Solomon Kane (film)
Encyclopedia
Solomon Kane is a 2009 epic action film directed by Michael J. Bassett
based on the pulp magazine
character Solomon Kane
created in 1928 by Robert E. Howard
. James Purefoy
stars in the title role. Despite optioning the rights in 1997, filming did not begin until January 2008. The film is an origin story for the Kane character and intended to be the first of a trilogy. The plot follows a redemption story for Kane, from the end of his life as a privateer
, through the salvation of his soul by rescuing a Puritan
girl and the beginning of his life as the Puritan avenger of the source material. It was produced by a consortium of French, Czech and British companies and mostly filmed in the Czech Republic. The film was first shown at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival
. It went on general release in France, Spain and the UK over the end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010. Reception was generally favourable, with a Rotten Tomatoes
rating of 82% following the UK release; the film's atmosphere and Purefoy's acting attracted the most acclaim.
mercenary, Solomon Kane, leading the crew of his ship into battle against the Ottoman
occupiers of a fortress town. After defeating the Ottoman defenders, Solomon and his men enter the fortress, only to enter a room of enchanted mirrors. Demons trapped within the mirrors attack and kill most of the crew, but Solomon fights his way into the throne room of the fortress. Inside, as he helps himself to the fortress's treasure, a demon dressed in hooded black robes and armed with a flaming sword appears. The demon announces itself as the Devil's Reaper and tells Solomon his evil deeds have irrevocably damned his soul, and he is now destined for Hell. After a brief duel, Solomon cries "I am not yet ready for Hell!" and leaps from the throne room window into the sea. As he falls to safety, the Reaper snarls his soul will be the Devil's.
Following his encounter with The Devil's Reaper, Solomon returns home to England and finds sanctuary in a monastery in the countryside. However, due to the Abbot's dreams, Solomon is soon expelled and sent back to his ancestral estates in Devon, where Solomon has not been since his father disowned him. Along the way, he is ambushed by robbers and, as he has fully embraced a life of peace and will not fight back, he is knocked unconscious. He is found and treated by the Crowthorns, a family of puritans heading west to travel to the New World. He travels with them but the family is itself ambushed by corrupted followers of the sorcerer
Malachi and his brutal lieutenant, the Masked Rider. Most of the family is killed, except Meredith, who is kidnapped, and her mother Katherine. When Samual, Meredith's younger brother, is mercilessly slain right before his shocked eyes, an enraged Solomon charges into battle, killing several. The head of the family, William Crowthorn, declares as his last words that Solomon's soul will be redeemed if he rescues Meredith. Solomon, having now re-embraced a life of violence to fight off the attackers, takes a horse, arms himself and sets out in pursuit.
Solomon battles Malachi's followers across the countryside, rescuing many captives but not finding Meredith. On his journey, he meets a deranged priest who informs him Malachi's followers are taking the weaker survivors of their raids as slaves, while corrupting the strong into soldiers. The priest tries to feed Solomon to his parishioners, who have become undead ghouls. Solomon escapes, only to be set upon by the robbers who attacked him earlier, who have been turned by the Rider into soldiers of Malachi. Killing all but one of the robbers for interrogation, Solomon is told that Meredith is dead. Solomon refuses to believe this and angrily leaves the robber for the undead to feed on. Moving on, Solomon comes to a village, where he heads to an Inn and drinks to excess, his soul now definitely damned for not saving the girl. Former shipmates recognise him and try to recruit him as a leader of a resistance against Malachi. Kane refuses. However, Malachi's followers hear of this and attack the Inn at dawn, crucifying any members of the attempted resistance movement including Kane. As they move away, a cart containing Meredith passes behind them. She recognises Kane and calls out. He realises that he still has a chance to save her and pulls himself off the cross. Before Malachi's remaining men can kill him, they are killed by survivors of the resistance, who take Solomon to safety.
Kane is treated with magic by an old pagan witch and is soon ready to return to the pursuit. The resistance explain some of Malachi's background (that he was once a priest who became a sorcerer to gain power) and reveal that he now lives in Kane's ancestral home. Kane leads them into the castle via an underground passage. As the resistance fights Malachi's soldiers, Kane heads for the dungeons and frees many of the captives. He does not find Meredith, but he does find his father, emaciated and locked in sorcerous chains. His father explains that the Masked Rider is really Kane's older brother Marcus Kane, whom Kane thought he had killed in an accident shortly after he was banished as a teenager. Marcus was, however, only severely injured and left in a coma
: after the priests and healers failed to awake him, Solomon's father turned to Malachi, who brought Marcus back to life: however, Marcus was horribly disfigured and left subservient to Malachi, who turned Marcus into his enforcer: the Masked Rider. At his father's request, Solomon reluctantly shoots him dead and heads to the throne room to confront Malachi.
In the throne room, Kane confronts Malachi, who remarks everything that has happened to Solomon was meant to lead him to this place before disappearing. Solomon also finds Meredith caged in the throne room: before she can warn him it is a trap, Marcus stabs Solomon in the back with his sword. Despite his injury, Solomon pleads with his brother, but his cries fall on deaf ears so he grudgingly draws his sword and the two brothers fight to the death: after a lengthy battle, Solomon sets fire to Marcus and decapitates him. At the same time, Malachi uses Meredith's "innocent blood" to open a portal, thus releasing a demon sent to claim Solomon's soul, which attacks Kane. After a desperate fight, Kane shoots Malachi in the head, and all three souls (Kane, Malachi and the demon) are apparently pulled into Hell. It transpires that Kane, in saving Meredith from Malachi, redeemed his soul and so escapes Hell. Meredith travels to America with her mother, while Solomon, after burying his father and brother, declares that evil exists elsewhere in the world and that he will put an end to it.
was offered the role of Kane and was seriously "considering it as it's a very compelling part." At this point Don Murphy was a producer on the film, with Samuel Hadida of Davis Film and Paul Berrow and Michael Berrow of Wandering Star Pictures, and was attempting to set up the film with New Line Cinema. Murphy left the project in 2003 under a cloud when the negotiations fell apart with New Line. Things went quiet for a while during which time several scripts were developed around the African adventures of Solomon Kane from the classic text.
Then Michael J Basset was hired as writer and director of the film, with a brief to write an origin story based loosely on the Howard poems and classic text, and in August 2006 he finished writing the script. Finally on October 1, 2007, it was announced that James Purefoy was cast as the lead.
Principal photography began in Prague on 14 January 2008 and was scheduled for a 12 week shoot. Director Bassett says of James Purefoy that he "is a delight to work with; he is giving his heart and soul to this. He's in brilliant physical shape and his sword fighting is just brilliant to behold and he's finding depth and sophistication within the character in ways I really hoped he would." As of the end of February, sets were still being built for the later part of the production, and Max Von Sydow and Mackenzie Crook had yet to begin shooting. Jan Cileček, a Czech artist produced a number of sculptures for the film and there are some photographs available on his website.
An article in the Daily Mail
states that during the production Purefoy was injured while staging a sword fight with a stuntman, resulting in his receiving five stitches to the forehead. The article also mentions that Bassett is into extreme measures "so his cast and crew have been working in the cold, the rain, and as much mud as possible.".
On April 16, Michael Bassett posted a message on his blog saying "Principal photography is completed on Kane. Now for the long-haul of post-production to get it all into shape". He also says that everything is set up for the future parts of the trilogy, which "will tap more completely into Howard's original stories." Finally he mentioned that "the final scenes of the film were shot in England on the North Devon coast. It was all done on a private estate which used to belong to the real Sir Richard Grenville."
On April 7, 2009 Bassett announced that production of the film is complete. On October 23, 2009, Bassett announced on his blog that "Kane is slowly gearing up for its first set of release dates at the end of this year and early 2010."
According to Paradox Entertainment CEO Fredrik Malmberg, the film's budget was $40,000,000 USD.
reports 83% of them being favourable, averaging out as 6.5 of ten.
Empire
rated the film at 3/5 stars, complimenting writer-director Michael J. Bassett as handling the film "with the same level of commitment Peter Jackson
brought to the Lord Of The Rings trilogy
, the darker moments of which are an obvious influence on Bassett's film." The review says of the film as a whole: "For less than the effects budget of this year's other sword ’n’ sorcery adventures, Percy Jackson
and Clash Of The Titans
, Bassett has delivered a dark-as-balls Highlander
for the 21st century, played with such conviction it's hard not to be swept along."
Total Film
also rated the film at 3/5 stars with the conclusion: "A brutal fusion of angst and action, this mini-epic gives the sword-and-sorcery genre a bleak, brusque new life. Watch it for some terrific limbchopping and a mighty turn by James Purefoy." Sister magazine SFX rated the film at 4/5 stars. The review describes the location work as one of the films "great strengths", comparing the film to Witchfinder General
and Blood on Satan's Claw
, "a landscape alive with the sense of supernatural forces gathering beneath the frost and the empty fields." Purefoy is also acclaimed, with "a sense of huge faultlines coiling within him [which] makes for a genuinely intriguing hero." The only fault is the final confrontation, where the "clashingly mainstream touch" of a CGI demon "[punctures] the movie's careful atmosphere of pre-Enlightenment dread."
Variety
gave the film a negative review, stating that the film "just isn't much fun." Bassett's direction is described as being handled "confidently if without much flair" while Purefoy "gamely endures heavy exertion throughout; it's not his fault the script lends his character might and a mission but little personality."
The Guardian
also gave the film 3/5 stars. Its conclusion was mixed, stating: "There's plenty that's good here: a serious tone, steady pacing, muddy and bloody scenery and a convincing turn by Purefoy in his own west country accent. But Kane is an ill fit into the origins tale template; it's a story with few surprises."
Time Out awarded the film with 4/5 stars, giving a positive review which praised the originality of the story and sharp 17th century setting.
Michael J. Bassett
Michael J. Bassett is an English screenwriter and film director. He has produced a variety of films, both for television and cinema. Bassett's first feature, the horror film Deathwatch, was set in the trenches of World War One. Bassett's most recent project, Solomon Kane had a nationwide cinema...
based on the pulp magazine
Pulp magazine
Pulp magazines , also collectively known as pulp fiction, refers to inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s. The typical pulp magazine was seven inches wide by ten inches high, half an inch thick, and 128 pages long...
character Solomon Kane
Solomon Kane
Solomon Kane is a fictional character created by the pulp-era writer Robert E. Howard. A late 16th / early 17th century Puritan, Solomon Kane is a sombre-looking man who wanders the world with no apparent goal other than to vanquish evil in all its forms...
created in 1928 by Robert E. Howard
Robert E. Howard
Robert Ervin Howard was an American author who wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. Best known for his character Conan the Barbarian, he is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre....
. James Purefoy
James Purefoy
James Brian Mark Purefoy is an English actor best known for portraying Mark Antony in the HBO series Rome.-Early life and work:...
stars in the title role. Despite optioning the rights in 1997, filming did not begin until January 2008. The film is an origin story for the Kane character and intended to be the first of a trilogy. The plot follows a redemption story for Kane, from the end of his life as a privateer
Privateer
A privateer is a private person or ship authorized by a government by letters of marque to attack foreign shipping during wartime. Privateering was a way of mobilizing armed ships and sailors without having to spend public money or commit naval officers...
, through the salvation of his soul by rescuing a Puritan
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
girl and the beginning of his life as the Puritan avenger of the source material. It was produced by a consortium of French, Czech and British companies and mostly filmed in the Czech Republic. The film was first shown at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival
2009 Toronto International Film Festival
The 34th annual Toronto International Film Festival, was held held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 10 and September 19, 2009. The opening night gala presented the Charles Darwin biography Creation...
. It went on general release in France, Spain and the UK over the end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010. Reception was generally favourable, with a Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
rating of 82% following the UK release; the film's atmosphere and Purefoy's acting attracted the most acclaim.
Plot
The film opens in North Africa, 1600, with the EnglishKingdom of England
The Kingdom of England was, from 927 to 1707, a sovereign state to the northwest of continental Europe. At its height, the Kingdom of England spanned the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and several smaller outlying islands; what today comprises the legal jurisdiction of England...
mercenary, Solomon Kane, leading the crew of his ship into battle against the Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
occupiers of a fortress town. After defeating the Ottoman defenders, Solomon and his men enter the fortress, only to enter a room of enchanted mirrors. Demons trapped within the mirrors attack and kill most of the crew, but Solomon fights his way into the throne room of the fortress. Inside, as he helps himself to the fortress's treasure, a demon dressed in hooded black robes and armed with a flaming sword appears. The demon announces itself as the Devil's Reaper and tells Solomon his evil deeds have irrevocably damned his soul, and he is now destined for Hell. After a brief duel, Solomon cries "I am not yet ready for Hell!" and leaps from the throne room window into the sea. As he falls to safety, the Reaper snarls his soul will be the Devil's.
Following his encounter with The Devil's Reaper, Solomon returns home to England and finds sanctuary in a monastery in the countryside. However, due to the Abbot's dreams, Solomon is soon expelled and sent back to his ancestral estates in Devon, where Solomon has not been since his father disowned him. Along the way, he is ambushed by robbers and, as he has fully embraced a life of peace and will not fight back, he is knocked unconscious. He is found and treated by the Crowthorns, a family of puritans heading west to travel to the New World. He travels with them but the family is itself ambushed by corrupted followers of the sorcerer
Sorcerer
-Gaming:* Sorcerer , a 2002 tabletop role playing game made by Ron Edwards* Sorcerer , a 1984 interactive fiction computer game made by Infocom...
Malachi and his brutal lieutenant, the Masked Rider. Most of the family is killed, except Meredith, who is kidnapped, and her mother Katherine. When Samual, Meredith's younger brother, is mercilessly slain right before his shocked eyes, an enraged Solomon charges into battle, killing several. The head of the family, William Crowthorn, declares as his last words that Solomon's soul will be redeemed if he rescues Meredith. Solomon, having now re-embraced a life of violence to fight off the attackers, takes a horse, arms himself and sets out in pursuit.
Solomon battles Malachi's followers across the countryside, rescuing many captives but not finding Meredith. On his journey, he meets a deranged priest who informs him Malachi's followers are taking the weaker survivors of their raids as slaves, while corrupting the strong into soldiers. The priest tries to feed Solomon to his parishioners, who have become undead ghouls. Solomon escapes, only to be set upon by the robbers who attacked him earlier, who have been turned by the Rider into soldiers of Malachi. Killing all but one of the robbers for interrogation, Solomon is told that Meredith is dead. Solomon refuses to believe this and angrily leaves the robber for the undead to feed on. Moving on, Solomon comes to a village, where he heads to an Inn and drinks to excess, his soul now definitely damned for not saving the girl. Former shipmates recognise him and try to recruit him as a leader of a resistance against Malachi. Kane refuses. However, Malachi's followers hear of this and attack the Inn at dawn, crucifying any members of the attempted resistance movement including Kane. As they move away, a cart containing Meredith passes behind them. She recognises Kane and calls out. He realises that he still has a chance to save her and pulls himself off the cross. Before Malachi's remaining men can kill him, they are killed by survivors of the resistance, who take Solomon to safety.
Kane is treated with magic by an old pagan witch and is soon ready to return to the pursuit. The resistance explain some of Malachi's background (that he was once a priest who became a sorcerer to gain power) and reveal that he now lives in Kane's ancestral home. Kane leads them into the castle via an underground passage. As the resistance fights Malachi's soldiers, Kane heads for the dungeons and frees many of the captives. He does not find Meredith, but he does find his father, emaciated and locked in sorcerous chains. His father explains that the Masked Rider is really Kane's older brother Marcus Kane, whom Kane thought he had killed in an accident shortly after he was banished as a teenager. Marcus was, however, only severely injured and left in a coma
Coma
In medicine, a coma is a state of unconsciousness, lasting more than 6 hours in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light or sound, lacks a normal sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. A person in a state of coma is described as...
: after the priests and healers failed to awake him, Solomon's father turned to Malachi, who brought Marcus back to life: however, Marcus was horribly disfigured and left subservient to Malachi, who turned Marcus into his enforcer: the Masked Rider. At his father's request, Solomon reluctantly shoots him dead and heads to the throne room to confront Malachi.
In the throne room, Kane confronts Malachi, who remarks everything that has happened to Solomon was meant to lead him to this place before disappearing. Solomon also finds Meredith caged in the throne room: before she can warn him it is a trap, Marcus stabs Solomon in the back with his sword. Despite his injury, Solomon pleads with his brother, but his cries fall on deaf ears so he grudgingly draws his sword and the two brothers fight to the death: after a lengthy battle, Solomon sets fire to Marcus and decapitates him. At the same time, Malachi uses Meredith's "innocent blood" to open a portal, thus releasing a demon sent to claim Solomon's soul, which attacks Kane. After a desperate fight, Kane shoots Malachi in the head, and all three souls (Kane, Malachi and the demon) are apparently pulled into Hell. It transpires that Kane, in saving Meredith from Malachi, redeemed his soul and so escapes Hell. Meredith travels to America with her mother, while Solomon, after burying his father and brother, declares that evil exists elsewhere in the world and that he will put an end to it.
Cast
- James PurefoyJames PurefoyJames Brian Mark Purefoy is an English actor best known for portraying Mark Antony in the HBO series Rome.-Early life and work:...
as Solomon KaneSolomon KaneSolomon Kane is a fictional character created by the pulp-era writer Robert E. Howard. A late 16th / early 17th century Puritan, Solomon Kane is a sombre-looking man who wanders the world with no apparent goal other than to vanquish evil in all its forms... - Max von SydowMax von SydowMax von Sydow is a Swedish actor. He has also held French citizenship since 2002. He has starred in many films and had supporting roles in dozens more...
as Josiah Kane - Rachel Hurd-WoodRachel Hurd-WoodRachel Clare Hurd-Wood is an English actress. Her break-out role was as Wendy Darling in the 2003 movie Peter Pan.-Personal life:Rachel Hurd-Wood was born in London, England, the daughter of Philip and Sarah Hurd-Wood...
as Meredith Crowthorn - Mackenzie CrookMackenzie CrookPaul Mackenzie Crook is a British actor and comedian. He is best known for playing Gareth Keenan in The Office and Ragetti in the Pirates of the Caribbean films.-Life and career:...
as Father Michael - Pete PostlethwaitePete PostlethwaitePeter William "Pete" Postlethwaite, OBE, was an English stage, film and television actor.After minor television appearances including in The Professionals, Postlethwaite's first success came with the film Distant Voices, Still Lives in 1988. He played a mysterious lawyer, Mr...
as William Crowthorn - Ian WhyteIan Whyte (actor)Ian Whyte is a Welsh actor, stuntman and former professional basketball player.-Career:Born in Bangor, North Wales, he is known best for portraying almost all of the Predators in both Alien vs. Predator and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem. He stands at the height of .- Filmography :- External links :*...
as The Devil's Reaper - Alice KrigeAlice KrigeAlice Maud Krige is a South African actress. Her first feature film role was as the Gilbert and Sullivan singer Sybil Gordon in the 1981 Academy Award-winning film Chariots of Fire...
as Katherine Crowthorn - Ben SteelBen SteelBen Steel is an Australian actor and director who is most known for his regular role of Jude Lawson in Australian soap Home & Away.-Early life and acting training:...
as Fletcher - Anthony Wilks as Edward Crowthorn
- Jason FlemyngJason FlemyngJason Iain Flemyng is an English actor. He is known for his film work, which has included roles in British films such as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch , both for Guy Ritchie, as well as Hollywood productions such as Rob Roy along with the Alan Moore comic book adaptations From...
as Malachi - Samuel RoukinSamuel RoukinSamuel Roukin is an English actor.Roukin was born in Southport, and currently lives in Kentish Town, North London. He displayed an interest in drama from an early age...
as Marcus Kane
Production
Wandering Star optioned the film and book publishing rights to Solomon Kane in 1997 from the Robert E Howard Estate. In 2001 it was announced that Christopher LambertChristopher Lambert
Christophe Guy Denis "Christopher" Lambert is an American-born French actor who has appeared in French, European and American productions. He is best known for his role as Connor MacLeod, or simply "The Highlander", from the movie and subsequent movie franchise series of the same name...
was offered the role of Kane and was seriously "considering it as it's a very compelling part." At this point Don Murphy was a producer on the film, with Samuel Hadida of Davis Film and Paul Berrow and Michael Berrow of Wandering Star Pictures, and was attempting to set up the film with New Line Cinema. Murphy left the project in 2003 under a cloud when the negotiations fell apart with New Line. Things went quiet for a while during which time several scripts were developed around the African adventures of Solomon Kane from the classic text.
Then Michael J Basset was hired as writer and director of the film, with a brief to write an origin story based loosely on the Howard poems and classic text, and in August 2006 he finished writing the script. Finally on October 1, 2007, it was announced that James Purefoy was cast as the lead.
Principal photography began in Prague on 14 January 2008 and was scheduled for a 12 week shoot. Director Bassett says of James Purefoy that he "is a delight to work with; he is giving his heart and soul to this. He's in brilliant physical shape and his sword fighting is just brilliant to behold and he's finding depth and sophistication within the character in ways I really hoped he would." As of the end of February, sets were still being built for the later part of the production, and Max Von Sydow and Mackenzie Crook had yet to begin shooting. Jan Cileček, a Czech artist produced a number of sculptures for the film and there are some photographs available on his website.
An article in the Daily Mail
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
states that during the production Purefoy was injured while staging a sword fight with a stuntman, resulting in his receiving five stitches to the forehead. The article also mentions that Bassett is into extreme measures "so his cast and crew have been working in the cold, the rain, and as much mud as possible.".
On April 16, Michael Bassett posted a message on his blog saying "Principal photography is completed on Kane. Now for the long-haul of post-production to get it all into shape". He also says that everything is set up for the future parts of the trilogy, which "will tap more completely into Howard's original stories." Finally he mentioned that "the final scenes of the film were shot in England on the North Devon coast. It was all done on a private estate which used to belong to the real Sir Richard Grenville."
On April 7, 2009 Bassett announced that production of the film is complete. On October 23, 2009, Bassett announced on his blog that "Kane is slowly gearing up for its first set of release dates at the end of this year and early 2010."
According to Paradox Entertainment CEO Fredrik Malmberg, the film's budget was $40,000,000 USD.
Theatrical
Solomon Kanes world premiere was on 16 September 2009 at the Toronto Film Festival. The film was featured at the 2009 San Diego Comic Con, which Basset and Purefoy both attended. It was released in France on 23 December 2009. It was released in Spain on 1 January 2010. The United Kingdom theatrical release was on 19 February 2010; in its first week it opened at seventh place in the UK top ten with a weekend gross of £611,886 across 259 cinemas.Home media
The DVD was released in the UK on 28 June 2010. It was the best selling DVD in week commencing 5 July 2010.Critical reception
The film has received mostly positive reviews. Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
reports 83% of them being favourable, averaging out as 6.5 of ten.
Empire
Empire (magazine)
Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. From the first issue in July 1989, the magazine was edited by Barry McIlheney and published by Emap. Bauer purchased Emap Consumer Media in early 2008...
rated the film at 3/5 stars, complimenting writer-director Michael J. Bassett as handling the film "with the same level of commitment Peter Jackson
Peter Jackson
Sir Peter Robert Jackson, KNZM is a New Zealand film director, producer, actor, and screenwriter, known for his The Lord of the Rings film trilogy , adapted from the novel by J. R. R...
brought to the Lord Of The Rings trilogy
The Lord of the Rings film trilogy
The Lord of the Rings is an epic film trilogy consisting of three fantasy adventure films based on the three-volume book of the same name by English author J. R. R. Tolkien. The films are The Fellowship of the Ring , The Two Towers and The Return of the King .The films were directed by Peter...
, the darker moments of which are an obvious influence on Bassett's film." The review says of the film as a whole: "For less than the effects budget of this year's other sword ’n’ sorcery adventures, Percy Jackson
Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief is a 2010 fantasy-adventure film directed by Chris Columbus. The film is loosely based on The Lightning Thief, the first novel in the Percy Jackson & The Olympians series by Rick Riordan...
and Clash Of The Titans
Clash of the Titans (2010 film)
Clash of the Titans is a 2010 fantasy and action remake of the 1981 film of the same name . The story is very loosely based on the Greek myth of Perseus. Directed by Louis Leterrier and starring Sam Worthington, the film was originally set for standard release on March 26, 2010...
, Bassett has delivered a dark-as-balls Highlander
Highlander (film)
Highlander is a 1986 fantasy action film directed by Russell Mulcahy and based on a story by Gregory Widen. It stars Christopher Lambert, Sean Connery, Clancy Brown, and Roxanne Hart. The film depicts the climax of an ages-old battle between immortal warriors, depicted through interwoven past and...
for the 21st century, played with such conviction it's hard not to be swept along."
Total Film
Total Film
Total Film is a British film magazine published 13 times a year by Future Publishing. The magazine was launched in 1997 and offers film, DVD and Blu-ray news, reviews and features...
also rated the film at 3/5 stars with the conclusion: "A brutal fusion of angst and action, this mini-epic gives the sword-and-sorcery genre a bleak, brusque new life. Watch it for some terrific limbchopping and a mighty turn by James Purefoy." Sister magazine SFX rated the film at 4/5 stars. The review describes the location work as one of the films "great strengths", comparing the film to Witchfinder General
Witchfinder General (film)
Witchfinder General is a 1968 British horror film directed by Michael Reeves and starring Vincent Price, Ian Ogilvy, and Hilary Dwyer. The screenplay was by Reeves and Tom Baker based on Ronald Bassett's novel of the same name. Made on a low budget of under £100,000, the movie was coproduced by...
and Blood on Satan's Claw
Blood on Satan's Claw
Blood on Satan's Claw is a 1970 British horror film made by Tigon British Film Productions and directed by Piers Haggard. The film was written by Robert Wynne-Simmons, with additions by Piers Haggard, and stars Patrick Wymark, Linda Hayden and Barry Andrews...
, "a landscape alive with the sense of supernatural forces gathering beneath the frost and the empty fields." Purefoy is also acclaimed, with "a sense of huge faultlines coiling within him [which] makes for a genuinely intriguing hero." The only fault is the final confrontation, where the "clashingly mainstream touch" of a CGI demon "[punctures] the movie's careful atmosphere of pre-Enlightenment dread."
Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
gave the film a negative review, stating that the film "just isn't much fun." Bassett's direction is described as being handled "confidently if without much flair" while Purefoy "gamely endures heavy exertion throughout; it's not his fault the script lends his character might and a mission but little personality."
The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
also gave the film 3/5 stars. Its conclusion was mixed, stating: "There's plenty that's good here: a serious tone, steady pacing, muddy and bloody scenery and a convincing turn by Purefoy in his own west country accent. But Kane is an ill fit into the origins tale template; it's a story with few surprises."
Time Out awarded the film with 4/5 stars, giving a positive review which praised the originality of the story and sharp 17th century setting.