Season of the Witch: Thematically very similar to the recently released “Black Death” (middle ages, plague, witches), this film follows Behmen of Bleibruck (Nicholas Cage) is a Teutonic knight returning abruptly from the Crusades after becoming disillusioned with the cause. He is accompanied by fellow knight Felson (Ron Perlman). Arrested for desertion upon returning to Germany, Behmen volunteers to escort a young woman accused of being a witch to a distant monastery for trial. He is joined by Felson and others, and head out into the German countryside for what should be a six day journey. Along the way, the travelers are beset by strange phenomenon like possessed/controlled wolves and hallucinations, resulting in the deaths of several members of their party. Upon arriving at the monastery they determine there is more to the witch’s possession than they previously thought. Chaos ensues. Christopher Lee has a small role as a plague-ridden cardinal. . Directed by Dominic Sena, this is more action-oriented than the “Black Death”, though the violence is cartoonish, and it suffers from the same aggravating lack of exposition (plague-specific devices are introduced and not explained for the public at large; sure, plague masks are visually cool, but they also have a purpose), not to mention a sluggish pace and some silly set pieces (like a wooden rope bridge over a deep chasm). Cage is miscast and uninspiring as Behmen. Perlman is better, but he can play this sort of role in his sleep by now and he‘s not given a whole lot to do. The other actors are unmemorable. I’ll just chalk this up as one of Nicholas Cage’s seemingly never-ending stream of underwhelming films he’s doing to pay off the IRS. Woodchuck sez, “Nothing to write home about.”
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