Director
Anthony Hickox
Cast
Julian Sands - Warlock
Chris Young - Kenny Travis
Paula Marshall - Samantha Ellison
Steve Kahan - Will Travis
R.G. Armstrong - Franks
Warlock: The Armageddon is a sequel to the 1989 movie Warlock.
Julian Sands returns in the role of the dude witch himself! And as far as other returning cast, he's it. No one else from the first movie shows up in this one.
I confess it took me three attempts to get through this movie. I fell asleep the first two times. During the third time, I had to stand at parts so I could get through it.
In the first movie, the Warlock travels from 1691 to modern day Los Angeles to search for the Grand Grimoire hidden centuries before, and destroy all creation. In the sequel, he comes back to small town America to acquire some rune stones scattered centuries before, and destroy all creation.
It turns out the Warlock is actually the son of Satan himself.
In the past, Druids have regularly performed a ritual with the stones to stop the birth of Satan's son, which can only occur during a lunar eclipse.
During one of these rituals, Christians come and attack the Druids thinking they're performing some kind of Satanic ceremony. This causes the stones to be scattered far and wide.
The movie then cuts to modern day America where he's born again as a full grown adult (umm...ouch!) to a woman who has one of the stones in her possession.
The stone was an heirloom passed down through her family. She puts it on as she's getting ready for a date. But, to her detriment, she happens to see a lunar eclipse taking place at that moment while looking at herself in the mirror. And boom - she's instantly preggers with the warlock. Thank God it doesn't happen that easily in real life!
As the Warlock is born, he uses the woman's body as a conduit to speak with the devil, who tells him to go find the other stones.
Horror icon, Zack Galligan (Gremlins 1 and 2, Waxwork), makes a cameo as the girl's date. What's funny is that Galligan's character, who is on screen for about 30 seconds, has a name - Douglas. But the Warlock still doesn't have a name. Good for you, Billy from Gremlins!
Meanwhile, some Druids - they're still around - pick up on various signs taking place indicating the devil's son has come and do what they can to stop him before he brings the devil into the world.
Two Druids, Will Travis (Steve Kahan) and Franks (R.G. Armstrong - Dick Tracy, Children of the Corn) try to persuade fellow Druid and now Christian minister, Ted Ellison (Bruce Glover), to help them.
Part of their effort includes Travis and Franks killing Travis's son, Kenny, in order to raise him from the dead through Druid magic and make him a Warlock-killing Druid warrior.
Also, Kenny and Ellison's daughter, Samantha, are crazy in love. So, there's that.
Anyhow, the writing is laughable, and lacks consistency at times.
For instance, in one scene, Franks tells Will there's a ritual that can slow down the Warlock, and he starts to show him how to perform it. Will is skeptical, claiming it's just a lot of hocus pocus. He doubts there's magic, basically. This, by the way, takes place after Will killed his own son and used Druid magic to bring him back. And he had been trying to convince Ellison, who has been trying to turn a blind eye to everything, that various signs taking place (i.e. dead birds dropping from the sky) is proof that evil is about to commence. And now, he doubts there's magic! What a way to stay consistent with your beliefs, Will! I mean, seriously?
In the scene were Kenny wakes up after being killed (his dad shot him point blank with a shotgun, by the way), he naturally starts panicking. The last thing he saw was his own father pointing a shotgun at him. When he awakes, he starts running around the room yelling. As this is going on, Franks (again, himself being a Druid who was with Will when he shot Kenny) starts yelling "what's wrong with you?" Are you kidding? The writers couldn't think of better dialogue for this scene? This kid was just shot by his dad, and he wonders what's wrong!
Sands plays his character with much less enthusiasm as before. He's even more uninteresting than he was in the first movie, making we wonder if he's only appearing as the Warlock again to fulfill a contract. He's just lifeless and monotone.
Even an evil character can have expression, substance, and dare I say, emotion. He just doesn't have much, if any, of those things. There are several times where he just stands and stares blankly at nothing as though he's concentrating on something. What that would be, I don't know! Maybe he's watching the stain Warlock: The Armageddon is leaving on his acting career.
But the skin crawling gore is certainly there just as it was in the first movie. It's enough to make the audience cringe, and cringe scenes comesup unexpectedly.
Fans of the first movie should be left satisfied if that's what they're looking for in this movie. The gore is all the movie has going for it. The rest seems rushed, poor, and not thought through very well.
And speaking of the first, Armageddon is only connected to the first with the presence of the main character. Otherwise, the two have nothing to do with each other in regards to plot. For those who liked Warlock can certainly watch the sequel, and find it enjoyable. But it certainly doesn't try as hard as the first.
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