SOLOMON KANE is a skilled warrior, but is also a psychopathic
killer.. On one of his raids, he is
confronted by a menacing figure, the devil's reaper who has come to take him to
hell. He jumps out of a window, runs to
a monastery and, to save his soul, vows to renounce violence.
Apparently, he had never before considered that heavenly
authorities might look with disfavor on his habit of pillaging and murder.
He pays the monks a lot of money to take him in, and he
stays there, a good boy, for several months. Then the abbot has a bad dream about
him, so the monks throw him out, though without returning his money. Wandering
through the countryside, he passes hanged corpses, and other disturbing sights.
A band of violent robbers attack him and, since he in his repentant state will
not fight back, they knock him out. Luckily, a family of pilgrims, the
CROWTHORNS, finds him, and nurse him back to health. The father WILLIAM,
invites Solomon to join them, and the teenaged daughter, MEREDITH happily sews
for him a snazzy Darth Vader-style cloak.
The land is troubled. A cruel sorcerer, MALACHI, and his
masked abettor terrorize the countryside, enslaving and killing people and
burning their towns. When Malachi's
raiders attack the Crowthorns, they beg Solomon to intervene and save them, but
he, true to his vow of non-violence, passively watches most of them be killed
or mortally wounded. Only when cute little Meredith is kidnapped does he decide
that saving his soul isn't worth it and starts killing the raiders, not that
this belated response helps the Crowthorns. A dying William adjures Solomon to
rescue his daughter, and promises that Solomon's soul will be redeemed if he
does. Solomon vows to do so.
Solomon then meets zombies, insane priests, demonic raiders,
the masked man and Malachi himself as he seeks to save Meredith.
There is a lot of religious symbolism in the movie. Praying, saving souls, demonic confrontations
are common. At one point, Solomon is
literally crucified, with a crucified victims on either side of him. There are interesting theological
implications to all this which I doubt the filmmakers bothered to think though.
Good graphics create fearful-looking monsters and the music
is stirring. The film should appeal to people who like unsophisticated horror
and, in fact, has received good reviews.
As far as I'm concerned, it's a POS, but it should get your pulse up to
at least a jog, and so is worth at least +++.
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