- A beautiful woman is sent back in time via hypnosis to the Middle Ages where she finds she is suspected of being a witch, and subject to being executed.
- Two psychical researchers procure the services of a lady of the night and send her back in time under hypnosis. She finds herself in the body of a past existence - a woman in medieval times waiting to be beheaded as a witch. By avoiding this fate she unwittingly starts to alter history.—Jeremy Perkins {J-26}
- We open with Satan (Richard Devon) introducing himself. Next, we meet Diana Love (Pamela Duncan) entering the scene through a thick fog. She is a streetwalker and agrees to accompany a man to the American Institute of Psychical Research office. In a very shabby office we meet Quintus Ratcliff (Val Dufour), who was the man who engaged Diana's services. Quintus has been away in Tibet for the last seven years. We meet Professor Ulbrecht Olinger (Maurice Manson). Quintus was one of the professor's students, and not a very good student--he failed him. Quintus talks the professor into conducting an experiment in regression hypnosis. He intends to hypnotize Diana back to a previous life. He intends to keep her under for two or more days. The professor is reluctant to get involved, for both legal and ethical reasons, but eventually agrees. He first examines Diana medically, specifically to see if her heart is sound, then he takes a brief medical history.
Quintus hypnotizes Diana. He is taking her back in time. In her first observation, she speaks French. Quintus takes her back even further in time to explore earlier past lives. Diana starts to pull on her bracelet. Quintus and the professor look on baffled at her behavior. Next we are transported back in time and see what Diana (now Helene in her time) is experiencing. She is chained in a dungeon and is trying to remove the manacle on her wrist. We meet the torturer and dungeon master, Gobbo, the Jailer (Aaron Saxon). He proceeds to verbally torment Helene. He tells her that she is to be beheaded soon. Helene has been accused of being a witch. She manages to knock her jailer out, take his keys and escape.
Back in the office, Quintus is explaining that while Diana is in her trance, in the here and now, her past life is being played out in real time. Helene exits the dungeon with guards chasing her. She encounters a knight on horseback who begins to chase her through the woods. Helene stops to catch her breath, she encounters the Gravedigger Smolkin (Mel Welles) singing a macabre little ditty. She enters his hearse and hides in the coffin with the body Smolkin is taking for burial. The knight on horseback is Pendragon (Richard Garland) and he questions Smolkin if he "has seen the witch Helene?" He demands to examine the contents of the coffin, but all he finds is the body of an old man with a beard. Helene is hiding beneath the body. Pendragon reminds the gravedigger that coffins must be sealed, and it is nailed shut immediately. Smolkin heads off to the graveyard to finish his job.
A pair of owls, in a nearby tree, transform into lizards (or iguanas) then transform again into an Imp (Billy Barty) and a black cat. The cat then transforms into Livia the Witch (Allison Hayes). They observe the knight and she engages him in conversation. Pendragon tells Livia he is trying to prove Helene innocent of witchcraft, and seeks Smolkin to get his evidence. Livia is in love with Pendragon. After Pendragon departs, Livia transforms back into a cat and goes back to her tree to talk to her Imp.
Helene struggles to excape from the coffin. Pendragon meets Smolkin at the graveyard and questions him about his bewitchment. Did Helene do it? Smolkin cannot answer the question. Pendragon departs, and Smolkin carries the coffin to the hole, but he hears a cry from inside and releases Helene. Helene denies bewitching him and tells him that at dawn she and two others accused of witchcraft are to be executed. If she can hide for an additional day, she will have a full year to prove her innocence. The witch's Sabbath is scheduled for midnight in this very graveyard.
Livia enters the Gabriel's Horn Inn and meets with Scroop, the Innkeeper (Bruno VeSota). He tells her he's prepared to repel witches from his establishment. Pendragon enters the Inn and walks upstairs to his room, ordering Scroop to bring him some ale. Livia brings him his pitcher of ale. They talk, and she kisses him. She reminds Pendragon that Helene will die in the morning.
Smolkin takes Helene to the deepest part of the forest and directs her to a cottage where she will be safe for the night. There she meets the owner, Meg Maud, a witch (Dorothy Neumann) and screams. We are back in the office, and Diana is screaming. The professor demands Quintus wake her, but Quintus refuses. He suggests that the shock of waking her could kill her. Meg Maud opens the door to the cottage and invites Helene inside.
Meanwhile, back at the Inn, Scroop gives Pendragon the plans to the prison tower to aid in Helene's escape. He doesn't know she isn't there. Livia looks on, bemused. Helene explains to Meg that she managed her escape with the help of her future self, Diana Love, and learns that it was Livia that accused her of witchcraft. Meg heads over to the Inn to confer with Scroop. She tells Pendragon to go over to her cottage immediately. Pendragon leaves, and Meg heads upstairs to confront Livia, who has transformed herself back into a cat. When Meg enters, Livia has resumed human form. Livia reveals that she intends to marry Pendragon. Pendragon meets Helene at the cottage and they head back to the Inn. Smolkin finishes burying the corpse. Livia arrives and they discuss the witch's Sabbath that takes place at midnight.
Back in the office, Helene through Diana explains to Quintus and the professor that she will die soon. Diana has altered the past. The professor notices a bruise on Dianas forearm, and Quintus concludes the regression is both mental and physical. He proposes his own hypnosis to go back to Helens past life and correct their mistake. Meg and Helene leave the Inn and return to Meg's cottage. Livia arrives at the Inn to get Helene, but missing her, she collects a freshly severed head she needs for the Sabbath. It is Scroop's head. Smolkin tells Meg that Helene is in great danger from Livia and her Imp.
Quintus explains to the professor that if Helene does not die at the appointed time in the past, Diana and all the other lives she will live will never happen. Quintus must go back and make sure Helene dies at her appointed time and place. Livia promises Pendragon that she will use her powers to release Helene. Using black magic and witchcraft is the only way to save her--she reveals herself as a witch. Pendragon agrees, but Livia tells him the price is his soul. He must enter into a bargain with the devil at the Sabbath that midnight. He agrees.
Quintus, back in the office, is hooked up to some electrical apparatus. He and Diana are wired up and ready. The professor is very reluctant to participate. He hypnotizes Quintus to synchronize their brain waves. It works, and Quintus is transported back in time. He assumes the identity of a knight, steals his armor, and sets off to find Helene.
Meg Maud leaves for the Sabbath to observe. At the graveyard, the ceremony begins with a dance. Livia and Pendragon arrive, while Meg Maud looks on, unobserved. Livia offers up the severed head of Scroop and Satan appears. He is collecting souls and makes all interested parties sign his book. The first to sign is a leper (Richard "Dick" Miller). He signs, and is transformed back to normal, but now has a pitch fork tattoo on his hand. Livia presents Pendragon to Satan. Before Pendragon can sign the book, Quinus stops him. Satan recognizes Quintus, and tells him he has slipped the bounds of time. Quintus convinces Pendragon to follow him back to Meg Maud's cottage to be reunited with Helene. Pendragon learns of Livia's treachery and the role Quintus plays in all this. Quintus explains his mission to Meg Maud, while Smolkin, Helene, and Pendragon head for the woods. Livia arrives with Quintus, Meg, and Satan in the woods. There, Helene is presented with her choice--death now and future lives, or life now and no life for all her future selves. Each of the assembled offer their advise, even the voices of her future selves chime in.
Helene makes her choice, which is to die, and runs off. Pendragon confronts Livia and kills her with his knife. Helene arrives just in time for the headsman to take her head. Diana wakes up from her trance and explains to the professor that she is grateful to Helene and will make the effort to change her life. All that remains of Quintus, in the present, is an empty suit of clothes. Quintus is left with the Devil, who explains that his link to the future was with Helene, and now that she is dead, he is stuck in the past. We close with Satan taunting Quintus and laughing.
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