I’m morbidly curious about Nic Cage’s Season of the Witch. I like the idea of a medieval supernatural film with knights and monsters, but at the same time, it’s a Nic Cage movie. Even worse, it’s a Nic Cage movie directed by Dominic Sena, who I like to think of as “the poor man’s Michael Bay” (yeah, think about that one for a second…how’re you feeling about this movie now?). On the positive side, it does feature Ron Perlman–and I think we all love him.
If you’re still undecided about whether this flick will be worth catching in a theater or waiting for DVD, I doubt there’s anything on the new fully launched official website that’s going to change your mind. That being said, you can still swing by and have a gander at the trailer, peruse still galleries, and explore some other material related to the movie. The site’s pretty cool looking–I’ll give them that.
Season of the Witch is due out on March 19th. Here’s an official plot description from back in October…
As the Black Plague rages across 14th century Europe, one brave knight Lavey, is tasked with transporting a girl suspected of being the witch who caused the pandemic to trial. Believing she is wrongly accused, Lavey and a group of wary followers fight through a mystical and treacherous landscape to a hallowed place where her innocence can be proved and Europe’s curse can be lifted. Unbeknownst to Lavey, even darker forces await them…
The guys over at Shock landed the exclusive debut of this poster for Dominic Sena’s Season of the Witch a few days ago, but now a nice unwatermarked image is available–so I’m posting it here in case you missed it.
The film stars Nic Cage and Ron Perlman. Here’s the plot breakdown:
As the Black Plague rages across 14th century Europe, one brave knight Lavey, is tasked with transporting a girl suspected of being the witch who caused the pandemic to trial. Believing she is wrongly accused, Lavey and a group of wary followers fight through a mystical and treacherous landscape to a hallowed place where her innocence can be proved and Europe’s curse can be lifted. Unbeknownst to Lavey, even darker forces await them…
You can check out the official trailer here. If you want to learn more, check out the film’s official website–which has just opened for business. The film debuts in theaters on March 19th.
I’ve been following Season of the Witch since it was first announced last year. The story, which finds a group of medieval knights charged with transporting a witch, who may be responsible for the black plague, to a mountain monastery sounded pretty cool. The cast includes Nic Cage (who, let’s face it, guarantees nothing in terms of quality these days) and genre fave Ron Perlman. The other potential negative here is that the film was directed by Dominic “any shot that lasts over 1.5 seconds without an cut is too long” Sena. So, I’ve hopeful that this thing might turn out well, but there were some variables working against it.
Fandango debuted the first trailer for the film, and I’ll be damned if it doesn’t look good. If they’d managed to keep the goddamn stupid Marilyn Manson music out of it, I’d be even more excited. Who puts fucking Marilyn Manson in a trailer for a film set in medieval times? Please, fire whoever made that call. I’ve got nothing against Manson, it’s just that I’ve seen a lot of people ruin horror movies and trailers by including his music in trailers where they don’t fit. So, please, cut it the fuck out already.
Anyway, enough ranting from me. Check out the trailer below. Season of the Witch will be in theaters on March 19th, 2010.
Seems like I’ve been writing stories about Season of the Witch for forever (it’s really only been a year…) and I’m instantly wary of anything featuring Nic Cage or Dominic Sena, but I’ll be damned if this teaser trailer doesn’t look cool. Sure, it needs more Ron Perlman, and listening to Cage drawl his lines when he’s supposed to be a Knight Templar kind of kills the mood, but the imagery and story still have me onboard.
IGN got dibs on the teaser trailer (past the break). Check it out and tell me what you think. Oh, and if you’ve forgotten what the film’s about, here’s an updated plot description:
As the Black Plague rages across 14th century Europe, one brave knight Lavey, is tasked with transporting a girl suspected of being the witch who caused the pandemic to trial. Believing she is wrongly accused, Lavey and a group of wary followers fight through a mystical and treacherous landscape to a hallowed place where her innocence can be proved and Europe’s curse can be lifted. Unbeknownst to Lavey, even darker forces await them…
If you’ve ever wondered (and god knows there have been nights where I’ve pondered this very thing…) what would happen if you crossed the period horror aesthetics of Hammer’s classic cinema with the more inventive and slapstick stylings of Sam Raimi, I’ve got the answer for you: you’d wind up with something that looks a lot like Glenn McQuaid’s I Sell the Dead.
This humorously macabre period piece captures the cheap ambience of countless Hammer flicks and deftly mixes it with the inventive camera work, bizarre characters, and ghoulish humor of Raimi’s Evil Dead films. Add in a cast filled with solid actors (and cult favorites like Angus Scrimm to appeal to the horror geek contingent) and you have the recipe for one of the more entertaining independent horror films emerge this year.
Director Glenn McQuaid’s horror comedy I Sell the Dead is set to hit limited theaters on August 7th and then take to the airwaves courtesy of IFC’s Video-On-Demand service on the 12th. In preparation for that, they’ve released a new trailer for the film (starring Dominic Monaghan, Larry Fessenden, Angus Scrimm, and Ron Perlman). Check it out below.
If you’ve not heard of I Sell the Dead prior to now, here’s the official synopsis. I think the film looks and sounds incredibly cool–hopefully it lives up the potential hinted at in the preview.
In I SELL THE DEAD, 19th century justice has finally caught up with two of the craftiest grave robbers in town. With only a few hours to go before his date with the guillotine, body-snatcher Arthur Blake (Dominic Monaghan / LORD OF THE RINGS, Lost) tells his life story to the peculiar Father Francis Duffy (Ron Perlman / HELLBOY, THE CITY OF LOST CHILDREN). Before long, Arthur spills the beans on how he got started in the grim corpse peddling usiness with seasoned ghoul Willie Grimes (Larry Fessenden / WENDIGO THE LAST WINTER, HABIT). As the whisky flows Arthur’s tales get stranger and stranger. From their graveyard discoveries of vampires and zombies to tales of vicious gang rivalries with the infamous House of Murphy, Arthur’s confessions are the stuff of legend! Whether pillaging in fog drenched grave yards or plotting on blood soaked coast lines, Grimes and Blake leave no graves unturned. Their colorful and peculiar history is one filled with adventure, horror, and mayhem that threaten to drag all involved down into the very graves they’re trying to pilfer.
Another day, another zombie flick. This time, Variety brings us news of Gatekeeper–a movie that Circle of Confusion is producing and heralding as an American answer to Shaun of the Dead. I’m skeptical about that claim, but the casting that’s been announced is certainly bizarre enough to pique my interest.
The film finds three friends forced to defend their town from a zombie outbreak. Cast members announced so far include Jana Kramer (last seen in Laid to Rest), Matthew O’Leary (who appears in the upcoming Sorority Row), Lea Thompson, Judge Reinhold (how weird is it going to be to see Reinhold in a horror flick?), and the ubiquitous Ron Perlman (I think it’s a law now that if you’re making a low budget horror flick, you have to cast Perlman in it somewhere…).
That’s an interesting cast for sure. First time director Isaac Meisenheimer will be behind the camera. Production is set to start this September.
It’s been awhile since we’ve heard anything about Nic Cage’s latest–Season of the Witch–but news came yesterday that the film will make its big screen debut on March 19th of next year.
The film, directed by Dominic Sena and starring Cage, Ron Perlman, and Claire Foy, revolves around a group of knights tasked with transporting a witch to a mountain monastery. There, a group of monk’s seek to destroy her power–a power they believe is responsible for causing the black plague.
Sounds good to me–but Nic Cage films are all over the place these past few years (and most of those places have been located in the vicinity of “unwatchable”, it seems). Here’s to hoping that this one might mark a career turn around for the Oscar winner.
Variety has some interesting news today concerning Thomas Jane’s 3D film Dark Country. According to them, the film will get a domestic theatrical release through a third party company since Sony now controls the US rights to the film.
Jane not only directs, but also stars alongside Ron Perlman and Lauren German. The story follows a couple on their way to Las Vegas. They pick up a stranger by the side of the road who is barely alive. The man comes to and begins freaking out. The driver has to put the man down, which is only the beginning of the couple’s problems.
No release date set yet, but I’ll share as soon as I hear something.
It’s funny, but you just don’t see much horror revolving around graverobbers these days. We still have movies where corpses are gained through illegal means, but the days when tales of slimy deviants snuck into graveyards to dig up the recently interred seem to be long gone–or at least they did, but now I Sell the Dead looks to exhume one of horror’s most enduring stereotypes.
Here’s your first look at the new one-sheet for the forthcoming film (being brought to us by IFC). I like it–the old pulp novel approach works for the story, and I’m glad they managed to get Ron Perlman and Angus Scrimm both into the image.
In the film, body snatchers Arthur Blake and Willie Grimes have pillaged their last grave. With just five hours before Arthur follows Willie to the chopping block, he recounts his life story to Fr Francis Duffy. It soon becomes clear that Blake and Grimes were no ordinary grave robbers. And through his stories the priest learns that not all corpses are equal.
The film boasts a solid cast (Ron Perlman, Larry Fessenden, Angus Scrimm, and Dominic Monaghan) and has generated positive buzz at various festival screenings here and abroad.
I Sell the Dead, a Slamdance Film Festival selection, will hit limited theaters and VOD on August 14.
I’m morbidly curious about Nic Cage’s Season of the Witch. I like the idea of a medieval supernatural film with knights and monsters, but at the same time, it’s a Nic Cage movie. Even worse, it’s a Nic Cage movie directed by Dominic Sena, who I like to think of as “the poor man’s Michael Bay” (yeah, think about that one for a second…how’re you feeling about this movie now?). On the positive side, it does feature Ron Perlman–and I think we all love him.
