MOVIE DETAILS
Rating: 5.9 Out of 10
Release Date: October 28, 2014
Director: Peter Goddard
Writer: Peter Goddard
Cast: Beth Kingston, Tim McConnell, Barry Robbins
Genres: Thriller
oveRVIEW – Season Of The Witch
Season Of The Witch is an animated comedy-drama film featuring Nicolas Cage in a role that can often verge on farcical. Additionally, this movie raises serious concerns with regard to violence against women and children depicted within its plotline.
Behmen (Cage) and Felson (Hellboy’s Ron Perlman) are charged with transporting a suspected witch through treacherous terrain to stand trial for her crimes. Directed by Dominic Sena, this movie promises plenty of medieval ridiculousness!
The Plot
Season Of The Witch : After the Crusades, Europe is devastated by the Black Plague. To save his family, disillusioned knight Behmen (Nicolas Cage) and former soldier Felson (Ron Perlman) agree to bring an accused witch back to an abbey in hopes that monks can destroy her powers; but as they travel together they suspect she may actually be an evil force from hell.
Dominic Sena’s welcome return to period drama with this film falls flat due to its uninspired sets and action sequences; character attire can often be inappropriate; cast seems disengaged from their roles; however Perlman still manages to find moments of humor even in its dire script.
The story contains several intriguing concepts, but they’re never given enough room to flourish. While there’s some debate as to whether church torture of witches was justified by superstitions and ignorance, most of this debate goes unexplored in this film. Additionally, most beliefs of the time appear accepted without question – such as demons existing and that witches possess supernatural powers.
Though some scenes in the film may be effective, overall its failure to build suspense or atmosphere can be blamed on historical anachronisms such as plague doctors wearing bird masks which did not appear until post-medieval Europe and inaccurate dating of battle scenes within its timeline.
Season Of The Witch remains an engaging action and adventure film despite its flaws, featuring plenty of gore and some decent special effects. Although not quite on par with other movies of its type, Season Of The Witch still deserves consideration by those interested in its genre – just keep in mind it contains strong horror elements which should be taken with caution for preteens and all teenagers watching this movie.
The Cast
Season Of The Witch is an enjoyable film despite its mediocre script and overall feel of silliness, thanks to Dominic Sena (Gone In 60 Seconds, Whiteout), who delivers flashy action scenes against goofy period scenery that made him popular with action fans but with much lower budget this time. Unfortunately, however, Season Of The Witch feels like something of a let-down for him; costumes look cheap while its action sequences recall Dungeons & Dragons imitation.
After twelve years of rape and pillage in the Crusades, knights Behmen (Nicolas Cage) and Felson (Ron Perlman) decide to abandon their army and hit the road in search of redemption. When they arrive in a town ravaged by plague, they see an opportunity for redemption: transport an accused witch to a monastery where monks can destroy her powers to end pestilence and end it once and for all.
Behmen and Felson agree to act as her caretakers despite not possessing the required credentials to do so. Their disparate group consists of an injured knight on leave from battle, an excommunicate priest struggling with faith issues, and an upstanding salesman with access to an abbey nearby. Soon enough they discover that her powers are real as well as that evil forces are out for revenge against them.
The cast may not be particularly impressive, but they give it their all. Cage tries to be taken seriously but his over-the-top, overbearing mannerisms don’t fit with what this movie needs; Perlman proves more enjoyable as one half of a pair of buddy movie stars.
Season Of The Witch stands out with its overtly Christian content, prompting one to wonder whether its intentions were meant as moral justification of The Crusades or as criticism of Catholic Church corruption and torture of accused victims. Furthermore, Season Of The Witch raises issues regarding demons and whether plague was caused by witchcraft; unfortunately though it lacks depth and complexity to discuss these topics seriously but nevertheless provides fun entertainment with some exciting action sequences and several memorable lines from its cast that keep most viewers satisfied with viewing experience.
The Direction
This film is both hilariously bad and strangely enjoyable. It’s an action-adventure with an unexpectedly tense climax that features many great elements – such as demon wolf fight scenes and an exciting reveal at the end – but also contains many drawbacks like poor scripting, disconnected plotting and terrible acting by talented actors.
This film follows two deserters from the Crusades who are assigned the task of transporting a witch for trial at a monastery. Unfortunately, she turns out to be an evil demon who must be defeated to prevent further plague from spreading further. The movie does an excellent job highlighting two hotly debated aspects of church history – Crusades and witch hunts – as well as showing that not all witches were guilty.
This film is not historically accurate and tends to take a more modern view of witchcraft, while treating women unfairly, especially its main female character who seems merely as an instrument for evil and can never stand on her own. She seems only there as an extension of her husband’s ambitions rather than having any independent thoughts of her own.
As well as all this, the movie is also quite cheesey and often borders on slapstick. Additionally, there are some offensive language and scary horror scenes, but thankfully at the end there is some clear Christian content which helps redeem some of its negative qualities.
Overall, this B action movie offers some strong fight scenes and special effects. Though not recommended for kids due to some scary horror moments, the film still provides lots of entertainment value and should definitely be given a look; just don’t expect too much.
The Special Effects
Season of the Witch joins an already lengthy list of bad Nicolas Cage movies: bad apocalyptic thrillers and comic-book capers — as an attempt at medieval horror filmmaking. Cage appears with his long hair pulled straight from the washing machine tangled and in an unruly mess, sword fights & jousting ensue, with bad F/X effects and an uncertain script which often lacks focus between comedy or seriousness. Unfortunately it all amounts to nothing in Season of the Witch.
Behmen (Cage) and Felson (Hellboy’s Ron Perlman) are Teutonic knights returning from Crusades who find their homeland devastated by the Black Plague. Church elders blamed sorcery for its spread, so these knights are ordered by church elders to transport Claire Foy’s character – suspected witch – to an abbey for exorcism; but their journey is marred by mythically hostile wilderness conditions as well as fierce disagreement over her fate; grieving knight, petty swindler and headstrong youth join them along their journey.
Dominic Sena reuniting with Nicolas Cage after Gone in 60 Seconds directs this silly yet dull film that often fails to amuse. Sena’s laziness can be seen in action scenes that lack intensity and terror as well as horror sequences full of CGI that is goofier than frightening; period detail often lost amid unintelligible dialogue and unrealistic characters.
The movie does have some moments of suspense and amusing dialogue, but mostly it’s dull and silly. Even its attractive devil wolves don’t do much to stir fear, while its final confrontation doesn’t do anything special either. Perhaps filmmakers knew they had an entertaining cast with horror tropes that always work but couldn’t decide on an effective story to tell; thus resulting in this middling mishmash which fell far short of expectations despite having such great actors like Cage and Perlman as stars! It would have made more impactful horror movie filmmaking!
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