Written By Shawn Francis
All I know about
author, Robert E. Howard, is that he’s the creator or Conan The
Barbarian, and that for a time dabbled in Lovecraft territory
with a collection of short stories I came upon in high school when I
took a trip out of town with some friends. Found the book, Cthulhu:
The Mythos And Kindred Horrors at a bookstore in this mall and
bought it on the spot. One of his most frightening tales in that
collection, Pigeons From Hell, was even adapted into an
episode of that early 60s Boris Karloff TV series, Thriller.
When I first heard
of this Solomon Kane movie I knew nothing about Howard’s creation
of him . . . cut to present day 2013 and I here I am reviewing this
movie adaptation that initially came out in 2009, but for whatever
reason never found any kind of DVD distribution or limited theatrical
play here in America.
Basically, the
trailer intrigued me, so I sought out a review copy. Reviews I had
read previously were not kind and so I rightly assumed this one going
to be one of those flicks I would review and then put up for trade.
Similar to a movie I reviewed some months ago called, Dead Mine,
which I presumed the same thing on, Solomon Kane turned out to
be damn good flick!
Who is Solomon Kane?
Well, according to
the prologue he’s one narcissistic douchebag of a motherfucker who
has no problem killing anyone (even his own men) that gets in the way
of his goal. He’s an expert swordsman with no equal, and his siege
on this particular fortress is going as planned, that is until he
reaches an ominous room full of mirrors. Each mirror houses a CGI
demon that lashes out and pulls in anyone near. Kane eventually comes
up against a second demonic creature. One that can actually form
sentences and threatens this time. He’s the Devil’s Reaper and he
tells Kane he’s destined for Hell for all the evil he has done.
Kane does not go easy into that hellish night, nor does he even go at
all. A brief sword fight breaks out between him and the demon with
the only means of escape being through a window and to the raging
ocean below.
I was very impressed
by that opening. Not just effects-wise, but the look of the movie and
this Solomon Kane character pulled me in right from the start.
After the opening
titles we find Kane has seen the “error of his ways” and his
holed up in a monastery, and feeling pretty content with himself
until he his asked to leave by one of the monks who claims he had a
dream foreseeing this event.
Pushed unwillingly
back into the world again, Solomon comes across a family of Puritans
who are heading to the new world; William and Katherine Crowthorn
(the late Peter Postlethwaite and Alice Krige) and their three kids,
Meredith (Rachel Hurd-Wood), Samuel (Patrick Hurd-Wood) and Edward
(Anthony Wilks). He tags along for a while, but evil soon finds him
when they chance upon a town where every human has been killed by
having their eyes burned out. The only survivor is a child. Kane
knows what happened. The villagers were in the process of burning a
witch when the witch got the better of them. How much so the child
describes to them later on as they camp for the night.
But Solomon cannot
be easily deceived by certain evil. The child is “wrong,” and he
tries to give her a crucifix to where for when she sleeps. With her
bluff called, the witch reveals herself and before she escapes marks
Meredith.
The hulking Masked
Rider and his followers ambush the family and Kane the next day. In
the process the youngest son, Samuel, is murdered, which derails
Kane’s new peace-loving attitude. He resorts to his killing ways
once again and dispatches all the Rider’s men. In the father’s
dying breath he makes Kane promise to find Meredith and bring her
home to his surviving wife.
Kane agrees and what
follows is a journey that brings him back to his childhood roots and
full circle to that statement the Devil’s Reaper made in the
prologue, that he his doomed for Hell for all his evil deeds.
The rest of this
movie played out beautifully and I was in its grasp right to the last
breathtaking moment. It is bloody; there is carnage, sorcery and a
final encounter with a bipedal, 30 foot tall Fire Demon that is
clearly CGI, but was convincing enough. James Purefoy plays the
morally challenged Solomon Kane and I kept looking at him like I had
seen him before. I then realized where that was—he’s the main
villain in that Kevin Bacon serial killer series, The Following,
and I’m pretty damn sure I saw him in John Carter (2012) too,
but I can’t recall what character he played in that movie.
Apparently Jason
Flemyng (Deep Rising, Below) and Alice Krige (Ghost Story,
Sleepwalkers) are in this movie, too, and I did not recognize
either of them. Flemyng plays the evil sorcerer, Malachi, and as I
mentioned above Krige is Postlethwaite’s wife.
After being absent
from the US video market for years, Solomon Kane makes its
debut on DVD and blu-ray through Anchor Bay. This assessment of the
extras and transfer are of the DVD; I could not get a blu-ray to
review. The aspect ratio is a very good-looking anamorphic 2.35:1
with a 5.1 English Dolby Digital track. Subtitles are in English and
Spanish only.
For extras you get a
very lively and informative commentary with writer/director, Michael
J. Bassett and actor, James Purefoy. Of note, Purefoy, for some odd
reason, was very taken with Pete Postlethwaite’s high cheekbones
and copped a feel of them during Postlethwaite’s death scene. Other
extras include The Making Of Solomon Kane (11:46) where
Bassett, Purefoy and others talk about how they made the film
and why they wanted to make it. Deleted Scene: Cave Fight
(2:26) is an excised fight scene that occurs in this cave. Kane
shows up, asks the sleeping goons where Meredith is, they attack and
he kills them all. Special FX: The Creation Of The Fire Demon
(2:00) is a montage of the ending sequence set to music showing
how the CGI demon was created and integrated into the live action
elements. Interview With Writer/Director Michael J. Bassett (8:51)
and the Interview With Actor James Purefoy (8:31) are
pretty much self-explanatory. Original Concept Art (1:15) is a
short excursion through some really cool artwork that was generated
during pre-production.
This was a solid
piece of fantasy filmmaking where the filmmakers tried to do
something different, putting Robert E. Howard’s character in a
realistic world and using the fantasy elements sparingly. I think
that decision worked beautifully. It reminded me of how John Milius
approached Conan The Barbarian (1982), but Bassett makes
comments where he doesn’t really think Conan holds up, to which I
have to disagree. Regardless Solomon Kane is a movie to be
sought out and treasured. Now, bring on those sequels.
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