Chillichap's Review - Warhunt 2022 Action Horror Witches Movie Starring Mickey Rourke, Robert Knepper & Lou Stassen Cert 18 - A Film I've Seen
Hello!
I was mooching around looking for a film to watch and I came across this film. It's directed by multi award-winning Director Mauro Borelli (Star Wars Episode VIII-The Last Jedi). I don't really do horror that much, so hoped it wasn't too scary. Well, I can tell you it was a bit scary. As well as vampires and werewolves, I'm quite partial to a bit of witchcraft too and witches seem to me to be the most powerful of the lot-as seen with Willow in the Buffy series (I'm a full-grown bloke, I can watch what I like!).
It starts off in 1945 with an American plane flying over Germany. Something flies into the engines and downs the plane - it looks like bats, but turns out to be crows. The US send a rescue party headed by Major Jonhson (played by Mickey Rourke). It turns out the plane was carrying sensitive material and the operation is designated as Top Secret. Johnson seems to have a history with the Sergeant of the group Sgt Brewer (played by Robert Knepper). One of the troops has been selected because he's an expert in ancient Germanic dialects-a big clue for where this is heading.
The next day, the troop come across a Nazi flag and then find a whole load of German soldiers trussed up and hanging from trees-with them they find a golden solar compass like a sextant (an ancient navigation instrument). The troops think the Germans have done this to themselves. They come under fire from German soldiers, whom they eventually subdue. They lose a man and bury him. A survivor is questioned but they think he has shell shock. They come across an old windmill in a clearing. Candles are burning inside-they see beautiful women and leave them alone. Their compasses seem to be disrupted (and they walk around in a circle and come back to the grave they dug for their lost colleague.
A great quote 'When Odysseus entered the Land of the Dead, the demons, they changed the stars so he would lose direction.'
Their radios are dead. One solider finds a beautiful fur-robed lady signing in a clearing. She talks to him in German and leads him to the crash site of the US plane. She seduces him. Meanwhile one of the downed crew-the captain comes over the radio. But before he can explain what's happening, a swarm of crows materialize into something. Next thing we see is the witch who seduced the soldier earlier dying from a wound in her stomach-she cries out for help (in English).
The troop travel to the crash site. A repetitive theme is the presence of crow feathers. There are no bodies at the crash site, but the secret item is found. They want to get back to HQ, but the sergeant says he won't leave any survivors behind (earlier in the film, it's stressed about how much he cares about his troops). They are then attacked by the captain of the downed US plane. He's in a mad frenzy and it takes a lot to kill him. When they examine his chest, he has strange writing carved into it. One of the troops deciphers the symbols to mean 'bird', 'tree' and 'death'. They cut him open and he has no internal organs. The captured German finally talks and says 'Witches'. The sergeant decides it's time to bury the dead and go home.
Back at HQ, Johnson shows the cryptologist an old book. It's part of two tomes and the major says he's traveled across three continents in search of the second tome. The cryptologist deciphers one part of the book which means 'defeating time'. It turns out that the book is being searched for by Hitler too.
Back in the forest, one of the troops looks at the slides found in a tin (the recovered secret item) and sees a windmill. As they're digging the graves, the soldier who had intercourse with the lady earlier vomits and tries to kill himself. They look at his body and he has some kind of flesh-eating disease. The German escapes and is caught by one of the US soldiers. A witch appears, cuts his throat and exsanguinates him (drains him of all his blood). When the troops catch up, the German prisoner confirms this and says the witches did the same to his crew. Darkness descends and the soldier who is ill reveals that the lady he had intercourse with was a witch, so he shot her. He's given morphine for his pain.
Meanwhile back at HQ Johnson tells the radio operator to switch to another frequency. He contacts one of the troops, Walsh (played by Jackson Rathbone) who has always seemed aloof and it turns out he's operating directly for Johnson. The troops set booby traps. They sit down at a camp fire to eat and all their food has worms in it. The sergeant seems to be affected by something and thinks he hears something on the radio (which no-one else hears). He curses Johnson and uses force to re-establish his authority. They kill a wild boar and cook and eat it. The pig on the spit turns into human form and the soldiers start to be sick. At the same time, they're attacked by bow and arrows. It's very dark and the sergeant has voices in his head.
Daylight arrives. Only four of the troop are left and they find the sergeant, who shoots their medic. The remaining soldiers disperse and are now hunted by the witches. One soldier is kind of hypnotised by a witch who blows him up with his own grenade. Another soldier is killed gruesomely by the witches who drain his blood into a chalice of some sort. This leaves Walsh and the sergeant plus another soldier. The sergeant tries to kill Walsh, but is shot by the other soldier. The windmill has disappeared. Johnson tells Walsh to use the solar compass and that he's on his way. The compass reveals the whereabouts of the windmill and he and the soldier enter the windmill. They find the other book, and discover that warriors blood give the witches immortality in connection with the Tree of Life. The two soldiers fight and then discover a secret passage. It's clear that the witches have been harvesting warriors for centuries. They discover the tree of life, but are overcome by one of their ex-colleagues who is guarding the tree and the witch he originally killed. Johnson arrives at the windmill.
I'm going to stop there, because I don't want to ruin the ending for you. A lot of the film is shot in darkness and it's hard to see what's going on at times. It's a good film with a clever plot and is well put together. The horror side builds up, but I found myself able to watch it because of the great underlying story line.
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