SOLOMON KANE

To get some ideas for witchy types and witch hunters, I watched the film version of Robert Howard's Solomon Kane last night. I have always liked the Solomon Kane stories and was keen to see them translated to the silver screen.....

Although the stories are clear pulp with only the vaguest nod to historical accuracy (despite Howard being a knowledgeable historian) I was at least expecting some attempt at realism, which perhaps was asking too much. Within the first 2 seconds of the film (set in 1600-1601) a ship sails past flying the Union Jack and things went downhill from then on. The puritan Kane haunted by the knowledge that his soul is damned , then proceeds to stay in a monastery (in post reformation England mark you), and then travels westwards to his ancestral homelands, through wasteland peopled by muddy serfs (shades of Monty Python's Autonomous Collective) and scabby headed post apocalyptic thugs. At one point he lodges in an Italianate church on the borders of Somerset and Devon (presumably Exmoor).

Despite the film being an excuse to show off  special effects in abundance and with a rather strained storyline, there was some great imagery and the odd scene which certainly provided some ideas. The  shot with the 2 bird masked doctors was particularly effective, and I hope to do a conversion to make one of these sinister apothecaries.

So all in all, not a complete waste of time but not the Kane I knew from my teenage years.