Wrongly Accused?
Behman and Felson are Crusaders who have killed dozens in the name of God. During one battle, Behman stabs a young woman and suddenly has a realization that the Church has become too zealous in its efforts to stomp out all pagan folk. He and Felson desert; a month later they stumble into a town and are arrested when Behman’s sword, adorned with a certain crest, is discovered and reported. A Cardinal, ill from the Black Plague that has been sweeping across the lands, asks the two warriors to serve the church just once more by leading the transportation of a confessed witch to a monastery some six days away by horse. They believe that if the witch stands trial at the monastery, the Black Plague will end. In exchange, Behman and Felson will not be charged for abandoning their oath to the church.
The two reluctantly take the offer, recruiting a skilled Knight, Eckhart (Ulrich Thomsen) and Hagamar (Stephen Graham), a guide, to join them. Stephen Campbell Moore, who plays the shifty-eyed priest Debelzaq, also comes along. Eventually, one more, Kay (Robert Sheehan) joins them in hopes of coming back home and becoming a knight like his father.
Claire Foy is the girl in the prison wagon who is believed to be the witch. From the very start of the journey, it isn’t perfectly clear if she’s a true witch or not. The minds of the travelers begin to turn on them and they soon grow weary of their task and of one another, but the are able to collectively hold it together and soon reach the monastery with at least most of their original group en-tow.
What they discover upon arrival disheartens them, but they don’t have much time to fret over the thought of a never-ending plague before their own lives are more imminently threatened. Who is this girl? What has happened to the monks at the monastery?
Season of the Witch made for a great Saturday afternoon movie. The script had me interested early on, although I normally don’t watch supernatural movies, and the acting by the lead roles was good. Cage and Perlman make for a pretty good combination actually; in this case, their characters were sort of brain (Cage) and brawn (Perlman), although both can handle themselves in combat, and Perlman provides some good subtle humor, too. The end of the movie gets a little CG heavy in parts, but I didn’t see the ending coming, which was good. I also liked that the ending was spread out — it could have been wrapped up quickly, but instead the story ramps up, plateaus, and then ramps up one more time over the course of about twenty minutes.
On Blu-ray
Season of the Witch is a new, high dollar production so you would expect it to look superb on Blu-ray. It does. While the CG is very good, I liked the castles and landscape views the best, actually. Regardless of light or dark scene, near or far, the visual clarity it high and commendable. I really don’t have any complaints with the overall visual presentation. The audio is also great and includes the distinctive voices of Cage and Perlman as well as the evil supernatural voices that are nicely done.
There are a few extra features included with this release as well as the Digital Copy disc. The extras are:
-Trailer (HD)
-Alternate Ending (9m20s, HD) – Most of this nearly ten minute alternate ending is not new footage. Also, ‘alternate’ in this case means ‘not as good as the original.’
-Deleted Scenes (10m, HD) – Seven deleted scenes included here, although one in particular, the Unrated Prologue, eats up over two minutes of this content with little to nothing changed from the theatrical cut.
-Becoming the Demon (8.5m, HD) – This was an interesting feature where the folks from Tippett Studios, who did the heavy CG lifting at the end of the movie, share their thoughts and techniques on making the demon come to life.
-On A Crusade (6m, HD) – Stunt crew and others in the crew talk about making the big battle scenes that are featured at the start of the movie. Production footage is shown, including a bunch of guys with fake weapons acting out a battle somewhere in LA.
To the summary…