THE LAST WITCH HUNTER [2015 / 2016] [Blu-ray] [UK Release]
Live Forever! Hunt Forever! High Octane Action!
Centuries ago, the mighty warrior Kaulder [Vin Diesel] vanquished the all-powerful The Witch Queen [Julie Engelbrecht], decimating her followers in the process. Before her death, she cursed the valiant warrior with her own immortality, separating him from his beloved wife and daughter in the afterlife. The Witch Queen’s resurrection now threatens the survival of the human race as Kaulder, the only one of his kind remaining, faces her vengeful wrath and must join forces with his mortal companions Dolan 36th [Michael Caine], Dolan 37th [Elijah Wood] and Chloe [Rose Leslie], a witch with a unique gift, to face her vengeful wrath.
FILM FACT: Screenwriter Corey Goodman was largely influenced by talks with Vin Diesel, specifically about his Dungeons & Dragons witch hunter character. Initially Timur Bekmambetov was to direct but was later replaced by Breck Eisner and Goodman's script was re-written by D.W. Harper before Melisa Wallack was brought on to work on the film's script. Both were uncredited. In February 2014, Vin Diesel posted a photo of the film's concept artwork to his Facebook page and LIONSGATE CEO Jon Feitheimer commented that if successful, ‘THE LAST WITCH HUNTER’ could become a film franchise. Principal photography for ‘THE LAST WITCH HUNTER’ was initially delayed due to the death of Paul William Walker IV, as the death delayed shooting for Furious 7. Lionsgate officially began setting up for filming in Pittsburgh in June 2014. The filming began on the 5th September, 2014, in Pittsburgh, as Vin Diesel posted a first look of himself on Facebook. The shoot lasted until 5th December, 2014.
Cast: Vin Diesel, Rose Leslie, Elijah Wood, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Rena Owen, Julie Engelbrecht, Michael Caine, Joseph Gilgun, Isaach De Bankolé, Michael Halsey, Sloane Coombs, Lotte Verbeek, Dawn Olivieri, Inbar Lavi, Armani Jackson, Aimee Carrero, Bex Taylor-Klaus, David Whalen, Jack Erdie, Toussaint Raphael Abessolo, Laura C. Smiley, Allegra Carpenter, Joseph Rittenhouse, Samara Lee, Nathan Hollabaugh, David Vegh, Billy Hepfinger, Corey Rieger, Denver Milord, Gregory Johnstone, Jonathan Visser, Bonnie Morgan, Mark Steger, Mark Musashi, Shane Callahan, Alanna Janell, Wayman Ezell, Jackson Frazer, Ruth Crawford, Zoltán Hódi, James Hutchison III, Jonathan Yurco, Casey Hendershot, Daniel Hernandez, Efka Kvaraciejus, Jared S. Eddo, Mike Mukatis, Jon Valera, Bobby Talbert, Michael Vehar, Kurt Angle, Mark Rademacher, Lena Coco Hunter, John Bernecker, Tracey Turner, Sharon McCune, Asheq Akhtar (uncredited), Leonard Anthony (uncredited), Kaza Marie Ayersman (uncredited), Jennifer Nicole Baker (uncredited), Eric Banzon (uncredited), Stefanie Barber (uncredited), Stephanie Bertoni (uncredited), Todd Bobenrieth (uncredited), Jennifer Boch-Wawrzyniak (uncredited), Troy Bogdan (uncredited), Danielle Brickman (uncredited), Keein Brown (uncredited), Jeremy Michael Burns (uncredited), Norman Cardaro (uncredited), Momo Casablanca (uncredited), Lloyd Crago (uncredited), Alyssa Curry-Broderick (uncredited), Layla Cushman (uncredited), Sean DeBonis (uncredited), Bill Dooley (uncredited), Rick Dremann (uncredited), Jeff Dreyer (uncredited), Jamie Eddy (uncredited), Amy Lyn Elliott (uncredited), Mark Falvo (uncredited), Rod Fielder (uncredited), Joe Fishel (uncredited), Jim Fitzgerald (uncredited), Aaron D. Frankel (uncredited), Matthew Freas (uncredited), Patty Fromm (uncredited), Kristie Galloway (uncredited), Jorge J. González (uncredited), Sheralyn Graise (uncredited), Richard Guesman (uncredited), James Howard (uncredited), Sherry Hudak (uncredited), Jane Catherine Hyland (uncredited), Chris Jameson (uncredited), Nagy Jay (uncredited), Keilah Jude (uncredited), Christopher Kaczmarek (uncredited), William Kania (uncredited), Tomoko Karina (uncredited), Will Kass (uncredited), Annie Kitral (uncredited), Inder Kumar (uncredited), Mike Kuse (uncredited), Jennifer Lavi (uncredited), Scott Lockhart (uncredited), Jordan LoNigro (uncredited), Dawn Maxwell (uncredited), Shammen McCune (uncredited), Tiffany Sander McKenzie (uncredited), Valiant Michael (uncredited), Terri Middleton (uncredited), Kristin Mitchem (uncredited), Phil Nardozzi (uncredited), Jeffrey Neil (uncredited), Darko Nikolic (uncredited), Don Nowacki (uncredited), David Ogrodowski (uncredited), Jess Paul (uncredited), Edward Pfeifer (uncredited), Dwayne Pintoff (uncredited), Diezel Ramos (uncredited), Eric Rasmussen (uncredited), Aleksandra Rastovic (uncredited), Kaitlyn Rawlings (uncredited), Brent Reichert (uncredited), Richard Restivo (uncredited), Stephanie Riker (uncredited), Lynda Santa (uncredited), Debbie Scaletta (uncredited), Brian Stowell (uncredited), Garrett Thierry (uncredited), Tracey D. Turner (uncredited), Megan Leigh Valentino (uncredited), Jeanine Visuue (uncredited), Debbie Vogel (uncredited), Mike Walker (uncredited), Paul Wallis (uncredited), Laura Welsh (uncredited), James Werley (uncredited), Tamica White (uncredited) and Frank Wilson (uncredited)
Director: Breck Eisner
Producers: Adam Goldworm, Bernie Goldmann, Bo Shen, Erich Hoeber, F. Valentino Morales, Jon Hoeber, Mark Canton, Marilyn Napaul, Mike Upton, Qiuyun Long, Ric Kidney, Samantha Vincent, Vin Diesel and Yang Rong
Screenplay: Burk Sharpless, Cory Goodman and Matt Sazama
Composer: Steve Jablonsky
Cinematography: Dean Semler, A.C.S., A.S.C. (Director of Photography)
Image Resolution: 1080p
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
Audio: English: 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
English: 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo Audio
Subtitles: English SDH
Running Time: 106 minutes
Region: Region B/2
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Summit Entertainment / LIONSGATE / Entertainment One
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: With the film ‘THE LAST WITCH HUNTER’ [2015] here we get to see the main star of the film Vin Diesel stars in this $90 million supernatural thriller fantasy-action extravaganza as an immortal warrior battling witches and warlocks in contemporary modern day New York.
The film begins in the 13th century with our hero Kaulder [Vin Diesel] and a group of warriors attempting to storm the bastion of The Witch Queen, who is responsible for the creation of the Black Plague. Ultimately they are victorious, but Kaulder gets “cursed” with immortality. Even with the death of The Witch Queen [Julie Engelbrecht], magic and witches survive and throughout the next 800 years our hero does what he can to keep them in check along with the help of a secret religious order known as The Axe and Cross.
The film then flashes forward to many centuries later, and Kaulder, still alive after all these years, now shorn of his beard and looking for the entire world like Vin Diesel, is on an airplane hitting a strange bit of turbulence. Kaulder sniffs out a young witch on the plane, but he lets her go with a warning. We learn that witches are now allowed to govern themselves, so long as they don’t hurt people, and that Kaulder has been policing them all these hundreds of years.
Eight hundred years later, in the present day, Kaulder is a professional witch hunter, working with a secret society of helpers called Dolans; the latest one Dolan 36th [Sir Michael Caine] is near retirement, and a replacement Dolan 37th [Elijah Wood] is being trained. Kaulder discovers an evil plot to break the truce between humans and witches by resurrecting The Witch Queen, who will then unleash a plague upon the world. Only a helpful witch, Chloe [Rose Leslie], with "dream walking" powers, can help Kaulder discover The Witch Queen's secret and the secret of his own existence.
There’s also Belial [Ólafur Darri Ólafsson], an evil witch who longs for the days of The Witch Queen, before the uneasy truce. And Ellic [Joe Gilgun], another shape-shifter who lures young children to their doom. And a blind merchant Max Schlesinger played by the seemingly always-underused Isaach De Bankolé. Nobody knows everything, but everybody knows something; they’re all role-players and that’s probably the idea. Vin Diesel, is an avid Dungeons & Dragons fan, previously expressed his desire to create a film that fits into that kind of experience — where everyone has powers and understands the game at hand.
Kaulder is the sort of character who would be insufferably self-satisfied in the hands of most actors working today, or else suffused with a dreary inner darkness. But Vin Diesel just plays him straight, and turns him into someone who’s comfortable in his own skin. Kaulder is unkillable, he is doomed to keep hunting baddies until the end of time.
‘THE LAST WITCH HUNTER’ is directed by Breck Eisner, who managed to turn the remake of George Romero’s rage-zombie film ‘The Crazies’ into a surprisingly great film. This time around, he’s doing a serviceable job of mixing horror imagery with brawls and knock-down action. And this film mostly steers clear of the usual “if you hunt monsters you become a monster” type scenario, or any real moral ambiguity to speak of. Apart from one or two brief “your good is our evil” type statements from evil witches, there’s no attempt to say that Kaulder is as bad as the creatures he hunts.
And in fact, the big surprise in the film is that, as Kaulder finally explains to someone, “I’ve shown mercy.” He’s a Witch Hunter who doesn’t kill witches, unless he absolutely has to. Kaulder mostly tries to be sort of kind, and even though the witches hate and fear him, he mostly responds to them with a kind of bemused levity, because he bears them no ill will and they can’t hurt him. At one point, a witch threatens to make Kaulder’s worst fears manifest, and he slowly confesses that his worst fear is... nothing. He’s not afraid of anything and despite its dark, “spooky” imagery; it’s not “dark” in the sense of trying to introduce some moral “shades of grey” stuff that is edgy and sophisticated. At the end of the film, you got the impression that will be a follow up film in the near future; well I hope so, so look out for future news on an upcoming second film.
Probably a lot depends on how you feel about the actor Vin Diesel. If you agree with me that he is the closest thing we have now to a great 1980s action hero, then this film is a good vehicle for his brand of friendly menace. If you’re not Vin Diesel powered, then you can probably skip this one. But you’re missing out, because Vin Diesel is great and totally brilliant, especially in the more interesting action films I have of him in my Blu-ray collection.
THE LAST WITCH HUNTER MUSIC TRACK LIST
Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 27, No. 2, Moonlight (Written by Ludwig van Beethoven) [Performed by Jenõ Jandó]
MORE THAN YOU (Written by Evan Bogart and Elizabeth Harper) [Performed by Class Actress]
FAR FROM THE TREE (Written by Thomas Howie and Jimmy Vallance) [Performed by Bob Moses]
PAINT IT, BLACK (Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards) [Performed by Ciara]
Blu-ray Image Quality – Entertainment One presents us with a stunning and colourful 1080p image and enhanced with a 2.40:1 aspect ratio that gives the film a spectacular look. A few of the scenes in this film are the best shots I have ever seen on Blu-ray. The colours are spectacular, bright, and vivid. There are some darker scenes towards the end that don’t seem to have quite the detail that the early part of film does. This film was digitally shot with an Arri Alexa camera and looks really great other than a few quibbles which most either won’t notice or probably won’t care. For the amount of CGI used in a film like this, it is so nice to see so much spectacular professional work, especially with all the designers and special effects crew who did such a brilliant job in making the film look really good. Please Note: Playback Region B/2: This will not play on most Blu-ray players sold in North America, Central America, South America, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. Learn more about Blu-ray region specifications.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – Entertainment One brings you an equally spectacular and impressive 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio experience. The 7.1 audio mix is totally impressive, and is very immersive and can sometimes be very loud audio track that will most definitely thrill those who like to crank up their Home Cinema system. Sometimes the sounds can be a little too loud as some sound effects over power the voices at times. However, despite this, the immersive nature of the side and rear speakers is very engaging and especially the front channels deliver pinpoint directionality of the voices. The sub-woofer is constantly engaged, especially with the explosions, and the heavy action scenes with the pyrotechnics really give your speakers a good workout. So all in all, this is a very impressive surround sound mix.
Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Audio Commentary with Director Breck Eisner: Here the director Breck Eisner welcomes us to his audio commentary for the film ‘THE LAST WITCH HUNTER’ and thanks us for sticking with him throughout the film. Breck Eisner talks about the type font that they designed especially for the film. At the start of the film, Breck mentions that the snow scenes we view were filmed in Iceland and the people walking in the snow was put in digitally. The majority of the scenes inside the big Witches tree were shot in Pittsburgh in an old steel mill and the temperature was down to 18 to 20 degrees (we are not informed whether it was in Fahrenheit or Celsius). But the tree branches was all made out of concrete, because wood would have been a fire hazard. Breck talks about the mythology of the Six Witch Lords per continent and The Witch Queen would be in the tree in each continent and of course Kaulder kills the first Witch Queen and at the same time destroys her tree with fire and of course over the next century Kaulder goes out to destroy the other five trees, but we are not informed if he was successful. The Kaulder sword he uses in the 21st century is of course to help to defeat the resurrection of The Witch Queen and the sword was called a Hexham Sword and the word Hexham is the pre-English word for witches which relates to the meaning of Witchcraft, and the Old English word “wicca,” stating that, it is a curious fact that when the witches became English-speaking they adopted their Saxon name “Wica.” On the Hexham Sword is an inscription creates specially for the film. As we progress through the film, the only problem I found was that Breck Eisner’s audio commentary tended to ramble on and a lot of the information he was informing us about certain parts in the film I found not very coherent and started to get very boring and also kept on repeating where certain locations were filmed and in the end I found it was not one of the best audio commentary I have had to listen to and to my mind did not add much any new information about the film he directed and again kept on stating stuff that to me was so obvious and could easily work out what we were viewing, especially about the digital technology used in producing the film, which you also see in one of the special features. So all in all, I can only give a two star rating for this audio commentary.
Special Feature: Crafting the Magic: ‘THE LAST WITCH HUNTER’ [2015] [1080p] [2.40:1 / 1.78:1] [30:20] If like me, you really like these types of special features, then you are in for a real treat. This special feature is broken up into three sections and they are AN UNKNOWN HISTORY, WITCHES & THE WITCH QUEEN and AN URBAN WORLD OF WITCHES. Not only do they show us how they shot certain scenes, but they let us viewers get an insight with the main character actors and there interaction with the rest of the cast and crew. They discuss how the film was only possible due to Vin Diesel’s personal participation as an actor and producer and how dedicated he is in his work. Vin Diesel also talks about his obsession with Dudgeons & Dragons and especially the mythical world of magic and witches and how his character evolved for the big screen. The producers and directors also talk about the mythology and how they created everything from scratch. We get lots of rare behind-the-scene filming and also lots of clips from the film. What is equally fascinating is that we get to view some amazing storybook illustrations of how they wanted certain scenes in the film to look. If you liked the film and you are interested in some inner workings of the film, then this is certainly worth spending just over 30 minutes to check out. Contributors include: Vin Diesel [Kaulder/Producer], Breck Eisner [Director], Bernie Goldmann [Producer], Ólafu Darri Ólafsson [Belial], Sir Michael Caine [Dolan 36th], Joseph Gilgun [Ellic], Rose leslie [Chloe], Elijah Wood [Dolan 37th], Julie Engelbrecht [The Witch Queen], Justin Raleigh [Makeup & Special Makeup Effects Designer], Luca Mosca [Costume Designer], Julie Berghoff [Production Designer], Peter Chesney, Sr. [Special Effects Coordinator], Nicholas Brooks [Senior Visual Effects Supervisor]
Special Feature: Animated Short Films: The Origins of the Axe and Cross: Here we get to view four short animated films from DeviantArt. Summit Entertainment summoned four DeviantArt artists to make short animations diving into the supernatural world of ‘THE LAST WITCH HUNTER.’ The artists had 60 days to create their animations. The four animations each has a different animator and composer that give a little insight into the Axe and Cross mythology, The four animations are truly amazing and are a good companion with the film ‘THE LAST WITCH HUNTER’ and they certainly helps to understand the story behind the Witch Hunter and of course the mythology and the origin of the Axe and Cross. Each animation is narrated by Sir Michael Caine and they are as follows:
Prologue 1: Before Mankind by August Florén [2015] [1080p] [1.78:1] [2:41] Before Mankind is, as the name might suggest, a story about when the world was young and ruled by darker, stranger forces than our own. But there’s also a recurring theme of growth and expansion: The growth of the human race, the growing tensions that follows between us and the witches… and then there’s all those giant growing trees. August Florén says that the animation is something he wanted to reflect in my animation, and tell a relatively slow-moving story with a dark, ominous feeling throughout, and a vague sense of impending doom.
Prologue 2: The Witch Lords by Meredith Nolan [2015] [1080p] [1.78:1] [2:16] From the initial descriptions and concepts I was given, Meredith Nolan wanted this world to seem like it was playing on the Viking themes, which is high on her list of things Meredith Nolan LOVES. The main mythological influence was the Hulder, a seductive forest creature that rewards those who satisfy her needs and kills those who do not - this seemed like appropriate behaviour for a witch to have so I ran with it. Unlike my previous films, I wanted to try something that was more atmospheric, no interiors, city scapes or crowds, simple enough in design and concept so that I could complete the project but also effectively express my ideas.
Prologue 3: The Witch + Hunter by Austin Hillebrecht [2015] [1080p] [1.78:1] [2:42] Austin Hillebrecht comments that the script for my short was one that delved into the history of The Witch Hunter and I wanted to make sure it didn’t just turn out to be a list of events. I wanted some sort of an overarching structure to the piece and an emotional through line. I decided to make the short take place in a bar and have all the history parts be more like flashbacks that Kaulder was remembering as he had some drinks. The element that I liked about this setup was it naturally fit itself into the style of film noir, which is something I really love. A lot of my art is inspired by the moody lighting and tones found in those types of films. It also helped me practically because I had a month or so creates the short, there was a lot of stuff going on in my script, and I needed a way to feasibly be able to pull it all off. By going with the film noir direction, and stylizing the flashbacks even more than the present day sections, I could get away with not having to create a ton of detail in my drawings as things became more shadowed and silhouetted.
Prologue 4: Witches Live Amongst Us by Robertas Nevecka [2015] [1080p] [2.40:1] [2:04] Robertas Nevecka says that, it might sound funny, but receiving Michael Caine’s voiceover was breath-taking. This had an amazing impulse to animate better than I could ever imagine and feels he is someone with many professions, where he work as a designer, illustrator, animator, digital image technician, camera assistant, set designer. Robertas Nevecka was asked to please describe the Process, Concept and Rationale of his animated film ‘Witches Live Amongst Us.’ The main character in my clip is the environment. The script tells the story of the world that is changing. So I wanted to show this world in extreme wide shots with humongous buildings placed by very small people. I wanted the camera static so the viewer wouldn’t be distracted from the environment, as if looking into a painting. And it’s a dark story about evil, so everything shouldn’t be weird looking. Therefore it is night-time in all the shots; and there are a lot of shadows on the characters. And I used a lot of sharp details for the feeling something’s bad is going to happen.
Special Feature: ‘THE LAST WITCH HUNTER’ Sizzle Reel / “Paint It, Black” [2015] [1080p] [1.78:1] [1:30] Here we get to view a video featuring a cover song of The Rolling Stones “Paint It Black,” recorded by Ciara exclusively for ‘THE LAST WITCH HUNTER’ film. The short music video gives us some highlights of clips from the film ‘THE LAST WITCH HUNTER’ with the cover song of “Paint It Black” that you heard over the end credits for the film. This music video was partly filmed in Iceland.
Special Feature: Deleted Scenes [2015] [1080p] [1.78:1] [5:24] Here we get to view two deleted scenes and they are as follows: “Fear Potion” and “Ellic’s House.” The first deleted scene is a much longer version of the scene where a young boy is lured into the back garden by Belial [Ólafur Darri Ólafsson] with the temptation of loads of sweets, but Kaulder [Vin Diesel] comes to the rescue. The second deleted scene shows Belial at Chloe’s bar before Kaulder shows up. As usual, you can either watch them separately or Play All.
Sneak Previews: Here we get to view four film trailers and they are as follows: Gods of Egypt [2016] [1080p] [2.40:1]; Triple 9 [2015] [1080p] [2.40:1]; Allegiant – The Divergent Series [2014] [1080p] [2.40:1], No Escape [2015] [1080p] [2.40:1] and Snickers Advert [With Mr. Bean] [2017] [1080p] [1.78:1] [Running Time: 9:50]. With the film ‘No Escape’ it looks absolutely ridiculous and totally brain dead stupid film.
Finally, ‘THE LAST WITCH HUNTER’ is the most amazing guilty pleasure in ages. There are some action films that just embrace the total absurdity of their own existence, and invite you to come along for a crazy silly ride. These are among my favourite sorts of films out there, and I’m happy to report that ‘THE LAST WITCH HUNTER’ is a pretty good addition to a film of this calibre. ‘THE LAST WITCH HUNTER’ when released in the cinema, where the pompous critics really critically demolished the film, which is totally unfair, because it’s really quite a fun action packed film. It’s not deep or clever, and it doesn’t pack a lot of powerful emotion, but to me it is just “mindless fun” ballpark as host of other recent “B” action films that have been released since this film was released. That said, ‘THE LAST WITCH HUNTER’ is basically nonstop fun, with a fast pace and a total willingness to laugh at itself. And not only is there nothing wrong with that, there’s everything right with it. Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
