Themed Day p6

March theme is Witches/Witchcraft. And yes, a day late this week but...

movie: Warlock
starring: Julian Sands, Richard E. Grant
genre: Horror, Drama, Paranormal,
year: 1989
format: DVD

plot: In the mist of the witch hunts of the 1600's, one male witch manages to time jump to save his life. The witch hunter follows, and begins trailing him. The two end up in the late 1980's where the male witch begins searching for the missing spellbook known as The Grand Grimoire. With the help of a young woman who's  now hexed by the witch, the hunter travels road trip style across the U.S. trying to find the book first.

This movie is an interesting mix of folklore and fiction. Remembering, this was done back in the 1980's, when anything dealing with witchcraft or the occult, was still considered slightly taboo and only for horror stories. That's also what makes it an interesting movie. Treating it as a horror story allowed them to not water anything down. But, at the same time, because of that factor, it's seen strictly from a Christian point of view. aka they make the witch the bad guy.

My biggest complaint aside from that, is there doesn't seem to be any "chemistry" between the character of Redferne, played by Richard E. Grant, and the character of Kassandra, played by Lori Singer. They just don't have any dynamics coming through. I get that the character of Kassandra is suppose to be a bit "plastic" given it's the late 80's and she's very much the typical 80's chick, and she's suppose to have some abrasiveness to her. But, with that said, they might as well have had the Grant character hiring different cab drivers to take him on his hunt. And his character seems a bit too well adjusted for someone who's just time traveled 300 years into the future.

I would have liked to have had more back story with the actual Warlock, as we're given some more on the Redferne character with him having lost his wife, but you're sort of left asking "is that the only reason he became a hunter?" Was there something else between these two in the 1600's?  And ever notice in these movies, the witch hunters who seem to condemn the idea of witchery always use it themselves to hunt the witches?   This sort of falls in line with the way the old Hammer films were styled back in the 1960's, with the hunter chasing down the vampire just because he was a vampire, and having to save the village; namely the virginal girl. Which, for a horror movie works.