Season of the Witch (2011) on Netflix
PG-1320111h 35mActionAdventureFantasy
Behmen and Felson, crusader knights, are arrested in plague-stricken Austria. The cardinal sends them to take an accused witch to a monastery, where monks hope a ritual will end the plague.
- Netflix3.5/5
- IMDb5.4/10103,520 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes11%
Trailer
Plot summary
In Villach, a priest accuses three women of witchcraft; they are hanged and drowned before he performs a ritual to keep them from returning to life. In the 14th century, Teutonic knights Behmen and Felson leave the Smyrniote crusades after a massacre of civilians at Smyrna and make their way back to Austria, where the Black Death is spreading. Behmen's sword crest reveals that the pair are deserters, and they are arrested and brought before Cardinal D'Ambroise, who is dying of the plague. He wants them to escort a young woman accused of witchcraft to a distant monastery, where a sacred ritual can cancel her powers and stop the pestilence. Behmen refuses, and the cardinal has him and Felson imprisoned.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Season of the Witch (2011)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Bragi F. Schut put his script on the open market in 2000 and won the Nicholl Fellowship with it in 2003, the most prestigious prize an unproduced screenplay can win; the film itself did not reach cinemas until 2011.
- The hunt for a believable 14th-century castle took director Dominic Sena and the producers through Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic, none of whose castles fitted the period.
- Test screenings went badly enough that the cast and crew regrouped in Louisiana to shoot extra battle scenes on greenscreen to save on travel, and those reshoots were directed by Brett Ratner, who took no credit.
- Lionsgate pulled the film five weeks before its March 2010 opening. Relativity Media had by then built its own distribution arm, took the release back and pushed it a full year to January 2011, making it the company's first in-house production.
- Rated PG-13 in January 2010 for thematic elements, violence and disturbing content, the film was re-edited by the studio and submitted again in November; the MPAA handed back exactly the same rating for exactly the same reason.
SPOILER
Tippett Studio built the climactic demon from woodcut research, giving it cloven feet, a dog ankle and a fawn leg. The holes in its wings were designed to look worn rather than ripped, because ripped holes would have needed an added billowing effect.
