Warlock

Rating:
Summary: pretty good
Review: I would call this movie more of a suspense-thriller than a regular horror flick. I enjoyed the two main characters relationship, but I must admit that I was disappointed with the ending. Julian Sands, as the son of the devil, was excellent. This is a good not-so-scary suspense movie.

Rating:
Summary: ODDLY COMPELLING APOCALYPTIC YARN
Review: Julian Sands alone makes this worth watching, but other elements (the aging of "Kassandra with a K", the hero Redfern, and the utter lack of pretension even with all the biblical/dark book references), also help immensley to bring life to this innovative horror flick. Somehow manages to be both amusing and intelligent--which, needless to say, is rare.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty good, very twisted
Review: Julian Sands plays an evil warlock, who has been supernaturally flung into the future from his home in Boston of 1691. His "future" is modern Los Angeles, about the year 1987. He is searching, with demonic guidance, for the Grand Grimoire, an unholy old book that he hopes will help him attain the Satanic power necessary to destroy the world. In Los Angeles, out of pure random malice, he puts a rapid-aging hex on Lori Singer, who plays the carefree, twenty year old Kassandra. This hex causes her to age twenty years a day, and provides personal motivation for her to find and stop Sands... Richard E. Grant plays the godly witch-hunter, Redfern, who is sworn to stop Sands, and has followed him to modern times. Grant and Singer team up, and must track Sands all the way back across the country, from L.A. to Boston.

For all I know, Julian Sands could be a warm, humane kindergarten teacher or faith healer in the real world, but in this movie he just exudes evil. In a lot of movies, the bad guy, while clearly being BAD, at least has a certain personal style that makes him fun to watch. Think of Jack Nicholson in "The Shining," or the way audiences cheer for Freddy Krueger. In this movie, the warlock is never exactly "fun" to watch, he's just pure, sick evil. Perhaps this reflects a decision on the part of the director, writer, or maybe Sands himself, for some artistic reason. It does have the effect of intensifying the viewers' sympathy for Singer and Grant. It also, I suspect, makes a viewer actually understand how real people thought about witches, and feared them, hundreds of years ago... All you can think is "this sicko must be stopped."

That said, this is an interesting, well-shot film, with a lot of cool old settings. I just want to ask -- what is the deal with all these time travellers from the past and future converging on L.A.? "Warlock," "The Terminator," "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure," "Encino Man"... they should all get together in some cheapo Roger Corman movie and form a rock band, like Tonto, Tarzan and Frankenstein on "Staurday Night Live."

Rating:
Summary: Pretty good, very twisted
Review: Julian Sands plays an evil warlock, who has been supernaturally flung into the future from his home in Boston of 1691. His "future" is modern Los Angeles, about the year 1987. He is searching, with demonic guidance, for the Grand Grimoire, an unholy old book that he hopes will help him attain the Satanic power necessary to destroy the world. In Los Angeles, out of pure random malice, he puts a rapid-aging hex on Lori Singer, who plays the carefree, twenty year old Kassandra. This hex causes her to age twenty years a day, and provides personal motivation for her to find and stop Sands... Richard E. Grant plays the godly witch-hunter, Redfern, who is sworn to stop Sands, and has followed him to modern times. Grant and Singer team up, and must track Sands all the way back across the country, from L.A. to Boston.

For all I know, Julian Sands could be a warm, humane kindergarten teacher or faith healer in the real world, but in this movie he just exudes evil. In a lot of movies, the bad guy, while clearly being BAD, at least has a certain personal style that makes him fun to watch. Think of Jack Nicholson in "The Shining," or the way audiences cheer for Freddy Krueger. In this movie, the warlock is never exactly "fun" to watch, he's just pure, sick evil. Perhaps this reflects a decision on the part of the director, writer, or maybe Sands himself, for some artistic reason. It does have the effect of intensifying the viewers' sympathy for Singer and Grant. It also, I suspect, makes a viewer actually understand how real people thought about witches, and feared them, hundreds of years ago... All you can think is "this sicko must be stopped."

That said, this is an interesting, well-shot film, with a lot of cool old settings. I just want to ask -- what is the deal with all these time travellers from the past and future converging on L.A.? "Warlock," "The Terminator," "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure," "Encino Man"... they should all get together in some cheapo Roger Corman movie and form a rock band, like Tonto, Tarzan and Frankenstein on "Staurday Night Live."

Rating:
Summary: Julian Sands delivers a smashing performance
Review: Knocked into the future a powerful Warlock (Sands) must recover the Satanic Bible that will uncreate the world when God's true name is uttered.

I liked this movie and Sands portrayal as a male witch made it hard for me not to watch it. Lori Singer's character I could have lived without, twas the only flaw in the movie. If you're a horror movie buff, then I suggest you watch this!

Rating:
Summary: Great movie
Review: Ok, so I may be a little biased because I'm a Sands fan, but this is a great and original movie. The supporting cast is great as well, but nothing can compare to Sands' diobolical character.

Rating:
Summary: A fun movie!!
Review: Okay, it's not the best movie in the world, but it's worth it just to the always good-even-when-he's-bad Richard E. Grant in a heroic role. Grant plays a witchhunter who follows a Warlock 300 years into the future (ending up in 1991 Los Angeles) to stop him from destroying the world. Grant and Sands seem to have a blast with their roles. Singer is okay as the modern day babe who is forced to help Grant track down the Warlock after he casts a spell on her. Don't take the film too seriously and enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: Kassandra with a K
Review: Stephen Miner (Lake Placid, Halloween: H20, Soul Man, Friday the 13th part 2 & 3) directs Warlock, starring Julian Sands as the Warlock. I remember watching this movie in the nineties, and I loved it. So you can imagine when I saw it was released on DVD, I purchased it. Well, lets just say this was the not the movie I remembered.

Julian Sands I remember thinking was a perfect Warlock when I initially saw the film. Watching the movie now (probably ten years later), though his accent and body language still fits the part perfectly, he did not seem ruthless enough. Sands as an actor just doesn't play the mean, terrorizing, need to be scared of role well; at least in my opinion.

Lori Singer (Footloose) plays Kassandra, who finds herself in the wrong place, at the wrong time. She finds her house built right where a time warp exists, and the Warlock is placed by the devil himself. Then she has a spell placed on her, then is forced to help this Neanderthal from the past, Redferne. Her clothes are a bit out of control in the movie, but that just makes the film funnier, and more entertaining.

Richard E. Grant (Bram Stoker's Dracula) plays Redferne, a man shot through history to hunt down the Warlock. He has a few funny lines in the movie, "You saw him, and you told me not?" "So you fear me?" "A good witch? Hmmmph." Nevertheless, his lines are funnier when you see them in the movie. He did a very good job in my opinion.

The movie is now very kind of cheesy; there are a few parts in the movie that just show you the movie are dated. When the Warlock is flying, and swoops down at them like a bat, or when the warlock shoots the light beams from his hand, if it was silver, instead of gold it would look like Spiderman's web. Also, what was with that saxophone playing every time the Warlock showed up, was that from a porn movie soundtrack, or was that supposed to warn you of a dramatic scene coming up?

Nevertheless, the movie is no longer a must own, and to me was a disappointment since I remembered it being so good. I guess when you're in you teens you may consider a movie as being good, and as you get older, you demand a little more. Despite how hard it is to make a good horror movie, this movie is still average at best.

Grade: C+


Rating:
Summary: A Religion-Based Horror Film Worth Watching
Review: The entire religion-based horror genre (exorcist, bless the child, ninth gate, etc.) has always bored... me. It seems they are always very slow paced and are nearly always written by people who have no idea what they are writing about.

I have found two exceptions to this, one being Stigmata, and the other Steve Miner's Warlock.

Warlock is not terribly original, nor is it incredibly well written, but its sure a fun ride. My biggest problem with the film is Julian Sands playing the title character. We are supposed to believe this skinny, geeky-looking, long haired blond is scary. HA! That's funny. But if you can get passed that the story is pretty cool. Satan's son is sent into the future to gather pages from the satanic bible (which if put together can undo creaton). Along with him comes a 16th century demon-hunter, played excellently by Richard E. Grant. Sands takes residence with Lori Singer and her gay roommate, who is soon killed by the warlock in a most spectacular manner. More killings ensue (including J.T. from Step by Step as a little boy!)
The film combines comedy, action, and horror brilliantly and never lets the audience get bored.

I reccomend this film to anyone looking for a fun friday night with a taste of blood.

Rating:
Summary: Casting is crucial ...
Review: This is a fairly bog standard action/horror film with a reasonable though not brilliant plot and a mediocre budget which is boosted way up high by some superb casting. Richard E Grant is excellent as the Witchsniffer and Julian Sands utterly fantastic and suitably sinister as the Warlock - the part might have been made for him. Script also contains a nice ballance of action/horror and tongue-in-cheek humour.

Conclusion - well worth a go.