Review of Solomon Kane (2009) by Stuart K — 24 Mar 2011

Robert E. Howard created Solomon Kane in 1928, but it would take 80 years before it was picked up for a film, and after a few false starts, from writer/director Michael J. Bassett and producer Samuel Hadida, they brought Howard's otherworldly creation to the big screen, and it's a very good film too, dark and with good imagination on display.

Solomon Kane (James Purefoy) was once an English mercenary who fought in North Africa in 1600 and encountered the Devil's Reaper, who wanted his soul for his sins. Sometime later, Kane lives a peaceful life in a monastery in England, now a Puritan.

But, he is told he must leave, and he soon ends up with the Crowthorn family, also Puritans, who include father William (Pete Postlethwaite), mother Katherine (Alice Krige) and daughter Meredith (Rachel Hurd-Wood).

However, the family and Kane are attacked by a family of roving raiders, who work under the mysterious sorcerer Malachi (Jason Flemyng) who had made a deal with Kane's estranged father Josiah (Max Von Sydow), if Kane fights Malachi, he is damned for hell, but anything to get Meredith freed.

It's very atmospheric, and it's a good origin story too. Purefoy makes a good badass as Kane, and he has good support too, as a sword-and-sorcery film, it's quite different, one with a lot of violence and mud, but hopefully, this won't be the last Solomon Kane film.