Dir. Dominic Sena
Writ. Bragi F. Schut
Act. Nicolas Cage, Ron Perlman, Claire Foy

I was concerned that this movie would be bad. I read a sports writer's article that compared a Charlie Whitehurst lead Seattle Seahawk team was as ill-conceived idea as Nicholas Cage starring in a movie called Season of the Witch (for those of you who don't know, to compare Charlie Whitehurst to a movie actor and role, imagine Adam Sandler starring as Oskar Schindler in Schindler's Lit.) Alas I went anyway and I enjoyed myself at the movie but didn't come away with much.

Two Knights of the Crusade, Behman, played by Nicolas Cage (The Sorcerer's Apprentice,) and Felson, played by Ron Perlman (Hellboy,) are coerced into escorting a woman, played by Claire Foy (BBC TV Series Little Dorrit,) who is accused of witchcraft to a castle where she will have her trial. Along the way Behman believes that the girl may not be a witch but there is something very supernatural about her and has his doubts about completing the task.

My dilemma is that I love these kind of old world sword and sorcery, medieval films but they usually blow so bad that I am embarrassed that I have seen them let alone like them. For an example I give you the movie Bloodrayne. But with Nicholas Cage in it, even though he hasn't had good luck recently, the movie couldn't be horrible.

What I liked about the film obviously is the setting and the era in which it took place. But that is where the movie has its problems almost immediately. The scenes that were close in or close quarters, the special effects, sets, design, costumes were all excellent I thought. All of the up close scenes with plague victims were quite disgusting. Especially the scene with Cardinal D'Ambroise, played by Christopher Lee (Star Wars Episode I-III,) were particularly disgusting because, well, I didn't realize it was Lee until I saw the credits. However, once the movie switched to a wide shot with large backgrounds, like the Arabian Desert, or the forests with castles in the distance, it became painfully obvious that the actors were in front of a green screen and there was enough money to fine tune the special effects. Also the climax of the movie that had the knights going against the girl, who turned out to be possessed by a demon, and not a witch, was painful in that the demon was poorly done. Not as bad as the movie "A Sound of Thunder" but it was clear that it was missing some detail.

Another problem I had was that besides from the two knights, we didn't get clear motivations from the rest of the characters in the story. Character development started for all of them but it was never finished. So while I was hooked in the beginning as the movie went I began to lose interest because the motivations became fuzzy.

I will say that I was surprised to learn that the hook of the movie was that she wasn't a witch but in fact possessed by a demon who wants to find the last remaining book that has the writings on performing exorcisms. All those who know me know that I am a big fan of any movie that has the whole Devil vs. Catholicism because it just freaks me out. For those of you who don't know, I have to watch the movie The Exorcist during the day with the blinds open…during the summer. So I briefly got to experience a tame version of a exorcism type atmosphere but it allowed me to enjoy the final scene and look over the motivation and poor special effects of the demon.

I can only recommend people to see this movie if you at all have any interest in the medieval time period, witches, and the devil vs. Catholicism. I will definitely watch the movie if it shows up on the Stars Network, but I doubt if I will own it. But I liked it, it's just not very good.

Brian - the Naked Gun