Season of the Witch starts out promising … in an Army of Darkness sort of way. Then you realize that it is taking itself way too seriously and fails to become interesting or entertaining.
The film opens with three women being executed as witches. Then one comes back to life and kills the priest. Cut to the front lines of the crusades where we meet Behmen (Nicolas Cage) and Felson (Ron Perlman) two buddies who see the slaughter of the crusades as a game. “You take the 300 on the left, I’ll take the 300 on the right.” The loser buys the beer. That is until Behmen kills a woman and the two buddies realize what they are doing is wrong, prompting their resignation.
They return home to find their town riddled with plaque, the powers that be blame a witch and ask the two friends to take her to a sacred place where she can properly disposed of. The two agree and their adventure begins.
If the film were interesting, the running plot of the film would be: Is this girl a witch or isn’t she? And if she is, is she a good witch or a bad one? Or are things not so black and white? However, the movie makes it pretty abundantly clear what is going on leaving very little to question.
The worst/most hilarious part of this film is Cage and Perlman. This is supposed to be the 1300s and they aren’t even trying to get into character (which is presumably British). They don’t even try, which destroys any semblance of believability the film might have had. Perlman sounds just like he does on Sons of Anarchy and while his style works there it doesn’t really do so here. Also their “witty banter” is painfully modern. The effort the other actors put into trying to sound 14th century British is completely wasted by the two leads.
Witch could have been an interesting film about man questioning his values and what he perceives as truth. Instead it spirals downward into a bad CGI laden action film with a horribly pointless twist with nothing to off except one of the characters paraphrasing Jaws by saying, “We’re going to need more holy water.”
This film is presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen and 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio with English, French and Spanish subtitles. The film looks pretty good when it’s not bad green screen. The sound is pretty bad, I kept having to turn it up and down between the big action sequences.
In terms of extras, 10 minutes of Deleted Scenes have nothing of interest. Becoming a Demon (8 min.) A closer look at how the bad special effects at the end of the film came together. On A Crusade (6 min.) A look at the montage of battles scenes at the beginning of the film and why they were added to the film. Alternate Ending (9 min.) This is a much more interesting cut of the final battle with far less use of bad CGI. Theatrical Trailer and a Digital Copy.
Season of the Witch is the kind of film that makes one glad that Rifftrax exists. I really hope they tackle this film soon cause I for one will be lining up to see it, which will make it that much more entertaining.
20th Century Fox presents Season of the Witch. Directed by: Dominic Sena. Starring: Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman. Written by Bragi Schut. Running time: 95 min. Rating: PG-13 for thematic elements, violence and disturbing content. Released on DVD: June 28, 2011. Available at Amazon.com.
