User Reviews

Season of the Witch is about two knights, Behmen and Felson, who have joined the crusades. Fed up with killing in the name of God they desert and head home. But needing to get some food and fresh horses they decide to enter a town, which they learn have been stricken with a horrific plague. The blame for it is put on a young woman, a girl, a self confessed witch. As deserters Behmen and Felson are first put in jail, but then released if they agree to escort the witch to Seravac, a monastery were they have an ancient book that will break the witch's power.

This movie, even if I always like knights, swords and the medieval times, rely heavily on Cage and Perlman, and they do it well. The action is good, the story is about average even if has some good puns and one-liners. The effects could be better, I'll have to say, and Season of the Witch won't be a movie that I remember for long but in the end the movie is good fun and entertaining all the way. And that's what is all about, isn't it?

6/10

Any film with Nicholas Cage or Ron Perleman in it is usually a stinker.

One with both? Actually, not that bad. It's like their awfulness cancel each other out.

The plot is that they play two crusading knights who return from the Crusades(which were pretty much over by 1347) are enlisted by the church to escort a suspected witch to a monastery with the last copy of the Key Of Solomon so they can expunge a demon from her. Except there really is a demon in her and she wants to get to the monastery to destroy the last copy.

The movie itself isn't that bad. It portrays a grimy, not pleasant vision of the "Dark Ages", and Cage and Perleman play their roles pretty well. There's some CGI action schlock at the end, but it isn't overdone.

Season of the Witch has a long and troubled history: production took place in November 2008 and it was originally supposed to hit cinema screens both in the UK and America in March 2010, but it was pulled from release, sat in limbo for several months, and seemed likely to bypass cinemas altogether and be quietly dumped straight onto DVD. Instead, additional footage was shot in September 2010 amidst rumours of extensive re-editing, and eventually a new release date of 7th January 2011 was announced. Initially intended as a dark, medieval horror film (rated R in America), it had been re-conceived - and was marketed as - a PG13-rated period fantasy/action-adventure.

The movie's narrative is uncomplicated and relatively straight-forward: in the 14th century, veteran Crusaders Behmen and Felson (Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman) grow weary of being ordered by the Church to slaughter women and children whose only crime is not being born Christian. Deserting, they set off on the long journey home and eventually reach eastern Europe to find it stricken with plague. The Catholic authorities have found a scapegoat for the spread of the disease: a young woman (Claire Foy) whose 'confession' of being a witch they obtained via torture. Arrested for desertion, Behman and Felson are offered a full pardon if they will transport the girl to a remote monastery, where the resident monks will perform a ritual to strip her of her powers, enabling her to be killed and thus ending the plague.

While nothing about the movie is particularly remarkable or ground-breaking, the cast all acquit themselves as talented professionals and for most of it's running time Season of the Witch is an entertaining and watchable effort. There are a number of well-handled setpieces on the knights' journey that whittle down their travelling companions, such as an attack by ravenous wolves that transform into hellhounds, and a perilous passage over a collapsing bridge. And although the film doesn't dwell on the wide-reaching effects of the plague, the Crusaders encounter some grisly and impressive sights: hundred of crows (carrion eaters, remember) circling over a city; a dying Cardinal (a cameoing Christopher Lee) hideously deformed by the disease; a starving dog - it's body ridden with weeping sores - feasting on a corpse; an apparently lifeless village in which two inhabitants suddenly emerge to silently dump a body in the street, before retreating back inside; and an open mass grave full of liquefying cadavers. The movie also touches upon all the blood that has been shed in God's name and the blinkered arrogance of those who claim to be His representatives. Some of the characters also express doubts: is the girl truly a witch? Is her early escape attempt merely the action of a terrified young woman who - understandably - wants to avoid being executed? And even if she does possess supernatural powers, is she responsible for the plague?

But eventually the travelling party arrive at the monastery... and the film goes horribly wrong. All the moral uncertainties are abandoned and the movie becomes a disappointingly conventional struggle between clearly defined Good and Evil. The all-action climatic setpiece is marred by hectic and muddled editing. But worse of all is what happens to the title character. In the trailer that played in cinemas prior to the film's aborted release in early 2010, there were three shots taken from the movie's climax as it was clearly originally conceived, before the film was substantially reworked: Claire Foy walking straight towards the camera in close up as the caged wagon burns and melts into molten scrap behind her; her then levitating - spinning - through the air, over the heads of her captors; and finally Foy grabbing Nicolas Cage by the throat and slamming him against a wall. All those scenes are still in the film - but Foy is no longer in them. Instead, she's been digitally removed from the footage and replaced by a CGI monster. Yes, that's right - at the movie's conclusion, the witch transforms into an unimpressive seven-foot-tall CGI winged demon that looks as though it's wandered in from the final reel of The Golden Child (1986). Ugh. In my opinion it's unnecessary, misguided and a complete mistake. For example, I thought the 'levitation' shot in the original trailer looked stunning... but in the released film, Foy merely morphs into a dodgy special effect, then blandly flies away. It's hugely disappointing.

Hopefully the original ending, with the heroes battling a demonically-possessed Foy (as opposed to an enemy comprised entirely of pixels), will be included as an extra on the DVD. Even more ideally, I'd like to see a two disc set with the original director's cut on one disc and the theatrically-released version on the other, but it'll never happen.

"Season of the Witch" is a genuinely suspenseful and thrilling start to the 2011 movie year. With a cast comprised of screen veterans and relative newcomers, this period piece about witchcraft and true nobility will keep you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end. After a gripping prologue which establishes that witches do, in fact, exist and can be quite deadly, the movie dives straight into the heart of the Crusades in the mid-14th Century, the stage for some of the bloodiest and most brutal battles in history; and also some of the greatest abuses of authority by the Christian church. Two knights, Behmen and Felson, played by Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman, enter the wars eager to fight at each other's side. However, as the horrors of war set in, the two become convinced that it would be better to desert and risk execution than continue the savage pursuit. It's a bit of a cliché, but director Dominic Sena handles it very well. The pair are eventually captured and brought to justice. However, the town in which they are arrested lies in the middle of a plague-stricken region. Even the local Cardinal, played by Christopher Lee, has fallen ill. He promises the knights they will be pardoned if they agree to help lift the curse he believes is the cause of the plague: a young woman accused of witchcraft must be taken to a monastery where certain rites must be performed that would end the curse. The girl, of course, would be executed. The errant knights have no desire to aid the church that has been the cause of so much suffering, but Behmen believes the girl's chances of a fair trial are much higher if they travel with her. It is not long before the small band of travelers encounters trouble, though, and even Behmen cannot ignore the likelihood that the girl is behind it all. As the young priest who accompanies them warns him, the girl will try to sow doubt and dissension in the minds of whomever comes close enough to hear her speak. Soon, it becomes clear that even traveling with her places each of their lives in danger. "Season" hovers on the edge of clicheness fairly often. There are a few moments that could have gone either way, including the "buddy" dynamic between Behmen and Felson and the inclusion of Kay, the young altar boy who accompanies them hoping to become a knight like his father was. These moments, however, lend a much-needed lightheartedness to a movie that keeps your heart pounding almost nonstop, and the caliber of the acting and directing keep it from going over the edge. The balance of seasoned and up-and-coming actors also works well in "Season". Claire Foy, in particular, is a delight to watch as she runs the gamut of roles from simple peasant and hapless victim to shrewd manipulator and evil menace. Cage and Perlman seem a touch out of place at times in medieval Europe, but as friends willing to fight together even in the face of Hell, they fit perfectly. It's not the standard winter movie fare, perhaps, but it's definitely spellbinding. )

If you enjoy unauthentic accents, looking at hair plugs, listening to B movie dialogue and if you agree with the delusional and paranoid religious fanatics of this time period that the innocent women they hanged and burned were INDEED witches and possessed by the devil then you'll love this movie.

It also included a couple of ripped ideas: Keira Knightley also rode in a caged wagon in the King Arthur movie while Clive Owen rode on horseback beside her during their journey.

Filming the forest and mountain scenes were just like ALL the scenes in Lord of the Rings. It was confusing because I wasn't sure if the director was taking us to a castle in the middle of nowhere to save the witch-demon-devil or if we were taking her to Middle Earth to drop her in the fires of Mordor ...but only if Gollum didn't catch up with them first.

PS: one of the character's name in this movie was Debelzaq. My sister whispered in my ear during the movie that When the other characters said his name it sounded like "Ball Sack". So every time I heard "Ball Sack" I giggled. (this was the only comic relief in the whole movie)

Another PS: There was actually one more comedic relief in the movie I almost failed to mention, when the devil or demon or whatever the hell it was finally showed itself at the end, his face was all scary-like and nasty and gruesome ...and then he spoke... and sounded like a very soft-spoken and refined Rupert Everett. Gotta love it.

This is one of the worse scripts I've seen.

I just saw Quest for Fire. What a difference a script makes! We have a town that is going to judge three witches. Are these villagers going to be punished somehow for their injustice? No, people, witches actually exist. Why this first scene? To prepare the watcher for more cruelty without any sense. We cut to two crusaders under the lead of a murderer, whose only objective is to kill infidels. Well, you say, don't worry, the moral of the story is coming.

They take a girl to trial. For half an hour you expect the film to show how credulity should be despised, because, for the love of Pete, who's going to believe that you should burn a person for witchcraft? In a fantasy film, where characters have a purpose and our hero an objective, well... OK, but what's this? Don't trust on coherence. The sweet girl they see and that is going to be judged for causing a pest, well, yeah, it is actually a monster and it is really causing the disease. So, of course, you can stab, maim and kill without a hint of conscience.

There are too many flaws in the mind of the writer. Styria, part of Austria, becomes the cost of... Syria? I don't know. Jackrabbits exist in the middle ages. The conquest of Jerusalem is a fanatic race to kill the inhabitants. There is a fictitious battle of Edremit, a siege of Tripoli moved from 1102 to 1334, the battle of Imbros, which happened in 1717 is moved to 1337, the battle of Artah is also moved from 1101 to 1339, the Battle of Smyrna beats me... it can be the name of the 1922 Battle of independence of Ataturk... that happened in 1922. The last crusaders were expelled in 1291 in the name of Herodotus soul! These guys are fighting 50 years later. That's how good is the script, made probably with a map in the hand and a LOT of imagination.

Acting is good.

Do not waste your time in this movie, unless you like stories without coherence, nonsense killings, more than regular computer animated characters that say nothing and films where everybody is killed. It's a miracle that the director and cameramen weren't killed in this movie.

Dominic Sena repeats what he did with 2001's Swordfish in this Dark Ages Sword and Sorcery tale of woe.

We begin thinking that this is strictly about the age of Unreason where women were killed by the thousands accused of witchcraft.

But in fact, it is not about that at all, but the underlying story of a girl being toted to a town where she could be tried as a witch, is just the mechanism with which Sena gets us to the final act of the film.

So think Ghost Rider/Knowing's Nick Cage and Hellboy's Ron Pearlman as they first desert a church-sanctioned army after years of slaughtering innocents, they finally have had enough and begin to question what they are doing. But they are caught in a town which they cannot ride past, as they have farm horses- They are recognized as Deserters and arrested, but then they are immediately recruited by the church to bring a girl accused of witchcraft and starting the Black Plague to the Abbey of Severac so they can try her and recite incantations over her from the Book of Solomon. At first this sounds simple, they recruit a man who was caught selling fake relics, Hagamar played by Stephen Graham (Pirates of the Caribbean On Stranger Tides). He is the only one who knows the quickest route to The Abbey. Along with them go a priest (Nicholas Sidi) and another Knight (Ulrik Thomsen) - And in short order they are joined by an Altar-Boy who wants to be a Knight, Robert Sheehan as Kay Von Wollenbarth.

So, the gang is all here and so they go forth on their unexpected journey. Needless to say, they are killed off one by one by a series of various unfortunate events.

Until all that are left are the Cage and Pearlman, Sheehan, and the priest.

The thing I liked was the character development and the interaction between Cage and Pearlman is as expected. Also that things are not as they seem: Initially we think that the priest traveling with them is someone who enjoys killing women just to flaunt his authority, but this is not the case at all. We are buffeted with conflicting information regarding the characters of both the Girl being transported (Claire Foy as Anna) and the priest. Which one is lying, which one is telling the truth? Eventually we find out but not before the bloodshed starts.

But it is not as simple as bringing a girl to an abbey and see if the Monks burn her at the stake. This girl is extraordinary. Is she really a witch, or is she faking it or maybe mentally ill?

But "Nothing is as it seems" even in this simple movie. For this reason, I give it a high rating, just for the twists I was not expecting, also Sena is a very visual director and he does not lag with this effort.

I'm surprised this film was nominated for two razzies, in a way I can understand why it did not go over well, but this is the kind of movie I like. The main characters chase after one thing, only to find they need to be very worried about something else. It's Fringe Division in the Dark Ages.

Disillusioned by the Crusades, knights Behmen and Felson are prevailed upon to escort a suspected witch from plague-infested somewhere to plague-infested somewhere else.

This project features Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman as the two knights, a handful of others in featured parts, and people called Szabo as everyone else in the cast and crew. I'm guessing it was a project financed by the Hungarian Film Commission or similar.

Thanks to a pre-title sequence, we know that there is definitely some sinister supernatural manifestation going on, so the captive girl may indeed be guilty of witchcraft. Without giving away who, what or why, the climax does have a dodgy CGI critter up to no good.

The script is a hoot. It makes no concession to mediaeval phraseology whatsoever and is resolutely 21st century throughout (Roy Scheider's famous Jaws ad lib is referenced in "I think we're going to have to get more Holy Water.").

The acting is functional, the makeup and costuming is good (and often revolting), there is lots of action (which often coyly turns its head rather than display any real violence), there is a sense of production value which may be partly illusory, and there is an opening montage of fighting during the Crusades which goes on far too long after it has made its point.

In summary, while I quite enjoyed it, it was pretty cheesy, and not worthy at all.

Thankfully I waited until this came out on DVD, borrowed it from a friend, and then watched it. This is one of the most atrocious movies that I've had the opportunity to view in the last decade. Where can I possibly begin?

Let's start with the basic premise. A girl is accused of being a witch and spreading the Black Plague across Europe. She's held in a dungeon in some random European locale and needs to be transported "four hundred leagues, which is about a six days journey" to a monastery in an even more remote random European locale by a batch of relapsed Catholics held together by a suspicious-looking priest. Of course she's in a prison wagon, and of course all sorts of bad things happen. And, I might add, not just any old bad things. Clichéd bad things. Wolves attacking at night in a forest. Your quintessential rope bridge spanning a thousand- foot gorge in the mountains. Ooh, and guess what? The planks are old and rotted and the ropes are unraveling and about to give way. Stop me if you've heard this one.

Someone decided that it would be a sneaky move to cast doubt and suspicion on the priest. After all, priests are great bad guys, right? So you have this innocent-looking "waif" (their word, not mine) who keeps screaming that she doesn't want to be alone with the priest (Really? How subliminally anti-Catholic is this?). The priest does his part by keeping his cowl up and looking suitably creepy and everyone else looks at him with a marked lack of trust. Now, about halfway through this, loyalties shift and the people who wanted to provide this girl with a fair trial are now suddenly hellbent on killing her and the priest is the good guy again. Whew! Crisis averted.

Speaking of anti-Catholic, Nicholas Cage's character, who is so memorable that I've already forgotten his name less than twenty minutes after watching the movie, is a Crusader. He decides that he's had enough of crusading after he and his trusty sidekick (played by Ron Perlman, who should have stuck with Hellboy) arrive at an epiphany about the evils of killing in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. They make absolutely no bones about this fact to anyone, and their heart-stirring rebellion culminates in Cage's guy saying (very dramatically), "I serve God. I no longer serve the church!" *gasp!* It's farcical.

Speaking of farcical...have you heard the one about the bunch of actors who are portraying Europeans but all speak with Midwestern accents? There's not a bad British accent anywhere in here. You know, I've never yearned for a bad British accent until this movie.

Long story short, the girl's not a witch, she's a demon. The demon's revealed to be a horrible CGI, people get burned, everyone dies, the young kid and the girl ride off into the sunset, Black Plague avoided.

Best part of the movie? Watching Ron Perlman trying to keep a straight face while he delivers his lines. Or is it Nicholas Cage trying to rediscover his inner Sorcerer's Apprentice?

I'll never get these two hours back.