Every fiber of my being groans at the upcoming release of Season of the Witch. First, it stars Nicolas Cage. I don't actually have anything against the man himself, but his choice of movies is abysmal. Didn't The Wicker Man teach you anything, Mr. Cage?
As a Wiccan, I expect this will start a another round of us being poor persecuted witches, and how the Church was the big meanie of Medieval Europe putting down all those uppity herbalist women.
As a historian, I just want to fall into convulsions. Cage plays a soldier "who returns from the crusades to a Europe blighted by plague. A priest begs his service to deliver a suspected witch to a monastery so monks can determine her guilt or innocence." (http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/221592/Season-of-the-Witch-film-review-and-trailerSeason-of-the-Witch-film-review-and-trailer#ixzz1AO7wkKZT)
Exactly which Crusade would that be? Because the Crusades ended in the 13th century, and the major Crusades were finished by the 12th. Bubonic plague strikes Europe first in the mid 14th century. Major witch hunts don't start until the late 15th century, with the Church previous to that generally taking the position that witches didn't exist.
I don't expect historical movies to be perfectly accurate, but this movie clearly isn't even trying. If you want to include this much fiction, why set it in history at all? Why not invent your own fantasy world?
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