Solomon Kane is a cynical and ruthless mercenary in the service of Elizabeth I of England. During a mission in North Africa, Kane loses his entire team, exterminated by unsettling demons, and meets the Reaper, an emissary of the Devil tasked with carrying his soul to Hell due to his life filled with death and violence. Frightened by the idea of being damned for eternity, Kane decides to change his life, takes refuge in a monastery, and dedicates himself to the redemption of his sins. One day, however, Kane is expelled from the monastery by the monks themselves, who advise him to find the peace he seeks in his homeland. Kane follows the advice and along the way, he meets a family of Puritans traveling to the New World, who tend to him and welcome him after the man was robbed and injured. However, the men of Malachai, the despot who is terrorizing the English countryside, kill the family and take the second daughter hostage. Solomon Kane swears to the dying father of the girl that he would find her and sets out on her trail.
For those of you who are fans of fantasy-adventure literature, the name Robin Ervin Howard will be particularly familiar. Creator, among others, of Conan the Barbarian and Kull of Valusia, Howard wrote, between the 1930s and 1960s, a cycle of stories dedicated to the character of Solomon Kane, a man of faith with a past as a mercenary who fights the forces of evil. In 2009, somewhat against the trend with the fantasy that dominates the theaters, comes the film inspired by Howard's character, an entertainment of horror and action, dark and unexpectedly of good quality.
In the director's chair, we find one of the leading names of the new wave of Anglo-Saxon horror, Michael J. Bassett, already author of "Deathwatch – The Trench of Evil" and "Wilderness", who here seems to bend to a more commercial production, greatly deceiving those who had that idea. Yes, because "Solomon Kane" is exactly the film you wouldn't expect, a wild card in the vast sea of post-2000 fantasy that reveals the culture and passions of the director who also signed the screenplay.
We said that "Solomon Kane" is a counter-current film. After the success of "The Lord of the Rings" and "Harry Potter", the fantasy genre has accustomed us to frequent productions with medium-high budgets that every year fill the cinema halls, especially during the summer and Christmas periods. A fantasy that, however, assumes the aspect of a family film of which today we can consider more "adult" and "mature" representatives just "The Lord of the Rings" by Jackson that gave life to everything. "Solomon Kane" is born with the desire to be a full-fledged fantasy for adults, so let's forget about talking animals and fairy magic, let's replace them with terrifying demons, gratuitous violence, and a lot of cruelty, staying as close as possible to the fanta-hard-boiled atmospheres of Howard.
Bassett finds in James Purefoy ("Resident Evil") a perfect Solomon Kane, physically suitable for the role and with the right charisma to carry the entire film. The gloomy and incredibly claustrophobic environments – although the film is almost always set outdoors! – give the film a particular atmosphere, creating a dark and foggy England that seems to play a physical role in the story. What surprises and pleases is the naturalness with which the plot with demonic and fantasy tones is inserted into the historical/realistic framework of 16th-century England. Evil is palpable, it extends over men, things, and animals, a supernatural evil made of witchcraft, black magic, and demons; yet the sulfurous atmosphere seems to be an integral part of the realistic world in which the protagonists move, interacts with the plague that decimates the population, with emigration/colonization, with the wars in the name of faith that yesterday, as today, bloodied the peoples.
Praiseworthy is also the look of the creatures that populate the world of "Solomon Kane", starting with the mysterious right-hand man of Malachai, who presents himself as a suggestive mix between Leatherface and the cenobites of "Hellraiser". Admirable is also the decision to resort as little as possible to computer graphic special effects, limiting to the necessary where any other current fantasy would have indulged for any detail.
Of course, flaws are not lacking. Some characters, like the caravan of Puritans who help Kane at the beginning of the film, are almost irritating for their banality, first of all the pater familias played by the eternal extra Pete Postlethwaite ("Clash of the Titans"). Very superficial, then, the way Kane's past is treated, a brief series of flashbacks inserted in a somewhat gratuitous way that only help to break the tension. A little scolding also for the hasty way in which some confrontations are resolved, above all the triple final fight, which would have certainly deserved more attention.
In conclusion, we are faced with an undoubtedly quality product, an ultra-dark fantasy that comes very close to pure horror. Excellent atmosphere and entertainment guaranteed for a good adaptation of a classic of genre literature.
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