Nicholas Cage (Drive Angry, National Treasure) and Ron Perlman (Hellboy) star as Behman and Felson, disenchanted crusaders that break their vows and return to their homelands. There they find the Roman Empire crumbing under the weight of a devastating plague. Behman and Felson are recognized and arrested for being deserters and sentenced to death unless they agree to escort a young woman believed to be the witch that has brought the plague upon the Romans to a far off monetary where she will be tried by an elite group of monks. Preferring life to death the duo reluctantly agree.
When Season of the Witch hit theaters it did so without being screened by many critics. This is usually a sign that the film studio believes that reviews will either be overwhelmingly negative or have little to no impact on how well the film does. In the case of Season of the Witch it was a combination of the two. Clearly Relativity Media, who decided to release the film on their own when Lionsgate backed out, knew that they had a quirky film that was essentially an overblown B-movie identity issues. Still, being a sucker for campy genre films, I had to see it. It wasn’t nearly as bad as some claimed, but it also wasn’t remotely as good as it should have been.
Watching the film for a second time I’m sorry to report that my feelings remain unchanged. Season of the Witch simply doesn’t understand what kind of film it is. The dialogue suggests that the movie was written as an action comedy rather than a historical epic. The direction however suggests that director Dominic Sena (Whiteout, Swordfish) believes that he is making a serious sequel to Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven. The actors tend to stick to Sena’s chosen tone and the results are unintentionally silly. The only exceptions are Perlman, who clearly sees the script for exactly what it is, and Claire Foy as the purposely-schizophrenic young woman accused of being a witch. Cage for his part just comes across as being completely out of place. The actors aren’t completely without fault but the majority of the film’s problems rest on Sena’s shoulders.
The bonus features include 10 minutes of deleted scenes that are mostly moments that were trimmed rather than completely new scenarios and an alternate ending that doesn’t change anything thematically but strips back the special effects that were used in the theatrical release. There are also two 10-minute featurettes. One looks at Tippet Studio’s special effects and the other explains reworking of the film’s introduction by including a montage of fight scenes from the Crusades. Sena is noticeably absent. A commentary with Sena and screenwriter Bragi F. Schut (Threshold) would have been much appreciated.