The Original
A warlock and a witch hunter are brough into the 1980s to reassemble a dark grimoire which has the power to destroy creation. The with hunter teams up with the phsyical embodiment of movie roles for young women in the 1980s and they travel together to stop the warlock from unmaking the universe.
Warlock is a big doofy slobbering golden retriever of a horror movie. It’s basically a charming fish out of water tale that occasionally features acts of brutal violence. It’s the sort of movie that could only have been made in the ’80s and seemed to sort of cap off 1980s horror when it was finally released domestically in 1991. The movie seems to say, “Well that sure was a lot of fun but it’s the ’90s now, so lets just make sepia-toned dreck for the next ten years.” The film’s strength probably comes down to David Twohy, who never fails to deliver a weird and ineresting story if not always a particularly good one.
The Sequel
Warlock 2 concerns a prophecy where the child of Satan (Julian Sands as the exact same character, but with an entirely different backstory) must assemble a group of runestones to destroy the universe. Meanwhile, a group of druids (including R.G. Armstrong and Norris from The Thing) attempt to train a couple of kids destined to use their druid powers to fight the Warlock.
Does It Hold Up?
Okay I guess, there are a lot of differences between the two movies. While Warlock was a cutesy semi-inspirational film, Warlock: The Armageddon is a teen drama and a horror movie going on at the same time until the film’s climax.
For most of the film the only thing to latch onto is The Warlock but he’s just simply collecting items and leaving a trail of dead bodies in his wake. The only solice from the boredom are the periodic moments of body horror and over-the-top gore. I’ve seen two of these movies and I’m still not sure whether or not I like Julian Sands in either of them.
The b-story of the teens training to fight The Warlock are dull and dumb and I found my mind wandering a lot. They’re just marking time until the film’s finale, but oh what a finale it is. The fight between the druid kids and The Warlock is a great section that retroactively saves the movie after the fact.
The bad special effects from part one are markedly worse in part 2 (The Warlock flying looks even stupider here than in the first movie) primarily because they’re dependent on maybe one of the first uses of CGI at the time. The film is not without its joys but, though it’s certainly more insane and visceral, the original Warlock is a more enjoyable time.
I hadn’t really planned on doing these movies since I’d never seen either of them but I was convinced by the comments. For those curious, this movie replaced Leprechaun 2 in the rotation. If you really want a breakdown of Leprechaun 2, Joshua Miller did a very extensive review of it on here years ago.
Watch, Toss, Or Buy?
Watch it.
Where Can I Find It?
On DVD and Amazon instant.