- Directed by Steve Miner
- Written by David Twhhy
- Stars Julian Sands, Lori Singer, Richard E. Grant, Mary Woronov
- Run Time: 1 Hour 43 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrXieml4Mb4
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
It’s an 80s romp that still holds up pretty well for entertainment value. The three main actors are excellent in their roles and get to do a lot with them. The effects and makeup are a little hit-and-miss but forgivable. Overall, it’s still worth a watch.
Spoilery Synopsis
A group of stern, Pilgrimy-looking men walk through an old-timey Boston as credits roll. Redferne watches as the men enter a large, isolated tower. They walk up the long stairs to a cell, and inside is the Warlock, who is very bound up. They say he’s going to be “hanged and then burned over a basket of living cats.”
The priests leave, but Redferne waits behind to talk. Redferne is the one who captured the evil magician. As he leaves, evil, magical storm clouds arrive and he runs back upstairs just in time to see the Warlock has gotten free. The Warlock vanishes, and Redferne jumps into the vortex after him.
In the modern day, the vortex appears in Kassandra’s living room. Her roommate, Chas, tries to call the police, but the lines are down. Since the man on the floor is unconscious, they carry him to a bed. We see that Kassandra is diabetic and takes insulin.
Warlock is shocked that he’s been gone for three centuries, but when he passes out again, she leaves for work. Warlock likes Chas’s ring, which has something to do with astrology, so he cuts the finger off to get it. Then he bites Chas’s tongue out.
The police talk to Kassandra, and they think Chas’s murder was a gay-thing. The Warlock goes to see the Channeler, a spiritualist. Warlock wants her to channel his father, whose name is Zamiel. She puts on a spiritualist act, but he’s not fooled. Then the real Zamiel takes over her body. Zamiel wants Warlock to “bring together my Bible”, a book that can thwart creation itself. There are three parts of the books. He then cuts out the seer’s eyes, which will lead him to the parts of the book.
Kassandra goes home to pack up her stuff and finds Redferne there. He’s intense and terrifies Kassandra. He gets a bit of Warlock’s blood from the broken window and does a tracking spell of his own. He uses a “witch compass.” The police arrive, and he sees cars for the first time; then they use a Taser on him and take him away.
Kassandra goes back inside, and the Warlock returns. He tears apart the antique dining room table and finds pages from the book inside. He knocks Kassandra out and then says some magic words over her. When she wakes up the next morning, her hair is really long and graying; she’s aged twenty years.
Kassandra bails out Redferne, and he gets to do the whole “fish out of water” thing in the new time period. He says she needs to get her charm bracelet back from the Warlock to break the spell he cast. He says she’ll age another twenty years by tomorrow, and that’s not going to stop.
Warlock runs into a little boy who brags about never going to church. Warlock tells him he’s a witch, and the boy laughs.
Redferne and Kassandra drive through the desert using the witch compass. The man at the gas station says a boy was just killed nearby, and they think it was a coyote. Redferne says that unbaptized human fat is used in a flying potion. Yes, the Warlock can fly now.
Morning comes, and Warlock has found the second part of the book in a Mennonite barn. The farmer complains that all the milk has gone bad and the horses are sweaty. The old man recognizes the signs and paints a protective sigil on the house.
Redferne talks about his dead wife, killed by the Warlock. Redferne notices the painted barn, and they stop. Redferne and the Mennonite man track the Warlock to the attic and nail him inside. Redferne goes inside and the Warlock is already gone, but he does find a page from the devil’s bible. Now, Redferne knows what the Warlock is looking for.
Warlock comes back for the page and the two men fight. Warlock tries to fly away, but Redferne has him tied to a whip. The Warlock has a crash landing, and they fight some more. They bind his thumbs and toes again, but the Mennonite man looks into Warlock’s eyes and his eyes bleed.
Kassandra gets her bracelet back, and she’s instantly young again. She got what she wants, so she doesn’t want to help anymore. Redferne warns that if Warlock gets the whole book, it’ll be the end of the world.
Kassandra does some research, and they think they can find the third part of the book before the warlock does. They need to fly to Boston, and Redferne isn’t thrilled with the whole concept. That doesn’t matter since the Warlock is right behind them at the airport. Kassandra doesn’t tell Redferne that she saw him.
They board the airplane anyway, but Redferne notices that there are signs of witchcraft on the plane. They search but cannot find him; we see that he’s in the cargo hold.
Everyone arrives in Boston. Redferne and Kassandra arrive at an old church, and the priest lets them inside. As they talk, the Warlock arrives. The priest has records about the Grand Grimoire, and he says the third part is buried in a local grave.
They arrive at the church and the hallowed ground smokes when Redferne touches Warlock blood to it. Turns out, the book is in Giles Redferne’s tomb. That’s pretty shocking for Redferne, since it’s his own corpse inside. Kassandra sees a sign talking about grave relocation, so they’re going to move the graves– it’s not consecrated ground.
They open Redferne’s tomb. Redferne can’t look. Kassandra takes the pages of the book from his cold, dead hands. They each take half the pages. Warlock grabs Kassandra and uses her as a hostage until Redferne gives him the rest of the pages.
Redferne challenges the Warlock to fight, one on one. They fight without magic, and the Warlock gets the upper hand. Warlock throws Cassandra in the bay, and she notices it’s salt water. She pulls out her insulin syringes.
Warlock does a spell, and the unholy book reassembles itself. As he gets ready to undo everything, Kassandra injects him with salt water. He burns up and the evil clouds dissipate.
Kassandra watches as Redferne disappears into a vortex and vanishes into his own tomb. She then picks up the evil book. She buries it somewhere in the Bonneville Salt Flats, a huge desert of salt.
Commentary
We never really find out the Warlock’s name.
The special effects are good, although not excessive. The soundtrack is excellent, and the casting is awesome. Julian Sands and Richard E Grant both went on to do tons of stuff, but this was probably the first thing I remember seeing either of them in.
Lori Singer’s old-age makeup isn’t too bad for the time period. The flying effects on the farm are pretty bad, but later, in the cemetery, they’re pretty good, but obviously done with wires.
The pacing here is good; we get lots of explanations, but it never gets talky.
We both thought it held up really well.