State of Massachusetts, year of grace 1691. A man is found guilty of witchcraft and collusion with the devil, and sentenced to be burned at the stake. But an extraordinary event comes to the heretic's rescue: an anomalous cloud envelops him and catapults him three centuries into the future. Witch hunter Giles Redfern, who had captured him, pursues him on this unusual and dangerous adventure. Cassandra, a girl who lives under the same roof as a homosexual man, finds the devil's emissary. It is the latter who suffers the unfriendly attentions of Warlock, the earthly reincarnation of the evil one. Having escaped from the house, he reaches a medium's shop and, through her abilities, discovers that his task is to recover some parts of the “devil's bible,” which have been lost over the centuries. But Giles arrives in the 20th century to bring Warlock back to his own time and judge him for his crimes. It will be Cassandra, condemned to premature aging by an absurd curse cast on her by the sorcerer, who will help the “temporal” hunter in his battle against evil...
A horror movie buff is left perplexed by a film like this. Steve Miner is a talented director, author of some rather important and successful titles (Who's Buried in That House, Friday the 13th Part 2 and 3), but this time it is difficult to judge an interesting story, but one that is confusingly scripted, using uncharismatic actors and with limited use of special effects (some of which are really poor quality). If we add to this the fact that the Italian dubbing is rather painful and that the “funny” lines are worthy of a B-movie, the end result cannot be very appealing to those who watch movies every day. It's a shame because the initial subject matter wasn't bad and an actor like Julian Sands could certainly have been put to better use: the role of the sorcerer would have suited him well, if they hadn't reduced him to the level of the Wizard of Oz... What a pity.
Review by Maxena
