Titles don’t get much more generic than the moniker used for 1966’s Italian horror tale The Witch. Let’s hope the movie itself proves more distinctive.

Out of work historian Sergio Logan (Richard Johnson) responds to a newspaper ad for a gig to catalog manuscripts. When he arrives at the address in this notice, he meets Consuelo (Sarah Ferrati), an older woman who he feels he came across a few times recently.

This creeps out Sergio and he intends to leave, but as he prepares to depart, he meets Aura (Rosanna Schiaffino), Consuela’s beautiful daughter. She gets him to reconsider his choice, and Sergio then encounters a mix of spooky activities in his strange location.

Despite the supernatural implications and the fact the movie comes as part of an Italian Gothic collection, Witch takes place in then-modern day and doesn’t feel as “gothic” as one might expect. Oh, it leans that way at times, but the choice to stage it in 1960s culture creates an unexpected and unusual vibe.

This seems refreshing and creative for the genre. The decision to give Witch more than a slight La Dolce Vita feel allows the movie to stand out among its crowd.

This offers real intrigue for the first act, as Witch sets up Sergio as just another womanizing cad. We know Consuelo targeted him, so this topic becomes a clever entrance into the tale.

Once Sergio ends up in Consuelo’s home, Witch dollops out plot points and character beats in a gradual manner. In theory, these could create a slow and dull story, but instead, the deliberate pacing allows matters to grow in a natural and engaging manner.

Witch doesn’t telegraph much, and it allows its narrative to evolve. As we see the trap into which Sergio becomes ensnared, we become more and more involved with the proceedings ourselves.

All of this makes Witch more of a character drama than one might expect, but I don’t intend that as a criticism. Indeed, the fact Witch relies much more on the interactions of the roles than on the usual cheap scares means it packs a creepy, unsettling punch.

Honestly, Witch probably could run less than its 109 minutes, but take that as minor criticism. The movie gives us an offbeat and entrancing tale that works.

The Witch appears in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Expect a quality presentation.

Sharpness usually seemed positive throughout the movie. A few wider shots displayed a smidgen of softness, but not in a way that created real distractions. Instead, the film usually looked detailed and concise.

I saw no signs of jagged edges or shimmering, and edge haloes remained absent. No issues with digital noise reduction occurred, as the movie presented a natural layer of grain, and outside of some small streaks during the opening credits and a stray gate hair late in the story, I detected no print flaws.

Black levels looked deep and rich throughout Witch, as the movie presented a rich silver image that displayed fine contrast. Shadow detail also appeared clear and appropriately opaque with no signs of excessive thickness. Across the board, the Blu-ray presented the film in a satisfying manner.

The movie’s LPCM monaural soundtrack wasn’t quite as pleasing, but it seemed to be decent for its era. Like other Italian films of the era, all dialogue was looped, and this created occasional lip-synch issues.

The lines could also seem artificial and not especially natural. Those issues became inevitable, though, and overall clarity of the dialogue was acceptable.

Effects came across as acceptably clean and realistic. These remained a fairly subdued aspect of the mix, and they could be somewhat flat, but as a whole, they sounded fine for the era.

For the subtitle haters out there, the disc also provides an English dub. It comes with considerably weaker acting, so I’d skip it.

As we launch into the disc’s extras, we start with an audio commentary from film critic Kat Ellinger. She provides a running, screen-specific view of comparisons between the source novella and the film, story, characters and themes, cast and crew, genre domains and related elements.

Like the commentaries for the three other movies in this "Gothic Fantastico" boxed set, Ellinger's look at Witch tends to go much heavier on movie interpretation/genre connections than on moviemaking topics. We get a little in that area, but not much.

As such, if you hope to find a detailed view of the production, you'll emerge disappointed. For me, Ellinger provides a generally informative track, though I do wish we got a better balance between filmmaking notes and the more esoteric topics she covers.

Called Witchery, “Italian film devotee” Mark Thompson Ashworth delivers a three-minute, 26-second introduction to the film. He gives us basics about the movie in what seems more like a brief overview than a true “introduction” but he adds a few decent notes.

A visual essay entitled Loving the Devil spans 24 minutes, 25 seconds and brings notes from author/academic Miranda Corcoran.

She looks at the history of witches in culture as well as the movie’s use of the concept. Corcoran provides a tight little history.

The Rome Witch Project goes for 18 minutes, 38 seconds and features an interview with author/filmmaker Antonio Tentori. He discusses the source novel, cast and crew, and various thoughts about the film.

Though Tentoni brings a workable overview, he doesn’t find a lot of new information that we don’t hear elsewhere. That renders this chat a bit redundant.

Finally, an Image Gallery brings a whopping five frames of material, most of which shows publicity materials. Too bad Arrow couldn’t dig up more.

Despite the supernatural theme implied by its title, The Witch offers more of a psychological thriller. In that vein, it proves quite good, as it brings a strong character tale. The Blu-ray boasts solid visuals as well as adequate audio and a mix of bonus materials. Witch holds up well after more than 55 years.

Note that as of October 2022, The Witch can be found only as part of a four-film “Gothic Fantastico” collection. The set also includes Lady Morgan’s Vengeance, The Blancheville Monster and The Third Eye.