Kaulder and the 37th Dolan deduce that 36 was murdered by a witch. The former apparently dies in his sleep that night. The 36th Dolan tells Kaulder that he is retiring from his duties and has chosen a new Dolan for him. He is aided by a priest called "Dolan", a tradition carried from the first priest who fought in the battle to destroy the Witch Queen. Kaulder is revealed to be working as a witch hunter for the Order of the Axe and Cross, an organization which aims to keep the truce between humans and witches (allowing witches to live freely providing they do not use magic on humans) and either executes or imprisons the witches who break the law. In the present day, Kaulder prevents a teenage witch from unintentionally destroying an airplane with weather controlling runes stored in her luggage. Before dying, the Witch Queen cursed Kaulder with eternal life. A band of knights, including a widowed Kaulder, whose family had died in the plague, storm her lair and in the ensuing battle, Kaulder manages to defeat her. The film stars Vin Diesel as an immortal witch hunter who must stop a plague from ravaging New York City.Įight hundred years ago, the Witch Queen unleashed the Black Plague to wipe out humanity. The Last Witch Hunter is a 2015 American horror fantasy action film directed by Breck Eisner and written by Cory Goodman, Matt Sazama, and Burk Sharpless. It remains to be seen whether this will be enough to cast a spell on audiences. A climax involving a swarm of ‘plague flies’ is arresting and The Sentinel, a monster made entirely from bones, hell fire and righteous fury, is the stuff of which nightmares are made. More convincing are the special effects and CGI creatures. However, the on screen rapport between Diesel and Leslie is never less than supremely awkward. That relationship supposedly improves when Chloe decides to stand against her own kind in order to defeat the massed forces of evil which have been stewing in ‘the Witch Prison’, located somewhere beneath Manhattan. Their relationship gets off to a tricky start when evil warlock Belial (Olafur Darri Olafsson) trashes the place using CGI tentacles in an attempt to prevent Kaulder from seeing his past. To this end, Kaulder visits Chloe ( Game Of Thrones’ Rose Leslie), a witch who runs a bar/bespoke potion emporium. And if the imminent retirement isn’t enough of a peril signifier, the thunderously doom-laden score leaves little room for doubt.īefore he is incapacitated, Dolan manages to leave a coded message suggesting that Kaulder needs to look far into his own past – to the point of his (un)death. Dolan 26 th is about to retire, which, according to the rules of cinema, means that something unpleasant is highly likely to happen to him. It’s worth noting that – immortality symbolism alert – Kaulder’s hobby is tinkering with broken antique clocks and watches.ĭolan is the latest member of a covert band of priests, called the Axe and Cross, who have sworn to serve Kaulder the immortal witch-botherer through the ages. Then he returns to his well-appointed New York apartment to enjoy few minutes of exposition with his trusted friend and helper, Dolan 26 th (Michael Caine). He expertly wrangles a teenage witch who is causing havoc with a set of ancient weather runes. He manages to kill her, but in return, she curses him with immortality.įast forward to the present day, and we see Kaulder in action.
The set design features lots of ornamental jaw bones and gnarled roots. Kaulder and his fellow warriors venture into the heart of the plague tree, the witch queen’s lair.
He is equipped with a dread-locked beard and a flaming sword, and is preparing to do battle with the witch queen who has decimated the population, including Kaulder’s beloved wife and daughter. In pre-titles chunk of backstory, we are introduced to Kaulder, 800 years ago. A flash set of wheels notwithstanding, it’s hard to imagine that Diesel’s most loyal fan group, Fast and Furious petrol heads, will find much of interest here. However, the muted reaction to recent examples of the crone-slaughtering genre like Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters suggests that this kind of action-based witches’ brew might not be particularly appetising. There’s a possibility that this film will tap into an audience taste for occult ass-kicking which was hitherto sated by the Blade series.
The on-screen rapport between Vin Diesel and Rose Leslie is never less than supremely awkward Like its star, The Last Witch Hunter is big, overblown and frequently incomprehensible. When a deadly enemy from his past re-emerges, Kaulder must join forces with his natural foe, a young female witch-turned-Manhattan bar owner, in order to save humanity. Vin Diesel stars as Kaulder, an immortal law enforcement agent charged with keeping the witches that live amongst us in line.
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