THE STORY:  Its always great to see a b-movie that's really fun to watch. Though this movie is cheesy it certainly fits the bill. Thank Heaven for small favors!

Way back in the 17th century, a Warlock has been captured by Redferne, an expert witch hunter. Locked away in a prison in New England he awaits trial and well, death. But the Warlock has a little help from Satan himself. Old Nick transports the Warlock from his jail cell into the twentieth century. Redferne witnesses this hellish event and dives into the Devil's time vortex in order to stop the warlock. both men disappear.

Well, the Warlock arrives in the present first. He crashes through the window of a house in Los Angeles occupied by Chaz and Kassandra. The two roommates think he's just a drunk that somehow fell into their house. Kassandra suggests calling the police, but Chaz decides to let him "sleep it off". I can understand being a Good Samaritan, but if anyone...even a priest, crashed through my front window in the middle of the night I'm dialing 911. This turns out to be Chaz's undoing. When Kassandra leaves for work in the morning the Warlock awaken and kills Chaz. First he cuts his finger off and then he bites his tongue out and pan fries it. Goes to show ya....don't trust people that crash through your living room windows! Also, during the morning scenes we learn that Kassandra is a diabetic and has to take insulin shots...remember that, 'cuz there may be a test later.

Learning of Chaz's death, Kassandra is naturally upset. She returns to the house to collect her things and get out. But its then that Redferne arrives. Seeming like a crazy person and talking in old english, Redferne queries her about the Warlock having been there. He begins to collect a bit of the Warlock's blood that was spilt when he crashed through the window and puts it in his witch-compass...I guess it comes with the standard witch hunting kit. Using the blood, the compass will be able to point in the Warlock's direction. While Redferne is doing that Kassandra uses the opportunity to phone the police. The police arrive and promptly use a taser on Redferne and haul him off to the pokey. Kassandra begins packing in earnest. After all, two crazy people have broken into her home in two nights! Unfortunately the Warlock has discovered why the devil has sent him to this period of time...he has to collect the Grand Grimoire, the most evil book of magic ever written. The book has been split into thirds and the Warlock has to gather all three pieces. This will allow him to read the "unknown name of God" and unravel the universe! The first piece is hidden away in a table in Kassandra and Chaz's house. The Warlock returns there just as Kassandra is ready to depart. Seeing him, Kassandra tries to make a hasty retreat, but fails. The Warlock steals a charm bracelet she has on and casts an evil spell on her. Kassandra passes out but when she awakens in the morning she discovers that she's been aged twenty years overnight! With no one else to turn to, Kassandra bails Redferne out of jail.

Redferne, who is suprisingly non-plussed by the 20th century, explains to her that he Warlock is pure evil and that if he gets his hands on all three parts of the Grand grimoire the entire universe will be doomed. He also explains to her that the Warlock didn't age her twenty years...the spell is AGING her twenty years for each day that passes and it can't be broken until Kassandra reclaims the charm bracelet. With no real choice, Kassandra decides to help Redferne track down his ancient enemy before she dies of old age in a few days.

The Warlock has been making good time tracking down the next piece of the grimoire. Using the fat of an unbaptized child he's gained the ability to fly. Its only temporary but he's used it to good advantage, finding the second part of the book in an old farmhouse owned by a Mennonite family. The old grandfather of the family noted the signs of witchcraft on the premises (milk that sours, etc) and painted a huge hex mark on the the barn. When Redferne sees it he and Kassandra immediately investigate. The younger family members don't believe in witchcraft, but the old man and Redferne convince them to leave while Redferne searches the attic for the Warlock. ( I've cut some corners...this is actually the place where Redferne learns that the warlock is after the Grand Grimoire...we the audience learn it before, but Redferne doesn't until this point. He merely wants to destroy the Warlock for his past crimes) The warlock is still in the attic and tries to escape Redferne. Their battle leads them outside of the house where the Warlock almost escapes using his flying power, but he's quickly subdued by Redferne and the old man. The Warlock casts a quick spell on the old man causing his eyes to bleed and flees. Redferne has to tend to the old farmer, lest he dies. Kassandra pursues the Warlock pounding nails into his footprints (which cause the warlock to reel in pain) in order to slow him down. No longer able to fly away the Warlock makes it to a trainyard and almost escapes Kassandra. Just before he's out of reach Kassandra manages to retrieve her bracelet from him, thus restoring her to her normal age. The Warlock makes his escape on an outgoing train.

After Redferne has seen to the old man's wounds Kassandra wants to quit the witch hunt, She's terrified of the Warlock and with good reason. She knows if she confronts him again he's just going to kill her instead of dinking around with spells. But Redferne needs her help still, to navigate his way around in this century. He promises her he'll not let anything happen to her so she agrees. But she has a brilliant plan! Instead of chasing the Warlock around she plans to catch flight to Boston, the location of the final third of the grimoire. If they can get to it first they can thwart the Warlock's plan. Kassandra and Redferne discover that the last piece of the infernal book is hidden in a graveyard. Redferne figures that if the graveyard is consecrated ground the book is safe since the Warlock can't set foot on holy ground. However when the investigate the graveyard they discover that the graveyard has been moved about to make room for a housing project. The tomb that contains the grimoire is on the unconsecrated part! Also the grave is Redfernes! This grisly discovery causes Redferne no small amount of discomfort, so it is Kassandra that must open the coffin and pry the pages of the book from Redferne's dead fingers. The plan is to simply move the book to the consecrated part of the graveyard thus putting it out of the Warlock's reach. The Warlock arrives before this can be done and he and Redferne go man to man in a fight. The Warlock promised to not use his magic and fight Redferne in a straight fight but he lied. He incapacitates Redferne and Kassandra and begins to read the unknown name of God. Before he can finish and destroy the world, Kassandra tries one last plan. She fills her insulin needles with salt water (The cemetery borders the harbor I guess) and injects the Warlock with it. The Warlock dies a painful and quick death and the world is saved. The mission finished, Redferne vanishes back in time. Kassandra takes the accursed grimoire and buries it in a place that witches and warlocks cannot travel...since they are vulnerable to salt she hides in the Utah salt flats. The end

Is this movie cheesy? Hell yeah! But is it good? Hell yeah! Its one of the few supernatural b-movies that is actually classic in a cheesy kind of way. You can shoot it full of holes, you can laugh at the special effects (in today's technology they are kind of outdated) but still its a pretty good b-movie. Lori Singer was Kassandra. The last I saw of her she was in a short lived and rather silly TV show called VR 5. Julian Sands was the Warlock and he did such a good job at being evil I'd probably run if I saw him on the street.

Best Lines: "You got a watch? Time me." -Kassandra, after a cop convinces her to pack up and leave the house.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?:

1.) The Warlock has some pretty gnarly powers. He can make a flying potion. He can make you age faster than Captain Kirk in "The Deadly Years". He can make your eyes bleed by looking at you and he can at times shoot lightning. So how'd these pilgrim dudes in the 16th century capture him in the first place?

2.) I'm not saying that Chaz deserved to die, but it was pretty silly to let the Warlock "sleep it off" in his house. A guy with chains on , dressed in black crashes through the window and Chaz wants to be Mr. Goody-Two Shoes. I wonder how many times he's been robbed with an attitude like that?

3.) I'd like to know how Kassandra got Redferne out of jail that easily. Redferne is dressed like a weird ass 17th century huntsman and undoubtedly must have sounded like a madman when the police talked to him. ("Prithee not question me! The Warlock!" and stuff like that.) Plus he has no identification, and his fingerprints aren't going to found anywhere! He's from 400 years past! Even if Kassandra dropped any charges on him, wouldn't the cops want to keep him for observation or something?

4.) I wish the writers didn't have Kassandra pull a fast one to get the plane tickets on her credit card. It wasn't needed. It also makes me wonder how she got back to California after everything was over. She obviously didn't have the money for another plane ticket, yet she must have gotten back to get her car and drive to the salt flats! Perhaps she got some cash from the preacher that she and Redferne met.

5.) I grew up fairly close to the Pennsylvania Amish country and I used to drive up there a lot. I have never seen a Hex mark painted on a barn. do the Amish (or Mennonites or whatever) still believe in witches? Perhaps they something that we don't.

6.) Are there some kind of rules to the devil's time travelling? Why send the Warlock to gather the book together in the 20th century after its been split into thirds? If Old Nick can send his minion through time why not send him to a period before the book was split up? Man, I'm not getting a headache today trying to figure out time travel.

NUDITY AND SEX:   None.

HUH?:  Redferne's methods need a little scrutiny. He obviously understands and/or knows a lot of witchcraft. He built a compass that tracks down warlocks by using blood. He can cure the old man's blindness by making mobiles out of keys...and healing magic is a basic part of witchcraft. So he must have used these methods to catch the Warlock in the 1600's...but...but...wouldn't that make him a witch, too? I'm suprised Redferne wasn't sharing a cell with the Warlock! After all, back in those days you got a speedy trumped up trial and a red hot poker shoved up your ass if you so much as pulled a rabbit out of a hat!

Redferne makes one or two offhand comments about the strangeness of the 20th after he meets Kassandra and the police arrive. It sounds as if he doesn't realize 'til that moment that he's in "The future". How long has he been wandering around looking for the Warlock? Its a full day after the Warlock arrived when Redferne shows up. Didn't he notice things like the houses, the streetlights or telephone poles? When he's in the police station didn't he wonder how the building was lit? A coffee maker is high tech for him! Think about it...if a guy from the 1600's materialized in this room the few gadgets in here would seem like magic to him. I could shock the hell the hell out of him with my digital watch! ( let alone this computer...a device a lot of users probably think is [unwrite]ing magic!) Redferne adjusts really [unwrite]ing fast!

I don't totally understand why Redferne is so distraught after seeing his own grave. I wouldn't like seeing my own, but if I were sent into 24th Century and saw my own grave I wouldn't be too shocked. Doesn't that mean I'd at least get back home? The only way I'd be upset is if the stone read "Died a grisly painful pointless death" or I left the present on July 1st 2000 and the inscription read "Died July 2nd 2000".

So this magic book has the unknown name of God and if its spoken all of creation will cease to exist? I'm not even going to ask why the Warlock or even Satan would ewant the entire universe to cease to exist...instead I'll point out that I don't see how God would put such a serious design flaw in his universe. I don't think any living person would do that if they could somehow create a universe and we're far, far, far, far, far more fallible than God...who, for all intents and purposes is infallible.

THE TALLY: This movie is a hoot for B-movie fans. Its really fun to watch. I would suggest it for any B-movie fan and I can say to you "Tarry Not, but hie thee to the video store to find if thou hast not bore witness to it." Or something like that.