Synopsis
In 1691, an evil warlock escapes execution by traveling through time to modern-day Los Angeles. Pursued by the witch hunter who once captured him, he searches for the scattered pages of a satanic manuscript that can reveal God's hidden name and undo creation. A young woman becomes involved in the chase as the warlock uses modern technology and ancient magic to complete his mission.
Factoids & Trivia
- Screenwriter David Twohy originally imagined the time-traveling warlock as a sympathetic man fleeing religious persecution. After struggling with that approach, he reworked the character into the villain seen in the finished film.
- Because the opening scenes are set in colonial America, the production favored British performers for the period characters, reasoning that they would plausibly still sound English after only a few years in the New World.
- The 17th-century material was filmed at Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts, while additional location work took place around Boston, Los Angeles, Santa Paula, and Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats.
- The farmhouse and red barn featured in the movie were part of the George Washington Faulkner House property in Santa Paula, California.
- The film was completed in 1988 and screened internationally in 1989, including at the Cannes Film Festival, but its US release was delayed after New World Pictures encountered financial problems. Trimark Pictures eventually acquired the distribution rights and released it in January 1991.
- The original optical-effects work was planned for DreamQuest Images but was reassigned to Perpetual Motion for budgetary reasons. Some of the Warlock's energy effects were reduced because animation made them expensive to produce.
- Jerry Goldsmith's score was first released in a shorter form. Intrada issued an expanded edition in 2015 that restored additional music from the original recording sessions.
- A novelization by Ray Garton was published in 1989 and included details that were different from, or absent from, the final film.
- The 1993 follow-up, Warlock: The Armageddon, brought back the title character but functioned as a standalone story rather than a direct continuation.