Something Weird 1967

A man named Cronin Mitchell Tony McCabe survives a near-fatal electrical accident when a maintenance man falls from a power line pole, and the live wire arcs into his face, leaving him in excruciating pain. An ambulance brings him to the hospital, where the aftermath is grim: the other worker dies, but Mitchell lives, his body scarred and his spirit battered.

In the hospital, two doctors, Dr. Roxin Roy Collodi and Dr. White Jeffrey Allen, debate whether Mitchell’s condition includes genuine Extra Sensory Perception as a result of the shock. They run a few ESP tests, and the results seem to suggest something extraordinary. Mitchell’s disfigured appearance compounds a growing sense of hopelessness, and the medical team voices concerns about his will to live.

A local nurse, Nurse Browning Carolyn Smith, tends to him with professional care, but his advances are rebuffed as his face remains a constant reminder of his trauma. After leaving the hospital, Mitchell withdraws from society, masking his appearance with a black scarf and dark sunglasses. He loses his job and everything else he once had, and to cope he begins offering private psychic readings from his house, charging meager fees.

During one session, a book titled Bible of the Witches seems to materialize in his hands. Almost at once, an ugly hag enters and confronts him about his new abilities. The Hag, a witch named through a bargain, offers to restore his face to its former appearance in exchange for becoming her lover. Mitchell agrees, and his face instantly returns to normal, while the Hag vanishes.

He steps back into the world and soon crosses paths with Ellen Parker Elizabeth Wilkinson, a striking woman he meets in a dive bar. Yet Mitchell discovers that he cannot read Ellen’s mind, and their connection becomes anything but simple. They retreat to her apartment for a private moment, but Ellen abruptly reveals her true nature: she is the Hag in disguise and commands him to honor their deal. Mitchell reluctantly submits to this new, perilous pact.

The balance of power shifts when Mitchell attempts to use his powers to identify a serial killer terrorizing Jefferson, Wisconsin, a case that catches the attention of the federal government. Enter Alex Jordan William Brooker, a karate-leaning, no-nonsense government official sent to crack the case. He meets Mitchell and Ellen, and soon a complicated dynamic emerges: Jordan is instantly drawn to Ellen, while Mitchell remains uneasy about the arrangement. Detective Det. Maddox [Ted Heil] becomes involved, escorting Jordan to meet Mitchell and Ellen, and a wary collaboration begins.

Jordan’s interest in Ellen grows, but she insists she belongs to Mitchell and is bound to be his one true lover, a sentiment she asserts with growing certainty. When Jordan presses her, she resists his advances but warns that Mitchell’s power makes him dangerous. Mitchell, meanwhile, experiences a mix of awe and fear as his abilities expand—he levitates a chair at a party, drawing crowd-pleasing awe as well as uneasy whispers.

A troubling thread runs parallel as Mitchell visits a church and conjures a ghost that claims the house’s tragic history, hinting that the spirit will not return if he keeps a certain distance from the living. Around this time, Jordan intensifies his pursuit of Ellen, who rebuffs him by asserting she is tethered to Mitchell. When Jordan pushes too hard, Ellen warns Mitchell that he must act against him, even if it means killing the man.

Mitchell’s resolve falters as Ellen—still unified with him in the eyes of others—manipulates the situation. In a tense turn, Mitchell agrees to kill Jordan only if it serves the larger arc of their fateful bond. A surreal sequence follows: Jordan, alone in his hotel room, appears haunted by a strange, blue-tinted phenomenon as he faces an unseen danger, escalating the sense of danger and fragility around everyone involved.

The narrative twists when, during a late-night LSD session arranged by Jordan, Mitchell discovers a shocking truth: Detective Maddox is the actual serial killer. Mitchell’s fears become a grim reality as Maddox seems poised to shoot him, and the trio’s fragile alliance teeters on the edge of collapse. In a climactic turn, Maddox is killed by the arriving Jordan and police, and Mitchell’s death appears to seal the fate of the investigation. Yet Jordan claims victory and moves forward with Ellen, seizing credit for solving the case.

In the final act, Jordan and Ellen are alone in a parked car, and Ellen kisses him before undergoing the Hag’s transformation in full view of everyone. Jordan, terrified, flees and stumbles into a fiery hazard at an excavation site, badly burned on part of his face. The Hag draws near again, offering to heal the damage and restore his scar so they can be together—repeating the ancient, cruel cycle of power, deception, and desire.

The film closes on a chilling reminder: even when the immediate danger seems resolved, the bargain struck with forces beyond understanding binds the living to a perpetual, cycle-bound fate.