote: a tag scene appears during the end credits. It’s surprisingly long.

Two Witches appears in an aspect ratio of 2.39:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This became a positive presentation.

Sharpness was reasonably strong. Some wider shots came across as a bit soft, but most of the film looked acceptably well-defined.

No concerns with jagged edges or shimmering occurred, and edge enhancement remained absent. Source flaws also failed to create problems.

Colors usually stayed with the standard orange/amber and teal, though a few other hues crept in at times. These could seem a bit dense but they generally offered positive depiction.

Blacks were deep and firm, while shadows showed decent delineation, albeit a little murky sometimes. All of this left us with a fairly solid transfer despite some softness at times.

One shouldn’t expect much from the film’s DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundscape, as it remained decidedly low-key. It did occasionally offer a bit of pep, as effects used the side and rear speakers in a moderate manner to accentuate scare moments.

Not much occurred in this regard, but the mix managed to spread elements in discrete locations, and these moved well. Nothing here dazzled, but the material prompted reasonable involvement.

Audio quality was fine. Speech sounded natural and distinctive, without edginess or other issues. The score appeared clear and appropriately full.

Effects were clean and accurate. They didn’t tax my system but they satisfied. This was an acceptable soundtrack for a semi-subdued horror film.

As we go to extras, we get two separate audio commentaries, the first of which comes from director/writer/editor/cinematographer Pierre Tsigaridis. He brings a running, screen-specific look at story and characters, locations, cast and performances, photography, music, influences and related domains.

Though Tsigaridis occasionally offers useful nuggets, he often simply narrates the movie. That makes this a sporadically informative but too often dull chat.

For the second commentary, we hear from producer Maxime Rancon. He delivers his own running, screen-specific discussion of various production domains.

At the start, Rancon tells us this acts as his first-ever commentary and hopes we’ll go easy on him. Ha ha – good luck with that, pal!

Okay, I won’t offer severe remarks because Rancon combines “commentary virgin” with non-native English speaker, so it seems unfair to be too harsh. However, that doesn’t mean we get anything less than a weak chat.

Rancon goes silent too much of the time, and when he does speak, he usually either offers praise or basic narration. Rancon becomes more active as the movie progresses, but I can’t claim I learned anything much about the movie.

Two Behind the Movie featurettes follow and fill a total of 12 minutes, 37 seconds. In these we hear from Tsigardis, Rancon and actor Rebekah Kennedy.

The “Behind” clips look at story and characters as well as cast and performances and influences. These pieces feel promotional and lack a lot of informational value, though at least the second part brings some looks at various effects.

Next comes an Interview with Actor Dina Silva. It spans 15 minutes, 54 seconds and brings Silva’s thoughts about her character and performance as well as her additional work on this small production. While we find a few good insights, Silva rambles more than a little.

The Boogeywoman goes for seven minutes, 47 seconds and offers notes from actor Marina Parodi. She tells us about her role and her take on the part in this short but engaging discussion.

The next two featurettes examine music. The Original Score spans 10 minutes, 44 seconds and involves composer Gioacchino Marincola, while The Piano Score lasts 10 minutes, 50 seconds and delivers more from Tsigardis.

As expected, the programs discuss aspects of the movie’s score. We get some good insights in both shows.

Test Footage goes for one minute, 33 seconds and shows some makeup and camera elements. It feels more like a promo reel than actual test footage so it becomes less than interesting.

Shot October 8, 2021, a Grimmfest Q&A provides a live-streamed panel with Tsigardis and Rancon. Hosted by Simret Cheema-Innis, it lasts 30 minutes, 15 seconds.

The chat covers influences/inspirations, stories and characters, photography and gore effects, and the challenges of indie filmmaking. Inevitably, the Q&A touches on material already discussed elsewhere, but we get a fairly efficient overview nonetheless.

We end with five trailers for Witches as well as two Image Galleries: “Image Gallery” (81 stills) and “Behind the Scenes Image Gallery” (14). Both come as running montages accompanied by score, and they offer decent compilations.

With a pair of tales on display, Two Witches comes with some scary potential. However, the end results seem low on terror and heavy on tedium. The Blu-ray brings very good picture, adequate audio and a fairly extensive array of bonus materials. Witches delivers a forgettable disappointment.