COVEN (1997)

Director: Mark Borchardt

Writer: Mark Borchardt

Producer: Mark Borchardt

Cast: Mark Borchardt, Tom Schimmels, Robert Richard Jorge, Miriam Frost, Sherrie Beaupre, Mike Schank, Damien McLaughlin, Mark Nadolski, Tommy Dallace, Jack Bennett, Scott Berendt, Barbara Zanger, Donna McMaster, Cindy Snyder, Nancy Williams, Kurt Poth, Wayne Buboise, Robert Smith, Kelley Cork, Betsy Schaefer, Brian Smith, Ray Kilzer, Mike Badem, Geoff Fieldbinder, John Wilhelm, Brian Stodola, Jeremy Stevermer, Bill Borchardt (uncredited) 

Mike (Mark Borchardt) is an alcoholic, pill-popping writer stressed by his life and deadlines. After an overdose lands Mike in the hospital, his friend Steve (Tom Schimmels) convinces Mike to join his therapy group. As the group meetings become more ritualistic and he starts hallucinating, Mike starts having suspicions about the group’s motives. 

The Flashback Fanatic movie review 

The subject of Chris Smith’s award-winning documentary American Movie (1999) was Milwaukee, Wisconsin-area filmmaker Mark Borchardt. The through line of that documentary’s narrative was the struggle Borchardt had to finish Coven. After watching the behind-the-scenes effort that went into Borchardt’s film, it is fun to see the final product and appreciate its unique vibe. 

Coven is a short horror film that demonstrates the old adage “misery loves company.” In fact, that is the very thing that brings troubled people together in a self-help group. The suspicion that one may have about any group is: Does a group serve its members or just perpetuate their dependence on the group so that the group will flourish? Everything from clubs to churches to political parties may exploit the needs and ignorance of its members to become cults that only serve their leaders. 

If ever a film captures the perspective of one man’s dysfunction and paranoia, it is Coven. As bleak as the short and simple story is, it is still infused with a cynical wit that makes it quite engaging. Writer-director Mark Borchardt’s own character is very close to that of Mike, the starring role that he plays. As a result, his performance is very real and unaffected while still delivering touches of humor. 

The humor in Coven is never at the expense of the atmosphere. It rises naturally from the characters’ interactions and is appropriate to their circumstances. One such scene I find to be very satisfying is when Mike is scoring some speed from his pusher (Damien McLaughlin). They are both seated comfortably in the pusher’s home and making friendly small talk. It is rather perverse that this pusher is probably the most comforting presence in the film. 

Another aspect of the film that stresses the bleak isolation of its hero’s world is that all of the other main characters never seem compatible with each other. The group members sit around and rant about their issues while no solutions are offered. In fact, to celebrate his return to the group, Willa (Miriam Frost) offers alcoholic Mike a cup of booze that can only exacerbate the problems that brought him to the group in the first place. Goodman (Robert Richard Jorge), the apparent leader of the group, affects a certain grandiose refinement, yet younger group members Daesa (Sherrie Beauprie) and Willa disrespect his authority. Even Steve, the good friend that urged Mike to join the group, only seems to be another source of pressure in Mike’s life. 

The choice of shooting Coven in black-and-white suits the mood and subject matter. Scenes in a bar and its parking lot have a gritty intimacy. A church steeple silhouetted against the gray sky offers no sense of sanctuary. The therapy group meetings are suffused with a stark gloom making all involved seem hopeless or malevolent. As his booze-buzz kicks in, Mike’s walk into the woods for some solitude has an eerie and surreal bleached-out tone. That environment soon becomes dark and dirty once he is accosted by the black-robed figures that haunt him. 

My favorite images in the film are the barren, autumn landscapes and abandoned country roads. There is a mystic beauty about these shots that sets the tone for the loneliness and threat that the protagonist will be coping with. Patrick Nettesheim’s doom-laden music score compliments these scenes perfectly. Coven proves that atmosphere can be the best special effect of all.