Witchville (TV Movie 2010)

Witchville: Directed by Pearry Reginald Teo. With Luke Goss, Ed Speleers, Andrew Pleavin, Simon Thorp. In the Middle Ages, Erik and Jason seek out his compatriot Malachy and force him to return to his homeland. When they arrive, they find that Malachy’s father, the King, is dead and their lands are completely devastated. Soon, witch hunter Kramer meets Malachy and tells him that a coven of witches led by the evil Red Queen is responsible for the destruction of the crops. Malachi teams-up with Erik, Jake, Kramer and four warrior-thieves to find the Red Queen. But the witch is very powerful and the skilled warrior Jozefa protects her.

“When I saw the word u0026#39;Syfyu0026#39; appear on the screen, I immediately raised my defenses and thought u0026#39;oh no, this is going to be one of those moviesu0026#39;. As you might know, if you are familiar with Syfy Channelu0026#39;s previous works, then they have a habit of putting out some fairly questionable movies that tend to be lacking proper special effects.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eHowever, u0026quot;Witchvilleu0026quot; actually surprised me in a good way. Well, aside from the poor choice of title for the movie, then Syfy actually managed to pull this production off quite nicely.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe movie has a fairly alright story, although it was quite predictable and not really bringing anything innovating to the fantasy genre. And actually most of what was in the movie have been seen in other similar movies. But still, u0026quot;Witchvilleu0026quot; worked out well enough.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWhat really impressed me was the production value that Syfy had upped and put into this. Especially the costumes and wardrobes, that was just brilliant work. I liked the armor and all the detail they had put into those. However, I just didnu0026#39;t fully understand the obsession with skulls, almost every armor and outfit was adorned with skulls in one way or another, even the kingu0026#39;s armor had a skull on the shoulder piece of his armor, that just wasnu0026#39;t proper attire for a king. Skulls are associated with death and evil, and shouldnu0026#39;t be adorning a kingu0026#39;s armor. But aside from this skull-fetish, then the armors and costumes were just amazing.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAnd as for the special effects, well Syfy isnu0026#39;t exactly known for their million dollar investments on the CGI side of movie-making. However, the effect that they put into u0026quot;Witchvilleu0026quot; were actually nicely executed and seemed to work well enough on screen. Donu0026#39;t expect to be dazzled out of your seat, though, but it is a great step up the ladder effects-wise for Syfy. So thumbs up on that account.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe people they had cast for the various roles were also working out well enough, most of them anyway. Personally I think that the lead by Luke Goss should perhaps have been cast differently, as he was not a particularly strong actor in this movie. The movie was really carried by the performances of MyAnna Buring (playing Jozefa), Sarah Douglas (playing the Red Queen) and Simon Thorp (playing Kramer).u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI am a huge fan of this particular fantasy genre (perhaps because of my 26 years of playing Dungeons u0026amp; Dragons), and I did enjoy u0026quot;Witchvilleu0026quot;. So you might ask why I only gave it a 5 out of 10 rating? Well because the story was somewhat of a mess, there were a lot of dead ends in the movie and the coherency of it all was just overall blurry. The movie lacked a proper red line to follow, and as such, the end result turned out to be somewhat jumpy and half-hearted.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eu0026quot;Witchvilleu0026quot; is well worth a watch if you enjoy this particular type of fantasy movie, just donu0026#39;t expect too much from the movie in the story department.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAnd thumbs up for the people behind the design of the DVD cover, because they really buffed it up and made the movie appear much more interesting that it actually turned out to be. So as the saying goes; u0026quot;donu0026#39;t judge a book by its coveru0026quot;.”