Season of the Witch Review

Written by: alex1176   

"Season of the Witch" is like a 70's Italian exploitation horror film without the explicit gore, sex and nudity. It stars Nicolas Cage and Ron Pearlman as brothers-in-arms who fight side-by-side in every battle the Crusades ever had (from I could tell). If you ever saw the opening credit sequence of "Wolverine: X-Men Origins", then you'd be quite familiar with the beginning of this film. Actually, the movie starts about a century before Behmen (Cage) or Felson (Pearlman) ever pick up a sword. It stars out with the hanging of three women convicted of witchery. But before a priest can recite a mandatory incantation, one of the corpses rises from its watery grave and kills him.

Thus, "Season of the Witch" begins its tale of Behmen and Felson's (who are deserters of the Church's army) journey to a village which has been ravaged by the plague. Once the two are jailed there (for going AWOL), they are told that if they deliver a detained witch to a monastary for trial, their charges will be dropped. The town believes that once the witch is gone, the plague will disappear. The great Christopher Lee makes a cameo appearance in this tripe as the Cardinal who orders Nic and Ron to do this one last job for the Church. I forgot to mention that Behmen feels guilty for killing an innocent woman during a raid on a village. That's the reason for his reluctance to fight for the Church. Felson, on the other hand, doesn't care which is really quite funny since these fellows are suppose to be Christians.

In a sense, "Season of the Witch" would've been better as a hack 'n slash video game a la EA's "Dante's Inferno" or perhaps it could've been a really great spoof. Instead, the movie is too darn serious for its own good, and as a result is easily one of the worst movies of 2011. Seriously, this is the kind of film the MST 3000 crew pokes fun of by adding dialogue of their own. Still, considering that's it a Nic Cage film, that should be of no surprise. After all, the actor has no shame in starring in truly awful films ("The Wicker Man", "Drive Angry"). Speaking of video games, the actual threat in this movie looks like its straight out of "World of Warcraft" or some other fantasy RPG title. Seriously, Tippett Studios disappoints with their creation of the evil creature that appears in the climax of the film.

This is the kind of film that you can watch at home while eating a pizza for maximum enjoyment. It may be bad, but at least it's entertaining on that bottom feeder level.