Season of the Witch: Fails To Cast A Spell

Season of the Witch has a lot going for it. There’s an intriguing idea. In short, a rag-tag group of Crusade-era men have to transport a possible witch to a monk’s abbey in the hope of lifting a never-ending plague. Also, 14-century Europe provides a beautiful backdrop. The digital landscaping can leave you a little breathless at times. Then again, that’s not really a lot to get behind. And, I’m not sure I would have focused on the idea or the landscape so much if there was actually something entertaining on the big screen in front of me. Coming in at about 90 minutes, I wouldn’t call the movie torture exactly. At least, the pain inflicted was quick, but Season of the Witch would most definitely be classified as snooze-worthy blather.

The main problem, in my opinion, is that director Dominic Sena doesn’t ever solidify what the film is suppose to be. Is it fantasy? Religious thriller? A redemption piece? The tone and theme of the film were completely muddled, and I walked away with no clue. Add the fact that the movie was labeled PG-13, instead of R, which it could have been with all the fighting and violence, and it was like Sena only wanted to go halfway there from start to finish. I was surprised. The director isn’t known for fantastic movies, but he has made entertaining, fast-paced, and thrilling films out of very little substantive material. He should have been able to do the same here. Instead, I watched something heavy-handed, boring and leaden.

The actors might as well have phoned it in too. For the most part, they could have been set pieces, included to move the plot along but not really adding anything meaningful to the whole. Besides the leads of Behman and Felson, played by Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman respectively, the audience never gets to know the periphery characters. And even Behman and Felson appear as caricatures more than characters. There’s Hagamar (Stephen Graham), their con artist guide, and Eckhardt (Ulrich Thomsen), a knight who’s recently lost his entire family to the plague. Kay (Robert Sheehan), a young altar boy who wants to be a night, tags along, and Debelzap (Stephen Campbell Moore), the priest who never wavers in his belief that “The Girl,” played by Claire Foy, is a bonafide evil.

Normally, I can rely on Cage for some over-the-top acting that, at least, draws my attention! Cage has won an Oscar, and can elevate even a horrible movie like Knowing. Do you know why? Because no matter what, he appears 100% convicted in his roles and whatever ludicrous things he may have to spew. Unfortunately, here, Cage seems to have just tuned out. Am I supposed to believe that he’s this viral, powerful knight who can slay just about everything that stands in his way, even the supernatural, when he looks so downtrodden, worn down and blank-eyed throughout the entire film? Mentally, he’s supposed to be battling with the fact that he’s killed so many innocents in the name of God’s crusades, the reason he and his fighting friend Felson became deserters in the first place. Typically, Cage plays the wounded soul extremely well, but here, it’s as if he’s saying the words but emoting nothing.

Still, even if Cage had brought his A-game, Bragi Schut‘s writing is so fomulaic and predictable that even Classic Cage couldn’t save this film. This doesn’t shock me since Schut hasn’t done very much outside of thirteen episodes of the quickly canceled Threshold. At least, Perlman injects some needed lightness, flair and joviality to the dry film. He’s, by far, the best part of Season of the Witch. And, kudos to Christopher Lee for his appearance as a dying Cardinal. Let’s just say his brief appearance leaves quite the image in your head.

Overall, I didn’t expect Season of the Witch to be award-worthy, but with the combo of Sena-Cage-Perlman, I wanted to have some fun and maybe a tiny thrill. Sadly, I walked away with neither.