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This thrilling film deals with 14th-century knights who transport a suspected witch to a monastery, where monks deduce her powers could be the source of the Black Plague which spreads death across the lands and villages , decimating life across Europa . Set during the time of the first outbreak of bubonic plague , a warrior is tasked with learning the truth about his fate as he is charged in leading a fearsome witch , as Beheman and his group of mercenaries have to go a remote location. It's an exciting story plenty of battles , action and excitement . The scenery is beautiful, and so was the cinematography . The music was great. The acting and directing was acceptable . A beleaguered church ruled by Cardinal D'Ambrosio (Christopher Lee), deeming sorcery the culprit of the plague, commands the two knights named Beheman (Nicolas Cage) and Felson (Ron Perlman) to transport an accused witch (Claire Fay) to a remote abbey, where monks will perform a ritual in hopes of ending the pestilence. A priest, a grieving knight (Ulrich Thomsen), a disgraced itinerant and a headstrong youth (Robert Sheehan) 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. The group must fight mysterious creatures for consuming every living thing in their path . Eventually surrounded by the frightening and ferocious foes, they must conquer his personal fears and help battle the illusive invaders who emerge out of the shroud of fog in the black of the night. 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 .

This sword and witchery epic movie begins with a real sense of wonder and surprise with impressive battles set in Crusades and wind up with continuous struggles against weird beings . The picture packs great loads of action , special effects abundant , horror, breathtaking combats and a little bit of gore and blood . Stunning battles scenes illuminate the full-blown adventure with a plethora of engaging action set pieces on the combats in which the heads and limbs are slice off here and there and everywhere while other parts of body are slit open . The film gets an impressive control of the crowd scenarios with a climatic and overwhelming finale battle . Exceptional and colorfully cinematography is shot on location in outdoors from Hungary , Salzsburgo , Innsbruck , Tyrol, Austria , Croatia and Shreveport , Louisiana . The camera work by Amir Mokri in this film is dangerous and thrilling . Our perspective is intimate and that lends a great deal of excitement to the movie experience . Beautiful scenery, tense and bloody battles and a claustrophobic climax in a castle lift this story . Musical score by Orvasson is evocative and spectacular . There's something for everyone here ; fans of horror, fans of action, fans of medieval adventure should all find something to enjoy about this film . It may not be the best film ever made, but its still one passable movie. The motion picture is professionally directed by Dominic Sena who has got a career full of hits as ¨60 seconds¨ , ¨Operation Swordfish¨ , ¨California¨ but also some failure as ¨Whiteout¨ . Rating : Acceptable and entertaining film that will appeal to Nicolas Cage fans .

Season of the Witch is getting ravaged by reviews as I write this. Is it that bad? I don't think so. Is it fantastic then? Well no. This is one of those sword and sandal fantasy films that tread the middle ground, having an interesting premise set up in a fantasy fellowship quest, only for the execution to be hovering around mediocre standards following a rote formula of introducing the problem, gathering the players, and have them encounter sequence after sequence of battle obstacles on the way to their objective.

Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman play buddies Behman and Felson respectively, knights of the Crusade who make a reputation of being fearsome warriors fighting for a higher cause, only to desert their army and turning their backs from continuing onto Jerusalem after realizing that they are nothing but fighting pawns for the whims of man. Their services get called for by a town inflicted by a plague because of a curse by a girl (Claire Foy) whom they deem a witch, and the agreement forged was for them to escort her to a monastery for a group of monks to decide on the authenticity of the claim, and if so, decide and inflict punishment.

Gathering Priest Debelzag (Stephen Campbell Moore), guide Hegamar (Stephen Graham), one of the remaining fighting fit soldiers of the town with Eckhart (Ulrich Thomsen) and a priest in training Kay (Robert Sheehan) whom the party picked up early in their journey, the group has to band together if they are to get to their destination in one piece, with the accused girl being locked up in a cage but always seem to be drawing undue attention to herself, raising questions about her innocence as we get to see her demonstrate abilities and superhuman strength even, while putting on a saccharine sweet face. Now while all these may point to certain plot loopholes and irrational human behaviour, I'm willing to overlook these flaws since they do get addressed in the final reveal, so all's not totally lost in Bragi F. Schut's story.

Battle sequence design was a little sleepy, and although the introductory big battle scenes involving soldiers of the Crusade were plentiful, it didn't go beyond the usual slash-parry- stab-wash-rinse-repeat cycle coupled with cheesy dialogue exchange between Behman and Felson that try to pass off as comedy. There's an awfully long and painfully executed crossing of a creaky bridge that doesn't seem to want to end, but otherwise passable CG was employed in an attack of wolves, and the money shot in the final battle where all hell breaks loose in the monastery with grotesque looking winged beasts and the expected big boss to fight in an all out melee done arcade style.

Some will probably find the themes here quite objectionable, especially since it sets its sights squarely on how religion gets manipulated by the few, and made suggestive queries what if the Crusade wasn't a calling made by god as claimed by the messengers, but of more negative forces since it involves the killing of innocents. What more, this was played out in quite direct fashion when the final act made that cross-reference in point blank fashion. It's bold in its statement and association, which otherwise the story here lacks any selling points to make an audience sit up and take notice

I'm not sure what Ron Perlman is doing here - the billing on the poster doesn't seem to give him much respect, preferring to marquee Cage alone instead, so while there are inside nods to Hell and the devil and demons here, I'm hoping that we'll get to see another installment of Hellboy instead. Under Dominic Sena's vision, you'd know what to expect when you scan through his resume, being responsible for flicks like Whiteout, Swordfish, and yet another Nicolas Cage starrer in Gone in Sixty Seconds. They're no more than Guilt Trips with potential not lived up to, so don't expect a classic or a masterpiece, but at best entertainment that will struggle to satisfy jaded audiences.

"Season of the Witch" was a hotly anticipated release for me, even though the mid-January release date and the heap of poor reviews were suggesting I should give it a miss. I'm very aware that some Hollywood attempts at historical movies can be appalling, but there is always hope that you will witness something rather special.

So I stuck to my guns and went to see it at the cinema in all its big screen glory. I'm glad to say that I was not disappointed and would have happily sat through an extra half an hour (the film only runs for 95 minutes).

Although it is far from being a classic, "Season of the Witch" fares better than most with good performances from three of the lead actors, Nic Cage, Ron Perlman and Claire Foy. Furthermore, the action is paced nicely throughout the story, keeping the tension levels and the viewer's interest high from start to finish.

The scenery is also used to excellent effect, helping to evoke the danger and despair of the period. The scenes set amongst the squalor of the villages helps to convey the desperate conditions that many people were living in. This helps give "Season of the Witch" a sense of realism that it occasionally lacks elsewhere.

The film makes a small attempt at ridiculing the religious ideals of the time but it's neither here nor there. It's simply an excuse to take the viewer to the dark depths that pervaded 14th century Europe.

On the downside, the special effects aren't very special, if you'll excuse the pun, and the dialogue occasionally borders on the cheesy but all in all, the film manages to succeed at delivering what the viewer wants - the fantasy of swords and sorcery, and ultimately the battle between good and evil.

For fans of the genre, this is a must see. For others, "Season of the Witch" won't give you a breathtaking viewing experience but it won't hurt either. I'd recommend that it is certainly worth a rental.

I was excited to see the Season of the Witch. I loved The Scorceror's Apprentice, and I actually thought this would be better than that. Looking forward to an epic fantasy, I was highly disappointed. I found myself annoyed at the unnatural behavior of Nicholas Cage and Ron Perlman. It was like watching Starsky and Hutch with their witty bantering during battles and in the face of peril. Very cheesy. The movie lacked a good flow. It was mildly entertaining in parts, but never reached any peak, not even at the end, because it was just too absurd. The acting was not good, but I think it was just a poorly written script more than anything else. It seems like it had the makings of a very good movie, but fell very very short.

I am really wondering why is this movie rated so poorly. Yes, it isn't a movie which would be a surprise and something new. Season of the witch is a movie that will be just perfect for anyone who wants to fill his/her Saturday afternoon in warm couch with beer/hot tea and snacks.

Atmosphere of the movie is really nice, I liked the factor of paranoia which slowly gets into minds of main characters. Movie tempo unwraps in best possible way, not too slow and not too fast, and it will keep you in the center of action and happenings all of the time. Pure fun in my opinion! Characters aren't elaborated to some detail levels, but just enough for you to like and know them. Music in the movie, I don't know was it something wrong with me, but now when I try to remember the music - I just can't! Was it because the music wasn't there, or it was really bad, or I was in a weird mood? Don't know!

All in all a good movie with good tempo and plenty of fun, I would recommend it. Oh yes, and it has a cool little twist at the end, a bit naive and without much sense maybe, but I loved it since I didn't expect it.

Nicolas Cage. Magic. Blockbuster. A familiar combination, since Dominic Sena's Season of the Witch hits theaters only a few months after The Sorcerer's Apprentice (whose producer Jerry Bruckheimer, in the oddest of coincidences, worked with both star and director on Gone in 60 Seconds, eleven years back). While the latter was a by-numbers Disney effort (plenty of effects, a general lack of heart), Sena's latest work manages to also be quite a bit boring and occasionally ludicrous.

This time, Cage doesn't play a magician, but a crusader who, having witnessed too much bloodshed, runs off to Europe with his fellow soldier and best friend (Ron Perlman). They discover a plague-ridden landscape where witch hunts are an everyday routine, and eventually make it to a village where they encounter a priest (Stephen Campbell Moore) who needs help taking a potential witch (Claire Foy) to a monastery, where she will face trial. Assisted by a loyal knight (Ulrich Thomsen) and an eager youngster (Robert Sheehan), they begin a perilous journey that will test their faith in every possible way.

The storyline certainly had enough spark to produce an interesting movie, but Sena messes with the final product by not knowing what to aim for: depending on the section, Season of the Witch is a historical drama, a thriller with hints of the supernatural or, at worst, a clumsy meld of horror and fantasy (then again, what should we expect from a film that shares its title with the third Halloween flick?). Setting aside factual inaccuracies, namely the fact that the Crusades, witch hunts and black plague didn't occur simultaneously (and what's with Cage's sudden bout of modern cursing in a Medieval setting?), the uneven tone kicks in after a moderately promising first half, leaving room for basic plotting that culminates in a ghastly genre switch and a most annoying "twist".

The acting is a similar mixed bag: Cage does his usual generic blockbuster shtick, which jars considerably with the gravitas coming from Thomsen and, to a lesser extent, Sheehan, both of whom are taking the film far more seriously than required. A cameo by Christopher Lee - who actually looks more like Max von Sydow - livens things up despite its brevity (even Tim Burton has given him more screen time), and the joy of seeing him and Perlman - lovable as always - in the same movie could make up for the rest if the second half of the picture wasn't so shoddy. As for the witches (yes, they do appear in a few scenes), well... they look like cheaper versions of Doctor Who's Weeping Angels, minus the scares.

Season of the Witch could have been interesting, but it comes off as a bland blockbuster with very little to go for it. Sure, it's got Ron Perlman head-butting a demon, but is that enough? Afraid not.

SOTW may be a mediocre film, but at least it manages to entertain. Nic Cage really makes an effort and Ron Perlman, well has never been better than in a middle ages setting. For all the historic inconsistencies they at least got the atmosphere about right. What makes it entertaining in the end is the sustained air of suspense while being on route. Not that it keeps you on the the edge of your seat, but it is decent enough. Travelling in the middle ages must have been a sort of Russian Roulette with little more than a sword to rely on. Unfortunately the last 20 minutes or so, the film goes over the top in a strange , pointless , exercise of CGI effects. The CGI itself is passable, but in contrast with the subtle air of discomfort during the voyage that makes up for the 2nd part of the film. As proclaimed, a painless sit-through , but could have been better with a subtle last act..

Plopping out in early January, time honoured dumping ground of inferior product and draped in mediocre to poor reviews, Season of the Witch had quite a lot stacked against it. But for all this it ended up being one of the better films I've taken in on a whim, albeit far from any kind of classic or even especially good. Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman play disillusioned crusaders against witchcraft who get caught trying to escape their service and are recruited for a particularly tricky witch escorting mission. So we get an arduous mission through harsh medieval lands, trekking interspersed with action and capped with a nice blazing finale, and it should be a blast, should be a lot more entertaining than it is, but owing to lack of budget or balls (or some combination of both), it ends up being rather forgettable. The first noticeable problem is studied downplaying from Cage and Perlman, they have some measure of chemistry and a small smattering of good lines, but there's no fire. Both have potential for greatness, and both have a facility for the fantastical but for some reason neither of them chew too much scenery or puff with much in the way of rage so the film constantly feels like its missing its opportunities as well. The ethereal Claire Foy suffers similarly as the witch, she has a sweetly otherworldly way to her and lights up the screen, so its a shame she doesn't have more to do. As for Christopher Lee, well he's barely in it and just about anybody else would have been a worthy substitute. These problems aside Season of the Witch manages to be quite good fun for enough of the time that I overall enjoyed the experience. Its well enough shot to conjure an effectively macabre and misty mood at times, while Dominic Sena handles his directing duties with fair adeptitude, making for some exciting and sporadically stylish action. The pacing is a bit off but never truly dull and one or two low key spooks (the highlight being a rather neat opening) keep things interesting in between the few action set pieces, while the ending is very daft and rather good fun. If only it gelled together better, if only it realised whether it wanted to be a rousing medieval fantasy or a creepy horror and got a better handle on its tone, heck if only it wasn't aimed at a younger audience with its PG13 certificate so it could get away with a few actual shocks. Bah, it could have been a lot worse, 5/10 from me.

I went into this film with a relatively open mind, knowing I'd never seen a Cage film (shocker) in its entirety and neglecting to look at any reviews, but I was pleasantly surprised. For the most part it's well acted, Perlman played a blinder as Cage's sidekick and Cage himself was quite good too. It was good to see MisFits star Robert Sheehan in a starring role, and the writing wasn't bad either, aside from the odd cheesy line. As far of the story goes, it works, although some of the aspects (such as Cage's motivation for going on the journey in the first place) seem a little far fetched, it's difficult to understand that Perlman's character in particular would go to such lengths for something which only affects Cage, perhaps a more developed background of the two knight's may have helped. The special effects, although in my opinion at times rather unnecessary, are pretty good, and I think the atmosphere of England suffering from the plague was recreated very well, except for the plague suffers seemed to look a little extreme.

I would have scored the film higher, except for that I feel it is very much aimed at quite a small audience, if you don't like the themes this film explores, you won't like it. The film could also have been longer (at 1h34m including a 10m credit sequence) I feel certain things (such as the Cage/Perlman background) could have been developed further to provide a more well-rounded film. Still worth a watch though, not as bad as people are saying.

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.

I walked out of the theater so thrilled to have spent my money on a Nicholas Cage movie. Its not often that happens.

I heard from a unenthusiastic review (one of numerous scathing reviews out there, as anyone with the internet can tell) about the on screen shenanigans with Nick Cage and Ron Perlman were so enjoyable that it made the rest of the movie bearable. Going in with that anticipation, I found myself not only pulled into their characters' fun and convincing friendship but also into an intense and yes even edge-of-your-seat suspenseful movie. I forgot about my troubles for the day and enjoyed a good adventure.

It was inspired, yes, by DnD, video games, and a number of other swords and sorcery books and movies that preceded it, but it is its own story. In a market saturated with sequels, prequels, reboots, comicbook diarrhea, etc... it's nice to see a story that is it's own, however simple.

Yes it plays by the numbers. You know guys will die. Hell, you probably know who and in what order, if you've seen movies of it's ilk. You know there is a supernatural bad guy. And you know there will be one liners, oh are there ever one-liners! But the characters are fun to watch, even a little engaging. You may not want to see them die. I didn't. They weren't a group of scum with a bullseye for heraldry. The enemy was threatening and tricky, a real danger to our protagonists. And the one liners were, gasp, funny! Yes, even Nicholas Cage is worth the price of admission here. If this was "just another paycheck" role for him, he looked like he was having a lot of fun with this roll. And I don't know about you, but I like to see my actors have fun in a movie that costs me 9-12 bucks to see..

It looses some points with me for the CGI. obvious CGI is obvious. But honestly the crispy gray CGI contrasting against a darker, colorful, moody lighting STILL didn't detract from the encounters or the climax. If you come to the movies to have CGI convince you that magic and demons are real, you come to the movies for jaded and asinine reasons. If you wanna see pretty visuals with a meandering pointless story, go see Tron.

But if you wanna see a fun yet dark heroic adventure, go see Season of the Witch!

Well shot, surprising cast, cheese on toast script and the effects aren't bad.

There are very few dark fantasy movies around, this isn't as bad as the internet pundits would have you believe.

"If you don't have anything nice to say ..." Is this an adequate review?

An embarrassingly bad, schlocky swords and sorcery movie starring Nicolas Cage (Leaving Las Vegas, National Treasure, Adaptation) as a heroic crusader tasked with transporting a witch to a remote monastery in central Europe during the time of the Black Death. Accompanied by his fellow crusader (Ron Perlman -- Hellboy I and II, City of Lost Children) and a young priest (Stephen Campbell Moore -- Bright Young Things, Amazing Grace), the "witch" soon proves to be not-what-she seems and before anybody knows it -- all hell breaks loose.

This is a film that is rather stupid when it begins ... and it becomes a bit stupider and than more stupider and even more stoopiderer as it goes along (I groan each time I type that).

It could be entertaining enough for others but I just had too many problems with dialogue (references to things not in existence in the Dark Ages) and bad jokes and Nicolas Cage's irritating performance (this guy is an Oscar-winner and he can be excellent; but these paycheck films always elicit terrible performances out of him).

There is enough action and some special effects that could impress ... but by the plot's "big reveal" (not really so big) I'd had enough. Seriously ... now I will heed that advice I have been told so many times before. I don't have anything nice to say so ...

Judging from what I had heard and seen from many critics I was expecting a pile of horse poop. So while Season of the Witch was not as bad as it could've been, to me that didn't mean much. The costume and set design are great, the effects are good if too over-reliant in the last third of the film and Ron Perlman is a nice presence. So what spoilt it?

The two assets that spoilt it for me were the cheesy, anachronistic writing and the characters, that were both bland and clichéd. The storytelling is often thin in structure and sluggish in pace, and further hampered by a final third that is nonsensical and reliant too much on special effects. I missed the intimacy of the choreography of the action sequences as well, not sure whether it was lack of heart in the performances or the moments of hackneyed editing there was, and the direction shows signs of awkwardness. Perlman aside, the acting is pretty awful, and hurt even more by inconsistent accents. Nicolas Cage is especially wooden.

Overall, it wasn't quite as bad as I'd heard, however to me it was still one of the weakest of a very hit-and-miss year. 3/10 Bethany Cox

In the Age of the Crusades in the Fourteenth Century, the nobleman Behmen of Bleibruk (Nicolas Cage) joins the Crusades with his comrade Felson (Ron Pearlman) battling against the unholy enemies in the name of the Church. Years after, they slaughter a city full of women and children and Behmen and Felson desert the army of God disappointed with the Church and returning home.

Along their journey, they find the Black Plague everywhere until they reach a town where they buy horses and supplies. However, Behmen is recognized by his sword's crest and arrested with Felson in the dungeons. The Cardinal D'Ambroise (Christopher Lee) proposes them to join the knight Eckhart (Ulrich Thomsen), who grieved the loss of his wife and his daughter, and the priest Debelzaq (Stephen Campbell Moore) to deliver the Black Witch (Claire Foy), accused to be responsible for the Black Plague, to the Abbey at Severac, where the monks possess the last copy of an ancient book of rituals that will destroy the witch's powers and end the Plague.

Behmen promises a fair trial to the youngster and the swindler Hagamar (Stephen Graham) guides the group through a dangerous way. Along their journey, they meet the altar boy Kay (Robert Sheehan) that wants to be a knight and joins the team. Soon Behmen concludes that the girl is really a witch but when they reach the monastery, they realize that the danger is even greater than they have imagined.

"Season of the Witches" is a reasonable adventure full of special effects with a silly conclusion. The film is entertaining and not as bad as many critics and viewers have written. The greatest flaw in the plot is to use the absurd witch hunting promoted by the Church in the Middle Ages and gives a kind of endorsement to the action of the Church, showing the existence of real witches. The final fight against the powerful beast is not good. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Caça às Bruxas" ("Witches Hunting")

Note: On 29 Aug 2020. I saw this film again.

Nicholas Cage needs to pick his roles more carefully. Some actors can carry period films, but unfortunately, Cage isn't one of them.

Here we are supposed to buy Cage as Behman, a disillusioned 14th century knight, who has deserted the Crusades and the Church and returned to Europe with his comrade-in-arms, Felson. It sounds alright on paper, but Cage looks uncomfortable in his chain mail, leather costume and horrendous hairpiece.

The land is ravaged by a mysterious plague, and the religious masses believe it is the work of witchcraft. As deserters, Behman and Felson are arrested, but soon get roped into a mission to transport a 'witch', who looks just like an abused, frightened girl, to a faraway monastery in order to stop the plague.

Accompanying the two former Crusaders on the mission are a righteous priest, a noble knight, a guide for their journey and an altar boy who wants to become a knight. Soon, however, Behman realizes that there might be more to the girl than meets the eye, and that she might actually have some evil powers lurking inside her after all.

The film sets itself up as a supernatural adventure film, but despite a couple of really good sword fight scenes, something is missing. The characters don't have much time to develop, and the paper-thin plot, with its many clichés, just makes everything feel rushed.

Making things worse is the fact that Cage and Perlman are forced to utter some of the most forced-Shakesperean dialogue ever put to film. It sounded like a secondary school production of Hamlet.

And despite the European setting, for some reason the director has deemed that all the accents should be American, which means the British and European cast members have to put on fake American accents. One of them even sounds like a New York cabdriver! The only thing saving this movie for me are the thrilling fight scenes, and this one suspenseful scene where the group are trying to cross a shaky, rotting, wooden bridge. The supporting cast do a much better job than the two leads, especially Clare Foy who plays the witch.

Strictly for Cage fans, or people who don't have very high expectations from a Nic Cage film.

I have no idea anymore what people want critics never like anything that's entertaining they all like boring , biographical, historical, musical, Shakespearean, not season of the witch with nick cage they refuse to even give it a chance!! The movie features a great cast, nick cage at his best, Perlman is always great, the whole cast was fantastic, the story was excellent and I LOVED the ending. This is another 1 just about everyone got wrong!! To the cast and crew us TRUE moviegoers loved this ...BRAVO!!!!