SALEM'S GHOST is another entry in the interminable WITCHCRAFT series, number eight in the franchise if you can be bothered to count that far. It's a straight-to-video piece of witchcraft trash about a historical warlock who is executed for his crimes before taking up residence in the basement of a creepy old house that a young couple purchase.This is a film content to copy elements from all other successful horror pictures like THE AMITYVILLE HORROR and THE EXORCIST. The acting is incredibly mannered and cheesy and the limited FX work is very poor. The guy playing the warlock is quite laughable. As there's not much in the way of plot, or indeed horror, aside from a few low rent scares and dream sequences, much of the running time is padded out with lame sex scenes involving various hard-bodied actresses going through the motions.

Witchcraft VIII: Salem's Ghost (1996) * (out of 4) This eighth film in the series goes against the grain by trying something different and not being connected to the previous seven entries. This time out a couple buy a home and soon discover a mysterious, covered up room in the basement. It turns out this room was used 300 years earlier when a warlock was put to death and now his spirit is causing trouble. WITCHCRAFT VIII is another weak entry in a pretty bad series but I guess it's at least better than the previous film so that's a good thing. Actually, there are a couple moments here that are so incredibly bad that you can't help but recommend the film to people. The first up is an incredibly bad take off on the 9 1/2 WEEKS scene where the couple has sex in front of the fridge and using all sorts of food. The sequence here is just so laughable and it's certainly never erotic. Another hilarious scene is a rip on THE EXORCIST when the priest arrives at the house. The scene is iconic in THE EXORCIST but here it's shot in the daylight with an ultra cheap fog machine. The rest of the film is pretty laughable at times including the dorky neighbors who are always getting trouble started up. The horror elements are very small and laughable but even the sex scenes are rather boring here. WITCHCRAFT VIII is clearly just for those crazy enough to work their way through the series.

Totally unnecessary follow-up (part 7 was supposed to be the final one) is about a young couple who are haunted, then seduced by a 17th. century warlock that used to live in there mansion. The first seven were really bad, but this entry hits an all time low for the series. Not even the sex scenes or nudity in this one fail to inject any life into this entry.Unrated; Strong Sexual Content, Violence, Profanity, and Nudity.

It doesn't bother me that they tried a new storyline with this film, but the least they could have done was give it better actors. I mean sure, the actors in the previous films aren't great, but at least some were decent. Plus, some of them weren't boring(Like 1, 3, 5, 6, and 9), but like 2 and 7, 8 is.A young couple moves into a mansion that's haunted by a 17th century warlock.O.k. plot, but boring, and horrible acting. *1/2 out of *****.