Season of the Witch (2011)

"14th-century knights transport a suspected witch to a monastery, where monks deduce her powers could be the source of the Black Plague."

I wasn't really expecting much from "Season of the Witch" and was at least hoping to be entertained in a completely anachronistic action-packed way. I like films about witches and medieval witchcraft but this wasn't even as much fun as Full Moon's "The Pit and the Pendulum" (1991) which I watched a couple of nights ago just to get myself in the mood.

The highlights for me were Ron Perlman's character and, of course, Claire Foy as the witch. I just wish that the story had gone a different and more witchcraft based way rather than ending up with a messy CGI demon. Given the amount of effort that was obviously put in to make everything else look right, it was a shame.

Although I'm a big fan of Nicolas Cage, I have to say that "Season of the Witch" is far from his finest hour. He occasionally does the action hero role really well but this was not one of those times. Apart from getting a bit shouty and looking really awkward in his armour, I can't say that I'll remember his role as Behman. It was just so two-dimensional that he was eclipsed by everyone else that he shared a scene with.

The dialogue is what really let "Season of the Witch" down the most though. Sometimes it was all mock-Shakespearian hyperbole and then everyone seemed to forget what time period the film was set in completely and it all got jarringly modern. With too many comedic elements thrown in anyway, this kind of bathos just doomed the whole production to lacklustre B-movie status.

I don't recommend "Season of the Witch" unless you are really bored and can't find anything better to watch. Bear in mind that it's just a PG-13 film released in January with all the other movies that the studios don't really know what to do with.

Hopefully the year will get better but, from what I've seen so far outside of the horror genre, I don't think it will.