Warlock - Satans Sohn kehrt zurück

The first 'Warlock' film was a classic and I wish I could say the same about the sequel. Okay, it's not bad, but it's not a patch on the original.

First, the good. Julian Sands as the titular 'Warlock.' He's great and totally carries the film as he returns to our time in order to retrieve - what we'd probably call today - the 'Infinity-like Stones' in order to bring about the coming of a demon who will end our nice happy little planet. He's on top form as a villain who doesn't care who he kills along the way in order to get what he wants.

The film's troubles start with the heroes of the piece. A band of old druids know about the Warlock's arrival and have prepared a 'contingency plan.' This revolves around training up one of their young sons as the saviour of the world who will stop the evil at hand. The problem is... they never bothered to tell him about his destiny and now he only has six days to learn how to kill a - seemingly immortal and unstoppable - evil being.

I should point out that the special effects aren't that special. Any practical gore and make-up effects are actually quite good (as is the demon himself for his brief appearance), but anything filmed up against a green screen is truly awful.

Overall, I'd say the film is like if 'The Terminator' had the killer cyborg wandering around Los Angeles killing all the (wrong!) Sarah Conners and then finally tracking the right one down in the last fifteen minutes and facing off against Reece and Sarah. Then the film is over. It feels like the film is one long - very long, to be precise - setup for the final battle and, all along the way, the bad guy is a damn sight more interesting than any of those tasked with stopping him.

This film upon first glance was a one of a string of films i have recently seen, that looks, in the TV guide, like it could be pathetic to the point that it is funny to watch due to the year it was made and by the description. The words used "horror sequel", "son of devil" and made in 1993, simply branded it a must see film between me and my mate Mark.

This film turned into one of the funniest films I have ever seen and to say it is a horror would be a mockery to all horror films. However place it within the genre of comedy, and it is up there challenging with the best of comedy films.

The basic storyline made it easy to understand i.e. did not have to concentrate, which is good because i was crying with laughter too much.

It follows the old theme of the evil being lead back to the main characters at the end, via the collection of 6 stones, randomly placed around the world, from Circuses to museums.

Excellent acting from the son of the devil, made me believe that he actually was the son of the devil and his ways of murdering the stone holders was humorous to say the least, except for the one in the circus where that brought genuine fear to my mind.

A well written script with such instances as rabbits being run over and hair being pulled off makes for an exciting and humorous viewing of one of my favouritist films of all time.

Simply an 8.5/10 due to effective blood ridden moments, great acting and funny moments.

Hail the guy that created this masterpiece

Handsome, charismatic Julian Sands reprises his role as the title character in this sequel that's pretty much just adequate all the way down the line. It has very little to do with the first movie, but has a basically similar plot, as The Warlock is reborn, and sets about uniting five precious gems in order to help his father Satan regain access to the world above. He is opposed by an order of druids; one of them is Will Travis (Steve Kahan), whose son Kenny (Chris Young) is destined to be one of two druid warriors that must battle the evildoer.

"Warlock: The Armageddon" has enough entertaining moments to make it passable, whether they're a great visual gag or otherwise amusing bit of business. We get an elevator FULL of blood, a human turned into a twisted Picasso-like statue, and the requisite rebirth of our antagonist. There is some juicy gore, but a lot of the visual effects only succeed in being ropey enough to induce laughter. There's nothing to make the movie particularly memorable, as the music, production design, cinematography, and the like are all competent without possessing any real pizzazz.

Young ("The Great Outdoors") and the lovely Paula Marshall ("Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth") are a likeable hero and heroine, if not all that interesting. Certainly the interest lies with other cast members: Sands ("Arachnophobia") is a standout as the sardonic Warlock, and Kahan (Captain Murphy in the "Lethal Weapon" feature films), Charles Hallahan (John Carpenters' "The Thing"), R.G. Armstrong ("Children of the Corn" '84), Bruce Glover ("Diamonds Are Forever"), and Ferdy Mayne ("The Horror Star") comprise an excellent bunch of character actors. Gorgeous Joanna Pacula ("Gorky Park") is rather wasted as a fashion designer in possession of one of the stones. George "Buck" Flower ("They Live") is seen fleetingly in a crowd. And Zach Galligan, who'd worked with director Anthony Hickox on his earlier film "Waxwork", has a funny cameo.

This shows the viewer a decent time, but is a little over extended at just over 98 minutes.

Six out of 10.

Julian Sands returns here, but I don't know if he is supposed to be the same guy are not. The rules are all changed around here and in many ways it is almost an entirely different movie. The Warlock in this movie seems nearly indestructible than in the first, and instead of the puritan types that were the ones to try and stop him in the first one, here he must be stopped by druids. This time the Warlock makes a most memorable first appearance, and then he goes after these magic stones so he can release Satan into the world. This makes the druid angle seem rather dumb as I don't think they believe in such things. However, it still is a rather good movie, just not as good as the first...in fact this movie might have seemed better if the first one never happened. The movie though does follow a certain pattern. You see scenes of this kids coming into terms with their special powers to stop the Warlock, then a scene of the Warlock finding one of the stones, finally whoever has the stone is killed in an unusual way, and then repeat. This happens till the end and the big showdown occurs. I do so enjoy the shotgun scene. That is about all there is too it, but then the Warlock does kill people in vastly different and interesting ways. Not a great movie, but it is okay and worth checking out, though it is rather gruesome at times.

The son of Satan is born and has 5 days to capture 5 sacred stones to open the gateway for Satan to return to earth and rule forever. Only a pair of warriors can stand in his way.

This is a stupid, pointless horrible sequel that is merely an attempt to make more money rather than make an entertaining horror movie. First the plot is dumb. These sacred stones are the only way to open a gateway to hell....so you'd assume that they would be pretty well protected, or at least a group of zealots would be hunting for them? No - the warlock finds them at a fashion show, in a businessman's office and in a circus freak show. No explanation of how they got there or how the warlock finds them so precisely in such a short time. Also the warriors are of course teenagers who die and come back to life. The whole thing is just stupid and without merit.

The horror is also lazy. There's no tension and no suspense - just gory effects. And poor ones at that, all the effects are very cheap and unconvincing. Also the murders are lazy and just gory for the sake of it, each time the warlock collects a stone he kills the owner in a twisted gory way. At one point he picks up at hitchhiker just to scalp her and then kill her 30 seconds later. It's all done with so little ceremony that it just feels tired.

This drags down the whole film. Add to that terrible performances by Sands (has he ever been good?) and the two teenage warriors (Young and Marshall) and the whole thing stinks.

There is no "yeah it's bad, but...." - it's just bad. The most terrifying moment in this "horror" is the final shot that leaves it open for another sequel. God save us.....