Nicholas Cage:  Behman
Ron Pearlman:  Felson
Claire Foy:  The Girl
Stephen Campbell Moore:  Debelzaq
Robert Sheehan:  Kay
Ulrich Thomsen:  Eckhardt
Stephen Graham:  Hagmar
Christopher Lee: 
                          Cardinal D’Ambroise

Release Date: January 7, 2011
Studio: Relativity Media
Genre: Fantasy / Action
Rated: PG-13   1 hr 38 mins

CAST:

Season of the Witch

January 9, 2011

Reviewer: Rottenbucher

DIRECTOR:

Dominic Sena

*Comments:

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What happens when bankable marquee stars appear in a film that released in January?  Usually nothing spectacular. January released films are usually the products studios don’t know what to do with. Season of the Witch arrives in theaters with a some advertising fanfare, plenty of action, bits of horror and several other genre expectations all while starring the praised and panned Nicholas Cage.  

Crusaders Behman (Cage) and Felson (Ron Pearlman, Hellboy) desert from the Holy Army after a battle kills women and children.  The two travel north to find all is not well in the countryside. A virulent plague has spread across the land and is laying waste to villages.  The two Knights try to gather up supplies and better horses for a return home but are discovered as deserters.  Gruesomely diseased Cardinal D’Ambroise (Sir Christopher Lee) presents the duo with an offer to either transport the plague-wielding witch to a neighboring monastery or be tried as deserters. When Behman sees the witch (Claire Foy) is an innocent-looking young girl being tortured in the dungeons he accepts the mission, but denies service to God.  The group picks up a few others for the journey including a knight (Ulrich Thomsen, Kingdom of Heaven, The World is Not Enough) an altar boy (Robert Sheehan, Misfits) and an untrustworthy guide Hagmar (Stephen Graham, Boardwalk Empire).  The path takes them though eerie forests and diseased domains as the suspected witch pleads to be set free and pits the members against each other.

The main problem with Season of the Witch is the film has no real identity.  The film shifts between horror, supernatural thriller, adventure, quest and period genres at almost any given moment.  At the start, Season of the Witch is a horror film, then it quickly jumps to the Crusades before bringing us to medieval Europe and then through the woods to grandmother’s house where they find the one ring to rule them all.  Actually a dreary monastery and the famed grimoire, Key of Solomon.  But the genre shifts also wreak havoc on the actors.  Sir Christopher Lee is utilized only in the historic and horror aspects of the film. The seasoned actor appears in the most make-up since The Curse of Frankenstein and looks absolutely spectacular besieged by the plague.  Cage and Pearlman are the heroic leads that never seem to fully grasp their roles or situations.  First Cage and Pearlman are loyal Knights, then they move onto rouge agents looking for salvation to begrudgingly doing the Lord’s/Cardinal’s work before having to regain faith to save the day.  Cage is clearly the lead, but at times purposely or accidently hands over the role to Pearlman who is obviously cast as the buddy that seems unsure how to handle so much screen time.  The supporting cast adds depth but is underutilized. Thomsen’s knight acts as the true hero and troubled priest Debelzaq (Stephen Campbell Moore) almost steals the show late in the film while Hagmar is left to add to Pearlman’s comedic one-liners. The title character however does add much needed tension and the fledgling actress does a good job at moving from innocent to seductive to evil to misjudged.

Horror fans will love the bloated corpses, violent hangings and possessed hags while period-piece fans will dig the costumes and castles. Action fans will enjoy the battles with heathens and demons and historical purists will appreciate the brief scene with Lee. But for a film that boils down closest to supernatural thriller, the film is short on thrills.  Watching the film is it clear this is probably the fault of the PG-13 rating and mass-appeal attempts from the producers. Director Dominic Sena (Kalifornia, Swordfish) also seemed torn between having the film come off as a spooky period-piece yarn or a subtle tribute to the supernatural B-horror films of the 60s. 

Is Season of the Witch an awful film?  No. But for being a B-film with star power, it barely earns a C grade. The film suffered delays due to distribution deals and the reshoots also appear to be very noticeable in the final product with several scenes that appeared simply tossed in.  But Season of the Witch would have been much better if it actually picked a genre and stayed in it instead of trying walk the fine line between so many and allowing CGI mayhem to augment for scares either absent from the script or too gruesome to allow for a PG-13 rating.  If there ever was a film that needed a director’s cut, this is it. Plagued by Hollywood’s marketing demons, Season of the Witch is at best a rental.

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