If You Believe In Good And Evil This Movie Is Scary As Hell! (Fresh Take On Warlock '89 With Trivia)

Tonight’s movie is a hidden gem among horror movie rentals. I think people know of it, but are still questioning whether or not to watch it.  This movie has a great director, great actors, and a great premise. The script survived many changes but still has enough life-blood to beat through the different cuts and the score is also well-done.  Somehow, this movie attracted a handful of talented filmmakers, and then got shelved for 2 years, bought by another studio and released on video as their biggest hit.

In 17th-century New England, witch hunter Giles Redferne (Richard E. Grant) captures an evil warlock (Julian Sands), but the conjurer eludes death with supernatural help. Flung into the future, the warlock winds up in the 1980s and plans to bring about the end of the world. Redferne follows the enchanter into the modern era and continues his mission, but runs into trouble in such unfamiliar surroundings. With the help of a young woman (Lori Singer), can Redferne finally defeat the warlock?

Directed by Steve Miner. He did Friday the 13th Part 2, Part 3, House, Forever Young, My Father The Hero, he was second unit on Night Of The Creeps, Halloween H20, Lake Placid, later Emmy nominated TV and worked into the 2000s.  He looked at the script and recognized the main characters being the warlock and the witch hunter were fresh off the boat from England in colonial America, so he had the good sense to get some amazing British actors.

Julian Sands sat on the script for a while assuming it was run of the mill slasher material, and then he understood there was a dark sense of humor running through the tone of the story.

Richard Grant supposedly comes in for the Warlock part and then gets the chance to play the hero named Giles Redferne.

The one thing, if true, that bums me out is how Lori Singer, the supporting lead supposedly fought with the make up artists and ditched the prosthetics to make her old because in the movie she gets hit with a slow killing aging curse and she didn’t want to wear it because it was going to be hideous or whatever … one of the criticisms of the movie is her makeup.

Let’s back up to the screenwriting for a minute. David Twohy, a really good writer, lots of genre credits Pitch Black, Critters 2, The Fugitive, GI Jane, etc … He spends 6-8 weeks writing the warlock as a persecuted protagonist during the Salem witch trial era...Then flipped it, it still had time travel but the warlock was the doomed hero and not the villain…

They shot the movie in at least 3 historic locations.

Plimoth Plantations in MA.

George Washington Faulkner House.

Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.

And Jerry Goldsmith turns in a score almost as long as the movie and it has to be trimmed to fit.

Legacy? 2 sequels, one with original writer and original warlock. A novelization. Comic mini-series that crosses two horror movie franchises with LEPRECHAUN VS. WARLOCK

And some ass hole defense attorney in Canada blamed the movie to get his guilty client a lesser sentence. 

Highlights from our first impressions include: 

“Julian Sands steals the show.” 

“Not as good as I remember.”

“This movie is alive. Big kick out of it.”

“Scary, if you believe in good and evil.”

Our favorite bits from Warlock include the tongue biting scene, the action with the weather vane, and the methodology of how the black magic and its deterrents work in this film.

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