Now Playing: Season of the Witch (2011)

First of all you might notice the new header "Now Playing". Basically this will be an easy way for you to identify the movies we see in the theater. Most of the movies in this feature will be newly released, however my local theater does, on occasion, play classic movies which will also be labled under this heading.

Today I was able to go see Season of the Witch staring Nicolas Cage and Ron Pearlman. Trailers had me really looking forward to this movie, but a lot of negative reviews have quickly poured out. I was definitely worried heading in to see it. So did I think it was as bad as the reviews say? You can find out after the jump!


I'm generally a fan of the fantasy and supernatural genres, which is why I had wanted to see this movie. I thought I should clear that up because I believe it's why I actually enjoyed Season of the Witch. Now I haven't read any other reviews, I just know there are a lot of bad ones, so I don't actually know what everyone thinks is so bad about this movie. But the rating on Rotten Tomatoes gives you the impression you'll want to immediately walk out of the theater. I certainly didn't feel that way. Maybe I should just stop looking at Rotten Tomatoes.

I guess I'll start with the few flaws I saw, but I should say that I didn't find anything so bad that it ruined the movie for me. One thing was some inconsistent language. Sometimes they would be speaking in old English, other times they would throw in modern colloquialisms. Things like swearing or saying "let's get the hell out of here". Again, this is minor and I got used to it. After that I suppose some of the graphics weren't the greatest, and the story was fairly straightforward, although I didn't exactly see the ending coming. One last thing that I had a problem with was the casting of Robert Sheehan, but that's probably only because I'm a fan of the Misfits tv series. I just couldn't buy him as Kay in this movie.

So what on Earth could I have liked about this apparently terrible movie? I really liked the look of the movie, which I would account to the costumes, the practical effects, the scenery and locations and the camera work. I also liked the characters. I particularly liked Claire Foy who plays the accused witch. Sometimes she was sweet, other times she's just plain creepy. It got me wondering if her appearance was just a result of the other characters' opinion or beliefs about her. Were we seeing her through their eyes? Was she altering how she appeared to them?

In the end I can say I liked Season of the Witch. It didn't blow me away and it won't win any awards, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Although I'll admit that I did find myself not paying full attention all the time. The last thing I'll mention is that while I didn't mind the ending, the first thing both friends with me said was "That ending sucked." If you like this kind of movie and this genre, I say don't let the reviews scare you away, but it's also a movie that you won't miss much if you wait for it as a rental.