The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

Part medieval drama, part supernatural fantasy; Season of the Witch is a poor mix of both genres that amounts to nothing.
Someone must have thought that mashing up the historical gravity of Braveheart with the straightforwardness
and gloss of 300 would make an interesting
film, but Season of The Witch’s overly
simplistic approach to storytelling and its mediocre filmmaking make for a dull
and uneven offering.

Set during the 14th century,
Behmen (Cage) and Felson (Perlman) are two knights fighting with the crusaders. After
their battles started to target defenceless women, the two abandon the army and
return to their home to find that the black plague has taken over. The local church
suspects that witches are to blame, and starts hunting them down.

Both Behmen and Felson embark on a
journey to take a suspected witch (Foy) to a
trial, along with a group of monks devoted to fighting sorcery. Behmen has lost
faith in the church after seeing the violent path that they took in the
crusades; so he is more sympathetic towards the young witch, but during the
journey, his feelings become conflicted and he can’t decide if she’s a
victim of the church or a true follower of evil.

Much of the film focuses on the dialogues
between the characters as they walk through the gloomy forests, with little spurts
of action every now and then. Unfortunately, the actors’ take on their characters is so casual and
carefree; there isn’t really any spark to ignite their elongated scenes of dull
exchanges. In contrast, Cage interestingly underplays his character instead of
giving his usual over-the-top mad-man that the material calls for.

It comes as no surprise to learn that
the film was shelved for almost a year after the poor reactions that it received in
test screenings. Season of The Witch doesn’t even try to
be the overblown fantasy bonanza that it promises to be: even when the finale
arrives after so much build-up, it comes full of cheap CGI and ridiculous twists. In fact, the only surprise about Season Of The Witch is that it wasn’t
given the 3D treatment.