''Coven'' (pronounced ') is a 1997 American

short Short may refer to: Places * Short (crater), a lunar impact crater on the near side of the Moon * Short, Mississippi, an unincorporated community * Short, Oklahoma, a census-designated place People * Short (surname) * List of people known as ...

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...

written, directed by and starring

Mark Borchardt Mark Borchardt (born August 20, 1966) is an American independent filmmaker. He is best known as the subject of the 1999 film ''American Movie'', which documented three years he spent writing, shooting and editing his horror short, '' Coven'' (199 ...

. The making of the film was chronicled in the 1999 documentary film ''

American Movie ''American Movie'' is a 1999 American documentary film directed by Chris Smith, produced by Smith and Sarah Price, and edited by Jun Diaz and Barry Poltermann. The film chronicles the making of ''Coven'', an independent short horror film dire ...

''. ''Coven'' was shot in

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...

with local talent around

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...

, Wisconsin.

Plot summary

Mike is a writer struggling with a lack of artistic productivity. To deal with the pressures he feels from within and without, he escalates his abuse of alcohol. One day, when faced with overwhelming deadlines, he takes a large quantity of pills with alcohol, resulting in an overdose and hospitalization. When Steve takes notice of Mike's increasing volatility and isolation, he confronts the defensive writer, showing genuine concern for his friend's self-destructive behavior in the process. It is suggested, by the lack of others at the intervention, that Steve may be the only friend Mike has left. Steve asks Mike to join him at a

support group In a support group, members provide each other with various types of help, usually nonprofessional and nonmaterial, for a particular shared, usually burdensome, characteristic. Members with the same issues can come together for sharing coping str ...

with which he is affiliated and, after gaining some perspective, Mike agrees. Soon, however, Mike comes to realize that the group has a deeper occult agenda and uses extreme, sometimes supernatural, tactics to "help" new members remain clean and sober.

Cast

as Mike * Tom Schimmels as Steve * Miriam Frost as Sharon * Robert Richard Jorge as Goodman * Sherrie Beaupre as Daesa Jack Bennett, Mark Nadolski, Scott Berendt, Barbara Zanger, Donna McMaster,

Mike Schank Mikel Joseph Schank (August 3, 1969 – October 13, 2022) was an American actor and musician. He was close friends with independent filmmaker Mark Borchardt and helped Borchardt make the 1997 short horror film ''Coven (1997 film), Coven''. He a ...

, Cindy Snyder, Nancy Williams, and Wayne Bubois play the support group members.

Sales and distribution

''Coven'' was largely funded by Mark's uncle Bill Borchardt's savings with the understanding that Mark had to sell 3,000 copies in order for Bill to make his money back. However, Bill died shortly after the release of ''Coven''. Bill, along with Mark and an assortment of friends and neighbors, star in the film. The movie was sold through the (now defunct) website www.northwestproductions.com. By 2004, Mark had sold 5,100 copies of ''Coven'' at $14.95 each.

Critical reception and legacy

On the

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, ''Coven'' has an approval rating of 43% based on seven reviews, with an average rating of 5.4/10. ''Coven'' established Borchardt as an amateur filmmaker. ''American Movie'' helped Mark get noticed by a broader audience, which led to appearances (along with co-producer

) in television programs such as ''

Family Guy ''Family Guy'' is an American animated sitcom originally conceived and created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The show centers around the Griffin family, Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter Griff ...

'' and ''

Greg the Bunny ''Greg the Bunny'' is an American television sitcom that originally aired on Fox in 2002. It starred Seth Green and a hand puppet named Greg the Bunny, originally invented by the team of Sean S. Baker, Spencer Chinoy and Dan Milano. Milano and ...

'', in which they parody scenes from the movie.

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, id=0225434 American horror short films 1997 short films American supernatural horror films 1997 films Films about witchcraft 1990s English-language films 1990s American films