A
How mechanically do you burn someone over a basket of live kittens? The best part of old English is the frequency they use "inclined"."Never was there a brute more deserving" is still a killer delivery.Terminator-esque... love the shattering neon sign and escaping noble gas.Lori Singer wearing the killer 80s outfits.Diabetic foreshadowing.His film really moves along.I love how the Warlock plops himself down and silently observes in a creepy yet disarming way.Lovely segue.The best part of witchcraft must be the literal-ness. No wasting time with riddles.Nice Witch compass dialog :) He sure spilled a lot of precious blood.After 2 incidents the cops don't stay around until she is gone?! He curses her just for fun. What a d@$% but a nice rhythm.Lovely driving lesson.The 12 Apostrophes! Nah. I don't need help :) "Men like us!" "You thither... Such as they are"... love the dialog. Extremely efficient.Barefoot Kenny Rodgers?! Who walks around a plane in bare feet?! He deserves to be cursed for that."Lest you favor throttlings to the ears and face..." ... still a tremendous line.That's a viable interest.Of course he cheated.Dog? Nice idea.Still greatly rewatchable.
Leofwine_draca
WARLOCK is a cheesy and derivative horror movie from director Steve Miner, the man who brought us the similar-in-style HOUSE. The story is of a 17th century warlock who is captured by irate locals but manages to escape to the then-present day, pursued by a vengeful witch hunter. The warlock's plan is to gather together three parts of an ancient grimoire which will allow him to destroy the world.The first thought upon watching this movie? Derivative. There are bits of THE TERMINATOR, HIGHLANDER, and THE ICEMAN COMETH in this one, and it's not as good as any of those movies. In fact, it's completely cheesy, with Julian Sands going into complete ham mode as the baddie of the piece and Richard E. Grant struggling throughout with his Scottish accent. The film's budgetary constraints are also more than apparent as this looks and feels more like a B-movie than an A-list picture.My biggest complaint, however, is with the casting of non-actress Lori Singer, whose attempts at humour fall flat time and time again. She's awful, it has to be said, and really drags the film down so much that I was laughing at it rather than with it. That's a pity, because WARLOCK remains an oddly enjoyable outing. It's not as gory as you'd expect but there are some imaginative death scenes. The special effects have dated badly but are pretty fun to watch, particularly the ones involving the warlock flying around. I liked the mythology in the film including the witch-finding apparatus and the seeing eyes. Cult actress Mary Woronov has a good cameo. WARLOCK remains predictable from beginning to end, but as a bit of cult fun it remains enjoyable.
robert haynes
I remember a time way back in the 80's and even a portion of the 90's, a time when the horror genre used to explore taboos in a fun and entertaining way, a time before torture-porn became the order of the day in serving a delectable horror buffet.Warlock is a fun film. It brings back fond memories of me seeing this film theatrically way back in 1989. It's scary, funny and smart and most of all, entertaining.Julian Sands is rock solid as the titular character, Richard E Grant shines as Redfern and Lori Singer is a treat as the cynic of the piece.Warlock has some wonderful imagery and doesn't shy away from the violence when it needs to. It also has a wickedly funny sense of humour with just the right amount of camp added to the proceedings.For a film now 24 years old, this holds up remarkably well on both a technical and an artistic level. Highly recommended for all genre buffs.
FlashCallahan
In Boston of 1691, a warlock is sentenced to death, but escapes magically into the future, followed doggedly by a witch hunter.There he is searching for the three parts of the Devil's Bible.Trailed by the witch hunter and the woman whose house he landed in, they must stop him, as the book contains the true name of God, which he can use to un-create the world.....Ever since i saw Sands in Arachnophobia, he has always been a Chicken in a Basket style actor to me, Very bad, but very more-ish.As with the film, it's one of those little lost gems that I have wanted to see since it's initial release but was never able to.I finally saw the movie, after tracking it down on the Horror Channel, and now I really wish I had saw it when I were 13, because seeing it as a 34 year old super film geek, it just stinks.The film is devoid of thrills, or scares, and honestly, the most exciting part of this is when Sands is playing a video game with the kid from Baywatch.Lori Singer provides the bad make up, and Richard E grant proves that Groundskeeper Willie isn't always animated.he effects are eye poppingly bad, even for 1988, and eventually the film gets sucked up in it's own absurdness.I saw the sequel before this, and believe me, it's a hell (ahem) of a lot more enjoyable.so bad it's boring.
AD
