LONDON — In “Season of the Witch,” Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman play a pair of soldiers who return home from the Crusades disillusioned by the violence they’ve committed in the name of God.
Discovering their home city overrun by the Plague, the warriors are entrusted with delivering an alleged witch (Claire Foy) to a far-off monastery to rid the land of its curse. Along the treacherous journey — curses and chasms and wolves, oh my! — their faith is tested and, wouldn’t you know it, they come to wonder if their witch is truly a witch at all.
Although Cage is no stranger to certain kinds of period films — think “Birdie” or “Windtalkers” or “Peggy Sue Got Married” — “Season of the Witch” offered a major historical departure, plus his first opportunity to act on a horse.
The hook for “Season of the Witch” is the swordplay and the supernatural intrigue, but underneath that surface is a film that’s every bit as much about the power of religion to do great good, but also great evil.
I sat down with Cage — fresh off a plane from the set of his upcoming “Ghost Rider” sequel — and Foy on a snowy late-November morning in London to discuss both sides of their film, which opens in theaters on Friday (Jan. 7).
Check out the interview and pay no attention to my description of the film as “sword-and-sandals” in my first question. Sword-and-sorcery, though? Perhaps!
And stay tuned for my interview with Perlman and co-star Robert Sheehan later this week.