Season of the Witch

I used to enjoy looking forward Nic Cage films. In fact, two of my many favorite action films are The Rock and Face/Off. Recently, though, Nicolas Cage has been making a decline from big blockbuster budgets to thrown together reels of bad editing and acting. Season of the Witch is no exception to the string of low-budget wanna-be action flicks starring Nic Cage.

From the beginning, the film tries attempts to set the tone of the film: dark, dirty, and ready to deal with the devil, yet it is the only scene in which this is portrayed. Not even the climax can best the opening scene where townspeople toss women over the bridge for being witches.

In the years that follow, two crusading soldiers, Behman (Cage) and Felson (Ron Perlman) battle through several locales doing it all apparently in God's name. When Behman stabs an innocent woman in a town they've just overtaken, Behman finally realizes that all the killing he's done in the past is not something that God would want. Behman deserts the troop and Felson, being a good friend, follows him on a month long journey to nowhere in particular. They encounter a town to stock up on ratons but Behman's sword, which has a crest on the hilt that could give them away, gives them away. Instead of sending them to a dark dungeon, the Cardinal of the town (a hilarious cameo by Christopher Lee) asks them to transport a woman who is suspected of being a witch to a monastery where the Monks can exhume the demon spirit from her body, because, as a witch, she is suspected of bringing on the horrible Plague through the land.

Despite the somewhat strong MacGuffin of a plot line, the film is riddled with plot holes. The script stumbled out of the gate from the get-go. It's as if it was submitted in its first draft and never edited. There are so many plot holes in the story it seems as if the script was never even read to try and fill any gaps. Cage can't seem to catch a break with the material he's given, because every line he speaks seems as if he just read it right off the page with no adaptation to his character. It also doesn't help that a character is hired to guide them around the deadly forest between the towns they travel, but somehow find themselves in the middle of the forest they fought so hard to avoid in the first place.

Season of the Witch is a predictable journey with little thrills. Its attempts in enticing action throughout the story are futile because Behman, Felson, and the characters that follow them are not real heroes. They bob along the plot because that's where they need to go. There is no real goal for these two protagonists and that's why there is no need to care about them as they go on their journey. F