WITCHCRAFT IV: THE VIRGIN HEART is the worst WITCHCRAFT film yet, and all four have been pretty bad. This sees Charles Solomon Jr., the main actor from the last two films in the series, coming back for a final time essaying the role of the good-guy warlock facing up to the forces of evil.This effort tries to tell some sort of politically-tinged tale but the budget is far too low to convince with any of the court house scenes. The emphasis of the story is on rock music so there's lots of the expected padding and little in the actual way of story telling. Once again the devil is getting folk to sell their souls to him and only our hero can stop him.The most notable thing about THE VIRGIN HEART is the willingness of starlet Julie Strain to show off her bare body, which she does on regular occasions playing a devilish stripper character. While Solomon Jr. would thankfully quit the series after this instalment, unfortunately it would continue to run and run without him.

Witchcraft IV: The Virgin Heart (1992) * (out of 4) The fourth film in the series finds lawyer Will Spanner (Charles Solomon) involved with a new girl (Julie Strain) while trying to investigate a case involving a man accused of killing his girlfriend. It turns out that the devil's son is also working the music scene by having young musicians sell him their souls in exchange for fame. I'm honestly not sure how those two stories were supposed to connect but WITCHCRAFT IV tries to do it but of course fails miserably. The first three films in the series were bad but each of them featured something strangely bad that made them entertaining. This fourth installment is clearly the worst of the bunch and you can't even say it reaches a so bad it's good level. The biggest problem is that there's just not much of a story here and what little there is gets stretched to a 93-minute running time, which is about 73-minutes too long. The film does offer up some rather funny moments including the scene where our lawyer-warlock goes up against the D.A. trying to say his client is innocent. The dialogue for these two going back and forth managed to get me to laugh. It's also funny hearing the lawyer tell the talented stripper that she should join a band and sing for a living. And let us not forget the scene where our lawyer buddy gets backstage at a strip club by claiming to have gotten lost looking for the bathroom (I hate when that happens). The performances, as you'd expect, are all pretty poor and even Solomon comes off rather bored here. Strain certainly can't act but I'm fairly certain she was hired for her breasts, which she shows a few times throughout the film. WITCHCRAFT IV just drags along so badly that it's really hard to find any sort of entertainment in it.

Years ago I'd seen one of the Witchcraft movies, but then couldn't remember which one, or even much about the movie itself. I recently watched all the movies in the series, though not in order, and got to this one last, and eventually recognized it as the one I'd seen. That I could remember so little about it even while watching it may say something about it, though it isn't really so bad.A couple makes out in an isolated spot. The woman isn't interested in going all the way yet. The guy ends up knocking himself unconscious, and she goes for help, but she is struck and put in the trunk of a car. We see that she's taken somewhere else and her heart is removed (the virgin heart of the title, I suppose).Her boyfriend Peter Wild is charged with her murder, and his sister goes to Will Spanner for help. Will Spanner is the main recurring character in the Witchcraft series, and this entry is Charles Solomon's last time in the role. From what Spanner says, this one takes place about three years after the previous film. Most of them don't need to be watched in order.Spanner is a warlock, though he very rarely uses his powers, since evil forces want him on their side and he may have a natural inclination towards evil. He works as a lawyer, and in this one is no longer a public defender, but has a small unsuccessful private practice handling insurance cases. Nevertheless, he was recommended to Wild's sister and he does have a hard time turning away from attractive women.A possible clue at the scene of the crime leads him to Belladonna (Julie Strain), who works as a dancer at one club, and secretly as a blues singer at another. Her agent is a bad guy, and maybe his clients' success is due to a pact with the devil....There's nudity in this one, as usual (apart from the first), though not to the practically softcore degree of some of the other entries. The dead victim is briefly seen nude, and Strain has a few nude and sex scenes.Parts of this one are narrated by Spanner, giving it more of a mystery or slightly neo-noir flavor. I don't recall any of the others having it. He does frequently get involved in investigations, or assisting the police, so much so that he probably ought to give up lawyering and become a PI or police detective.One of the characters claims to have been Spanner's twin brother from a previous life, having been born to some woman prior to or during the Inquisition. Whether this was some lie he was being told, or what, I don't know. It hadn't been mentioned in any of the other movies. In the first one, his father believes him to be (and maybe he is) the reincarnation of an unborn child burned at the stake with his witch parents in colonial American times.

This is probably the best film in this series, but hey that isn't saying very much. Everything that made the previous efforts bad, remains intact in this awful film. Bad acting, direction, especially the so-called special effects, and script. There is more sex in this entry and some of the girls are good looking. This film is mildly entertaining in a so-bad, it is good way. If you haven't seen any of the films in this series, don't waste your time. There all awful, despite some neat looking tape boxes. 3.5 out of 10.