Season of the Witch (2011)

14th-century knights transport a suspected witch to a monastery, where monks deduce her powers could be the source of the Black Plague.

Director:

Dominic Sena

Writer:

Bragi F. Schut (as Bragi Schut)

Stars:

Nicolas Cage, Ron Perlman, Claire Foy

2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Nicolas Cage	...	Behmen
Ron Perlman	...	Felson
Stephen Campbell Moore	...	Debelzaq
Stephen Graham	...	Hagamar
Ulrich Thomsen	...	Eckhart
Claire Foy	...	The Girl
Robert Sheehan	...	Kay
Christopher Lee	...	Cardinal D'Ambroise
Kevin Rees	...	Dying Monk
Andrew Hefler	...	Jail Bailiff
Fernanda Dorogi	...	Old Woman (Givaudon)
Rebekah Kennedy	...	Peasant Turk Girl
Matt Devere	...	Sergeant in Arms
Róbert Bánlaki	...	Livery Boy
Barna Illyés	...	Cardinal's Priest

Storyline

A 14th century Crusader returns to a homeland devastated by the Black Plague. A beleaguered church, deeming sorcery the culprit of the plague, commands the two knights to transport an accused witch to a remote abbey, where monks will perform a ritual in hopes of ending the pestilence. A priest, a grieving knight, a disgraced itinerant and a headstrong youth who can only dream of becoming a knight join a mission troubled by mythically hostile wilderness and fierce contention over the fate of the girl. When the embattled party arrives at the abbey, a horrific discovery jeopardises the knight's pledge to ensure the girl fair treatment, and pits them against an inexplicably powerful and destructive force.

---

Plot Keywords:

middle ages | knight | plague | monk | witch | 

---

Taglines:

Not all souls can be saved.

---

Genres:

Action | Adventure | Fantasy

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for thematic elements, violence and disturbing content

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Netherlands]

Country:

USA

Language:

English Latin

Release Date:

7 January 2011 (USA)

Also Known As:

Der letzte Tempelritter

Filming Locations:

Budapest, Hungary

Box Office

Budget:

$40,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£559,769 (UK) (7 January 2011)

Gross:

$24,823,283 (USA) (18 March 2011)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Atlas Entertainment, Relativity Media

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

For Season of the Witch (2011), Tippett Studio designed the demon that manifests in the film's denouement.

---

Goofs

The caption reads "The Coast of Styria". Modern Styria - now a province in landlocked Austria - has no coastline at all. Neither did the Medieval Duchy of Steiermark (Styria in English), which did include the northeastern part of the modern state of Slovenia but nonetheless had no connection to the Adriatic Sea during the era depicted in the film.

---

Quotes

[first lines]
Peasant Girl: No! No... please! I beg you. I beg you. I'm not a witch.

---

Connections

References Jaws (1975)

User Reviews

A film that did not know what it wanted to be.

No sir, did not like it, the film felt slapped together from too many clichés. It felt like the production company didn't know if they wanted to make a camp horror or a historical thriller and decided to go halfway in the middle. which did not work.

The opening scene where the heroes are shown is just the same low budget battle shown in different lighting, with different city names but the same bad guys, and with snow thrown in once.

The special effects were comparable to the "legend of the seeker" series. Good for TV, bad for the big screen.

The actors where OK, nothing really to blame on them.

The dialogue wasn't horrible but the fact that it jumped from "well site and drink at the table of my for-bearers" to "let's kill this (female dog)" just didn't work! Please pick a linguistic style and stick to it. Ron Perlman was speaking like hamlet one minute and Hellboy the next.

The photography was well... bad. as in dark, grainy, who fogged the movie screen bad.

The ending is fairly predictable and the only reason I saw the end is because my wife said she was liking it when I asked here about 20 minutes in. If not I would have left and asked for my money back.