I wanted to but couldn't!

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

In the years between his legendary "Night of the Living Dead" and his outbreak thriller "The Crazies", filmmaker George A. Romero was actually trying NOT to get pigeonholed as a horror director. This is one of his efforts from that era. It's not for hardcore horror fans; other than a few nightmare sequences, it barely flirts with that genre. It's more of a sometimes arty, sometimes exploitative drama about a suburban housewife named Joan Mitchell (Jan White). Rather dissatisfied with her lot in life, she begins to think about things such as extramarital sex, and the idea of dabbling in the occult.The performances are better than one might expect for such an independent, regional production. Romero uses his script as a set-up for exploring themes such as self esteem & self expression, female oppression, and the generation gap. For a while, it's likely to cause some audience members to be regularly checking their watches, as it rambles on at too deliberate a pace. It begins to maintain interest more consistently after the one hour mark. Regarding its artistic ambitions, Romero does seem to be enjoying himself coming up with those dream sequences. And in terms of exploitative elements, there is nudity both female and male, but never very much violence or gore."Hungry Wives" is fairly serious, but not totally without humor. Fans of the directors' output may want to see it for completions' sake, but it's not going to be for every taste.Six out of 10.

"Hungry Wives" aka "Season of the Witch". OK there are movies that work better when they are fast-paced, some that work better at a mid-pace, and other films are better at a slow-pace. This film is not slow-paced it's slower than a snail's pace - it's at a dragging-pace, painfully slow.A housewife is bored. She has a husband that is not home most of the time and when he is home it's a stale relationship. She has a daughter that has her own life and really doesn't care about her. She has gossipy friends that are rather a bore as well. So she's alone most all the time and utterly bored so she decides to try witchcraft as a solution - to spice up her life I guess. Well, we finally get about 10 minutes of her witchcraft which doesn't amount to a hill of beans - a love spell of all things - this leads us to adultery which she seems to like more than her new found hobby witchcraft. At the end, she grows tired of her lover. Oh and she starts telling others "I'm a witch".I think the witchcraft is suppose to be a metaphor for real life women's lib movement that was still going on at the time of this film - but was shown as literal witchcraft in this film.There was some stink about the releasing of this film - and was marketed as soft-core porn much to the displeasure of Romero -- so I read somewhere. Makes no sense to me after watching this film... it would barely qualify as soft-core porn if it does at all. And the cut footage was cut to qualify it as soft-core porn in the 70s - do what?! Seems that is what they cut was soft-core porn bits but whatever. I just know there is cut footage that was later found and pieced back to create another release of this film. The film is boring and talky not close to soft-core porn that I can tell.2/10

Joan Mitchell is a bored Pennsylvania housewife with a hippie college student daughter and a disinterested husband, Jack. Dissatisfied with the ennui of suburbia, she finds herself drawn to a neighborhood woman who practices witchcraft; naturally, bad things ensue.This wonky feminist thriller comes from genre legend George Romero, and is certainly one of his most unexpected and unusual offerings; the film had a troubled release history, coming out under various titles such as "Jack's Wife" and "Hungry Wives," only to be later known as "Season of the Witch," which I'd argue is the most fitting title. It became something of a lost film until it was unearthed in 2006 by Anchor Bay Entertainment. "Season of the Witch" is a strange one; like Romero's earliest pictures, it is very apparently low budget, bathed in grain and not nearly as slick as "Night of the Living Dead," though I think it's unfair to compare the two. They are incredibly different films. "Season of the Witch" is part horror, but more so a grindhouse thriller of major feminist proportions. The film is surprisingly cerebral in spite of its production's shortcomings, and has the effect of disorienting the viewer in a world of kitschy '70s decorating and an array of heavily-characterized housewives. Virtually all of the film takes place indoors, primarily in the protagonist's house, which is likely due to budget issues but nonetheless lends the film the claustrophobic sensation of being trapped inside a suburban '70s hell.Joan's bizarre relationships with both her husband and daughter are highlighted throughout the film, though the primary focus becomes her paranoia and apparent hallucinations, which entail a masked intruder breaking into her home again and again; these scenes are actually rather effective and startling. Shades of "Rosemary's Baby" come into play as the subject of witchcraft pervades the plot, and the film boasts a killer montage featuring Donovan's "Season of the Witch" that only could exist in a certain time and place. The conclusion of the film is surprisingly grim, and is the singular moment in which Romero really lets loose on what remains overall a subdued psychological thriller.Overall, "Season of the Witch" is one of George Romero's strangest offerings, and is a fantastic time capsule of an era in which "The Brady Bunch," mod patterns, and women's lib were all major cultural forces. It is very much dated in its fashions and set pieces, but that is part of what is so charming about it. The gritty, low-budget production values show through the film, but never really prevent it from effectively getting its theme across. And while it's not traditionally scary, there is something weirdly nightmarish about the way Romero captures the interior sets—part of it is indubitably the gaudy '70s decor, but part of it is also the skill of Romero at boxing his audience into an enclosed world—in this case one where hausfraus are prone to coffee table witchery. 8/10.

"Hungry Wives" is also known as "Season of the Witch". Regardless of the name, it's a very rough early film by George Romero--and not nearly the quality of his first, and most famous film, "Night of the Living Dead". I am not sure how much of it is Romero's fault--he was a VERY young, inexperienced and poor filmmaker and the film only cost about $90,000. Plus, because Romero was so strapped for funds, it sad on the shelf for a bit because he couldn't afford to finish it! So, given its very rough heritage, it's no surprise that the movie is so very, very rough. In fact, unless you are a HUGE fan of Romero, I'd recommend you skip this one and watch one of his later horror flicks. If you do watch, don't be surprised that the editing seems very random and unprofessional. And, don't be surprised that the film is so rough and appears unfinished. Again, you need to remember that Romero was NOT in Hollywood nor did he have sufficient funds to do much better. All in all, an interesting experiment AND the film had some very good scenes--but the whole just didn't seem to work.