5 Horror Icons Who Never Got A Fair Crack At The Whip

3. The Warlock (Warlock film series)

I was born the same year Warlock was released so it took a while for me to get around it. But when I finally did, it became somewhat of a favourite. Playing out like a supernatural version of The Terminator, it followed a warlock brought to the future after Satan rips open a portal in time where upon he jumps through escaping his own execution after a witch hunter has sentenced him to death. After seeing the warlock escape the witch hunter follows him to the future and the two them engage in a cat and mouse game as the warlock attempts to assemble the Grand Grimoire, a satanic book that will reveal the true name of god and will grant the power to undo all known creation.

Why would the warlock want to undertake such a task? Well, so he can be named Satan’s true son, of course (I mean obviously). The thing I like so much about the warlock is that he’s just so evil, he cares nothing for humans and takes more than a few opportunities to curse, murder or deform the few poor folks that cross his path. The fact that his main goal is the destruction of pretty much the whole universe, yet he still takes the time toy with a few victims, is quite telling.

There are three movies total in the Warlock franchise, but unfortunately the great Julian Sands only portrayed him twice (Bruce Payne took the role for the third and worst movie in the trilogy). I really wish people had taken to this series as the warlock is a great villain, wielding his ungodly powers with real panache. Seriously, this guy has style and along with his poetic way with words, he has quite the presence. Unfortunately, the first sequel didn’t build on the mythology of the original and while it technically still used the same character, it was totally unconnected to the first movie. Julian Sands was still great in the role, but the film was pretty weak overall.

If only we had gotten a true sequel to the original, maybe the warlock would be more fondly remembered today. Much worse movies got a whole heap of follow ups, but we don’t live in a perfect world. After all, if we did, there would be a sequel to Dog Soldiers already and Warlock would have been adapted into an HBO series with the budget of Game of Thrones, and The Thing would already be on its third season.

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