Season of the Witch

Season of the Witch is a 2011 supernatural-themed action adventure period film starring Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman as former Crusade Knights who must transport a witch to a monastery. Naturally things do not go well.

Not to be confused with Halloween III: Season of the Witch.

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Tropes used in Season of the Witch include:

• Actor Allusion: Felson would rather hang than be burnt to death. After all, he probably didn't have much fun the last time.
• A House Divided: Subverted. It looks like the witch is trying to turn the group against each other, but she's only removing anyone who'll stop her from getting to the abbey.
• Anachronism Stew
• The Atoner: Behman feels guilty over accidentally killing a woman during a siege. The Demon later mocks him for thinking that saving the accused girl would atone for the far greater number of innocents he's killed.
• Anyone Can Die
• Body Count Competition: Loser buys the drinks. You take the 300 on the left, I'll take the 300 on the right. However they note, that will just leave the score at 300:300.

Behman: Fine I guess I'll just have to kill all 600 myself.

• Boisterous Bruiser: Felson, greatly enjoys his fights and is quite a fun guy overall.
• Burn the Witch: Averted in the prologue where three accused witches are shown being hanged, then drowned in case they're Not Quite Dead. Unfortunately for the priest carrying out the ritual, one of them definitely isn't.
• Cardboard Prison: It turns out the girl could have escaped from her cage at any time.
• Ceiling Cling / Running on All Fours: The possessed monks.
• Church Militant: A pretty solid description for the church served by Felson and Behman
• Conspicuous CG: While the demon isn't too badly animated, the digital demon wolf faces are not quite on the same level.
• Conveniently-Timed Attack From Behind
• Demonic Possession
• Did Not Do the Research: The date stamp at the beginning of the movie (at least at the beginning of the opening battle) is 1332. Some of the warriors in the battle are wearing white mantles/robes with red crosses. While historians argue (because that's what historians do) about what kind of cross they used, they are generally unanimous in the acceptance of the fact that a white mantle with a red cross was a particular emblem of knights of the Order of the Temple (the actual Knights Templar). The problem is that the Order of the Temple was dissolved officially by the Catholic Church in 1314, 18 years prior to the opening of the film. No knight would be wearing the emblem of the Templars after they had been dissolved by papal decree.
• Everything's Worse with Wolves: Dire wolves, even.
• Evil Plan: The villain is a demon that seeks the only book with the knowledge to banish it back to hell in order to destroy it and the entire movie is the heroes helping them find it.
  • Also a case of Using You All Along.
• Expy: Nicolas Cage resembles his character from The Sorcerers Apprentice.
• Game Face: Both witches and wolves have these.
• Heel Realization: At the start of the film when Behman and Felson find themselves killing innocent women and children, they realize what they've been doing and decide to desert the crusades.
• Heroic Sacrifice: both Behman and Felson die to give Kay time to complete the spell.
• Hot Witch Or so they think -- actually it's a case of Demonic Possession.
• Irony: Early in the film, Ron Perlman said he would rather be hung to death than burned. During the climax of the film He is incinerated alive in the demon's "bear hug"
• Hey, It's That Guy!: Well, you might have missed Hammer Horror veteran Christopher Lee actually, as he's the plague-deformed Cardinal.
• Knight in Sour Armor: Behman.
• MacGuffin: The Key of Solomon, which is the whole reason for the journey.
• Naked on Revival: When the Demon is destroyed, Anna -- the girl it was possessing -- reappears in its place naked.
• Neck Lift: The Demon does this to Behman. For priests it prefers the Neck Snap.
• Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Nic Cage and Ron Perlman play 14th century Europeans with broad American accents. Bizarrely subverted with the supporting characters, most of whom were played by British or European actors. The director apparently instructed them all to speak with American accents, presumably to blend in with the lead actors. Unfortunately, none of them were using the same American accent. And very few of them were using it consistently.
  • Given as it seems to be Central Europe, likely Germany from the place names, English accents make no more sense.
  • No one said the accents had to be English, but making European actors put on American accents to play European characters is a tad counter-intuitive.
• Oh Crap: After the Cute Witch turns into One-Winged Angel with Super Strength who can melt its way out of its cage.

Priest: "We're going to need more holy water."

• Offhand Backhand: Done on a charging wolf, no less.
• Ominous Latin Chanting
• Our Zombies Are Different: They're people who have died of plague who have become possessed by minor demons. Cutting off their head works just as well though.
• The Plague: The plague.
• Playing with Fire
• Retirony: both Behman and Felson were so close to retiring from the crusading life.
• Rope Bridge: The predictably rickety bridge over the gaping chasm.
• Stealth Pun: Everyone's pronunciation of "Debelzaq".
• Super Strength: The first clue the girl isn't who she appears.
• Tempting Fate: As soon as Felson mentioned how he wanted to go back home after this was all over, you know he's dead meat.
• Trailers Always Spoil: In recent TV spots, it is revealed that the witch turns into a demon
  • The beginning of the movie implies that the girl might just be a misunderstood innocent caught in a witch hunt. Anyone who's seen a trailer for the movie knows this isn't the case.
  • It also gives away the fact that the inhabitants of the monastery have been turned into zombies.
• Use Your Head: Felson is quite fond of this. Unfortunately it doesn't work on Demons.
• Xanatos Gambit: The heroes are charged with taking their prison to a monastery for trial and possible execution but whether they arrive safely or not works to their prisoner's advantage. If any of them try to kill her before they get there, out of paranoia or whatever, murder is a cardinal sin. If any of them die before reaching the monastery, the Demon has less interference to destroying the book needed to send it back to Hell. The heroes are leading them right to it.
• You Said You Would Let Me Go: In the prologue, one of the accused witches confesses thinking her life will be spared.

Accused: "Wait, you said you would spare me!"
Priest: "Your soul, child. But your body must be consigned to God for absolution."