Simon, King of the Witches

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Simon, King of the Witches
Directed by	Bruce Kessler
Produced by	Joe Solomon
Written by	Robert Phippeny
Starring	Andrew Prine
Distributed by	Fanfare Films Inc.
Release date(s)	1971
Running time	91 min.
Country	U.S.A.
Language	English
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Simon, King of the Witches, a rarely-seen 1971 film, directed by Bruce Kessler and starring Andrew Prine, is not technically a horror film as the title might suggest. It falls much more in the realm of campy psychedelia, with Prine playing a cynical Ceremonial magician named Simon Sinestrari who is on a quest to become a god. Simon lives in a sewer, selling his charms and potions for money, when he is befriended by a young male prostitute named Turk (actor George Paulsin). Turk introduces Simon to his world of drugs, wild parties, and hysterical Wiccan rituals featuring a goat and Andy Warhol star Ultra Violet. Death and mayhem ensue, along with romance for Simon with the district attorney's daughter (played by Brenda Scott). Whether the film's ending is a happy one remains subjective, but the journey, the script, the characters, and Andrew Prine's performance have made this film into a cult classic.

What sets Simon, King of the Witches apart from the legion of occult genre films of the late 60's and early 70's is the script, which is far more literate and versed in the esoteric than the norm, both offering new twists to and poking fun at the clichés of the genre. The character of Simon Sinestrari was reputedly based on the public persona of the ceremonial magician and occult author Poke Runyon, a well-known figure in the Southern California Neopagan scene at that time. Runyon himself acknowledges the likeness, and has said that the only major inaccuracy is that he "never lived in a sewer".

Simon is also much more of a satire than a horror film. Several scenes are obviously meant to be taken as black comedy, a fact that tends to escape traditional horror fans.

The movie begins with Simon walking in the rain, reciting a monologue about being a powerful warlock, after which he is immediately busted for vagrancy.

Simon lives in a storm drain, where he performs rituals to the Goddess Aphrodite, and advises us on magical etiquette.

A rainstorm floods the storm drain and washes away his magical paraphernalia.

Simon's fortunes improve and, per the stereotype of many "powerful magicians", takes up residence in a basement (though, breaking another stereotype, it is not his parents' basement).

Turk and Simon crash a "Wiccan" ceremony presided over by Ultra Violet. Every cliché in the book is dragged out, from spooky music, sinister chants, references to "Queen of the Night", to people undressing and eventually worshiping a real live goat. In a separate room, Turk is getting it on with a nude woman on an altar who refers to herself as a "sacred object" (a reference to the Church of Satan tradition of woman-as-altar). Simon is thoroughly unimpressed with the goings on and eventually ridicules the coven much in the way Frank Langella mocks Lena Olin's devil worshipers in the Roman Polanski film The Ninth Gate. The amused couple make a hasty exit with the angered Wiccans on their tail.

Simon commands a pulsing ball of light that attempts to harm him, pointing his athame (ritual knife) at it and declaring, "I am Simon! I am God!"

Simon shares with us his elaborate plans to enter the realm of the gods via sex magic, a special mirror, and the importance of proper timing.

Simon attempts to hex "the establishment", to the delight of drug dealers and petty criminals.

Simon yells at the gods, "Yea, though you may cast me down, I will rise and rise again until I stand among you!"

Through all of this, Simon's approach to his magic and the world is nothing short of cynical, and simultaneously practical yet grandiose. He holds absolutely no romanticism at all towards his work and reacts to everything else with laconic amusement.

The misleading advertising campaign, which set up Simon as a Satanic sex orgy film cashing in on Charles Manson, seriously hurt the film at the box office. The film is practically bloodless, has some nudity (which, again against the norm, actually serves a purpose in the story) but no explicit sex and no parallels whatsoever with Manson. Like many other more eccentric 70's low budget genre films, Simon has become a cult film over the years, albeit an extremely marginal one, and has yet to see a DVD release.

There was also a paperback novelization of Simon by Baldwin Hills, more than likely a pen name, which took the satirical camp of the film one step further into full-on absurd comedy. Long since out of print, the book comes up occasionally on eBay and online used book stores.