Molly's father was a sailor that ended up raping her when she was young - apparently Molly's sister was abused too but Molly keeps denying things that her sister says. Molly ends up getting her revenge on some men - by castration.WIKI: According to Hesiod's Theogony, Aphrodite/Venus was born of the foam from the sea after Saturn (Greek Cronus) castrated his father Uranus (Ouranus) and his blood fell to the sea.My take on this film: Molly's father was a sailor - so in a way, she comes from the sea like Venus. Molly's repression: she really wanted to castrate her father before he died but held it in for a long time - now her repression is manifesting itself by taking it out on the men she meets. At one point in the film, Molly starts speaking as if she was Venus saying "Would you die for love? Well, my father did" to a man that she ended up killing.It's an okay. The film would have been better, to me, if it wasn't done in the typical 1970s exploitation style. The idea behind the film is good - I'm not crazy about the way it's filmed though.3/10

After watching the film I can understand how it made the Video Nasty list; the director, Matt Cimber, chose to show Molly's sexual abuse at the hands of her father, who was mentally unstable. Though most of these scenes are shot well and the abuse is suggested, sometimes very subtly. It's the pivotal scene which is the most disturbing. Robert Thom, the writer who also wrote Death Race 2000, added a nasty twist at this point. It adds to the reason why Molly is so broken. Cimber does tone it down a little but couldn't remove the scene entirely as, like I said, it's pivotal and adds to the story and character of Molly; it clarifies a lot of things for the audience.That said, the film is felicitous and unfortunately still relevant today. The film starts on the beach as Molly is babysitting her sister's children, Tad and Tripoli. As she tells her nephews the stories of her seafaring father, their grandfather, she watches the men on the muscle beach, drinking in every inch of their bodies, She drifts off into a daydream where they all die.As the film progresses Molly keeps fading in and out of daydreams where the men in mind die, most in gruesome ways. Then one morning she wakes up in her on-again-off-again lover's bed as he shakes her awake to tell her that two famous football players have been murdered. One of her killer daydreams were of her sexual and murderous encounter. This startles her but doesn't trouble her.As the dreams keep coming, as do the deaths, the police start to close in on her just as she and her friends start to believe she's the killer.Now, this is the strange thing for all but the last murder her dreams came before the murder, whereas the last killing is her dream - it occurs at the same time. Apart from the last death you never see her commit them in her real life, just in her dreams. This makes the film feel disjointed and I was left wondering if she really did carry them out or if some other force was at work.Along with the memories of her abuse, which also appear in dreamlike sequences the entire film has an abstract impression. This, in turn, gives the film more depth and power. I'm not one for flashbacks and the like as they inevitably make a movie feel cluttered and sometimes incomprehensible. So respect due to Cimber for making so many work comprehensibly to strengthen the story and film.Millie Perkins, known for playing Anne Frank, does a splendid job of playing down her troubled past, though you can see the effects working free on her face. You know she's troubled but not to what extent.Lonny Chapman, who plays the bar-owner and on-again-off-again lover, is brilliant as the man who truly loves her and is worried for her but just cannot really help her.There is so much in this film to like, I just wished that Cimber and Thom had gone for a more paranormal explanation for the murders since it appears impossible for her to have carried out a couple of them. It may have made the film cleaner. Even the poster, which when you first look at it emanates an exploitation vibe, is pretty true to the film and pulls images from a mermaid tattoo, Birth Of Venus by Botticelli, and her feelings towards men and her father. The images are featured in the movie and once you see them the poster makes better sense.Though I liked the film it did feel more like an art-house film than a thriller, though if you like revenge movies you may like this. Just be warned, it may leave a nasty taste in your mouth, thanks to the aforementioned abuse scenes and the end sequence.Not for everybody.

Before seeing "The Witch Who Came From The Sea" I only knew the pictures on posters and DVD covers, and that it was once on the BBFC's Video-Nasty list. I thought I was about to see a fast-paced and trashy gore-fest, but the film turned out to be quite the opposite of what I had expected. This is a rather slow-paced, weird, disturbing and also quite complex psychological Horror film whose reputation of being pure sleaze is more than unfair. Sure, the film is explicit and often engrossing in its depiction of sexual violence, but this is not the point of the film. This is vastly underrated film with a main focus on the psyche of its protagonist.Molly (Millie Perkins), who works in a sailor's tavern in a small New England nest, copes with her emotional stress by playing with her beloved nephews, and by drinking. She tells her nephews stories about their 'heroic' grandfather, a sailor, who was really a drunk child-molesting scumbag who had no scruples to abuse his own little daughter to gratify his sexual perversions. But her drinking habit is not Molly's only way of coping with her traumatic past, as the emotionally distressed woman's sex life begins to show murderous tendencies...Millie Perkins delivers a great performance as the Molly, a woman who, in spite of becoming murderous herself, is always mainly a victim. Lonny Chapman is also very good in the role of Long John, the tavern-owner, who is both a fatherly friend and a lover to Molly. The film is full of complex and interesting characters, and the photography is great. The flashbacks to Molly's terrible childhood are sad, shocking and hard to digest. Some people's desire to advocate censorship is mainly inspired by the idiotic assumption that any form of explicit on-screen violence will lead to real-life violence. "The Witch Who Came From The Sea" is a film that shows violence in a disturbing way that could in no way be misunderstood as glorifying. The fact that it was ever put on the Video Nasty list is the perfect proof for the idiocy of film-censors world wide. The film may have a few flaws, but its qualities are definitely predominant. Slow-paced and yet often shocking "The Witch Who Came From The Sea" is an underrated, disturbing and compelling psychological Horror drama that I highly recommend.

In what was a very daring departure from her previous (and subsequent) roles, former 'Anne Frank' Perkins plays a troubled, sexually-conflicted young lady who dotes on her pre-teen nephews while harboring a violent grudge against men who represent heroism, yet fall short in her eyes. Working in a seaside tavern and living with her overweight seamstress sister Brown, she enjoys a reasonably healthy sexual relationship with her employer Chapman, but perhaps that is due to his lack of aspirations to be anything other than a low-key bar owner. Others, such as football players Rutherford and Sims, Hollywood actor Jason and shaving ad model Morgan haven't got it as lucky as they incur the wrath of Perkins during their encounters with her, emerging with varying degrees of damage from sprained wrists to castration! The root of Perkins' deadly problem is detailed in flashbacks to her childhood and her relationship with her father. Eventually, Chapman and fellow cocktail waitress Feury are left to figure out how best to handle Perkins before she can continue down her bloody path. The film, little known in most circles, has won a cult following, due in some part to having been tagged in the UK as a 'video nasty'. It does include some material that was quite shocking for 1971 (the film wasn't released until 5 years later), but is less so now, in the era of "Saw"and "Hostel" and films that vividly explore sexual abuse. Perkins has more topless scenes in the film than a person would care to count and she dives into her role with complete commitment. She does a good job, but the script leaves her little room for variety or change in her character. Chapman has a role that is also quite outside his typical range, as he rarely played sexually active characters or love interests. He rises to the occasion nicely as well. Brown, a former child star, does as much with her small part as she can. This was her last film. Feury, a much-lauded acting teacher, spouts some saucy dialogue before settling in as Perkins' caring companion. Jason is appropriately slick and confident as a hotshot actor. In his final jaw-dropping scene, he sits in a pool, naked, with a pretty clear view of his modest manhood on display for an extended period of time. Morgan is handsome in that vintage 1970's male model way. He does a nice job with his role. Kennedy and Flower play two low-key detectives on the case. Flower's real life daughter plays Perkins as a young girl and it does cause a bit of confusion that she actually resembles Brown more heavily, including the eye color! It's a film that won't please everyone because it's a bit too obtuse and cerebral at times while also being rather trashy and unintentionally ridiculous at other times (Collins, as Morgan's girlfriend, brandishing a gun and some bodybuilders with padded Speedos come to mind.) For the curious or for fans of Perkins, it certainly isn't too trying an experience at 83 minutes. Semi-porno director Cimber and the rest of the cast and crew are more proud of the film than may be warranted, but there is a lot worse out there.