DVD Reviews

Season of the Witch – DVD Review

By Jeff Swindoll Jul 8, 2011, 12:28 GMT

Oscar(R) winner Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman star in this supernatural action adventure about a heroic crusader and his closest friend who return hom after decades of fierce fighting, only to find their world destroyed by the Plague. The church elders, convinced that a girl accused of being a witch is responsible for the devastation, command the two to transport the strange girl to a remote monastery where monks will ...more

Nicholas Cage comes home from the Crusades and gets involved in transporting an accused witch for trial, if only his current personal problems were so easy.

In the late 1300s, Behmen of Bleiruck (Nicolas Cage) and his friend Felson (Ron Perlman) are involved in the Holy Crusades. They discover that God has many enemies and some of them are women and children. This doesn’t set well with the duo and they desert and head for home.

They find their homeland besieged with plague but are traveling incognito because of their desertion. They arrive at a village and are recognized and arrested.

They’re brought before the dying Cardinal (Christopher Lee) who offers them a deal – take a girl (Claire Foy) accused of witchcraft to a faraway abbey for exorcism with rituals from a rare book and they have their freedom.

Behmen refuses and the two go back to their prison. After watching the girl, who is in the cell next to the ex-Crusaders, Behmen agrees to escort her if she is guaranteed a fair trial.

So Behmen, Felson, the priest Delbelzeq (Stephen Campbell Moore), knight Johann (Ulrich Thomsen), their guide the shifty Hagamar (Stephen Graham), and they’re later joined by altar boy wanting to be a knight Kay (Robert Sheehan).

The group finds that not only are their natural dangers on the journey, but supernatural ones as well.

If there were any justice, when Christopher Lee, saddled with a bit too much makeup, has his cameo his first line to Nicholas Cage would be “what did you do to the Wicker Man!?!” Alas, this didn’t happen.

Cage has certainly been in the news lately with regards to his personal life, but he’s rather subdued in his role in the movie. It’s an uneven performance. I may have to fall back on the “Nicholas Cage hair theory” about his performances because sometimes the old mane looks okay but others it looks fake.

We never really connect with Cage’s character, as we should. Ron Perlman adds more panache to his and the other supporting players do a good job. The show relies too heavily on CGI for its sets and monsters so there’s more of a feel of a video game.

It wasn’t terrible but it may have benefited more from a more compelling lead performance. Cage just didn’t seem to be giving it his all.

Season of the Witch is presented in widescreen (1.85:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include 10 minutes of deleted scenes, the 8 minute “Becoming the Demon” about the film’s climax, the 6 minute “On a Crusade” about those sequences, a 9 minute alternate ending, and the 2 minute theatrical trailer.

Season of the Witch never really soars, but it certainly isn’t the wart that most made it out to be. It’s a watchable adventure, but one wishes that Cage had given more or at least a much as Perlman did.