The Warlock is back!

Or, at least, Julian Sands is back and he’s once again playing someone who is in league with the Devil. The first sequel to Warlock reimagines the character as being the literal son of Satan. Every millennium, Warlock is reborn and sets about trying to find the six stones that, when put together, will allow him to set his father free from Hell. The druids used to do a pretty good job of keeping the Warlock from finding the stones, but eventually they all died out. When Warlock is reborn in 1993, it falls to Kenny Tavis (Chris Young) and Samantha Ellison (Paula Marshall), as the two youngest Druid descendants, to stop him. Unfortunately, neither Kenny nor Samantha knows much about their heritage. Kenny is murdered by his own father, but it’s just so Kenny can be resurrected as a Druid warrior. Kenny uses a baseball to train with, making this one of the least likely baseball movies of the past 30 years.

Warlock: The Armageddon looks and feels like a rush job, complete with CGI that looks bad even for the 90s. Julian Sands is the only person who returns from the surprisingly entertaining first film, and he’s really the only reason to watch the sequel. The Warlock is much more quippy in the sequel, and the kill scenes are more elaborate. (Just watch as Julian Sands uses a finger gun to take out his enemies.) But the only scene that’s really stays with you is the messy moment when the Warlock is reborn and quickly grows up. The movie suffers because the Warlock doesn’t have a worthy opponent. Chris Young may have been good in PCU, but he’s still no Richard E. Grant. Julian Sands is the only member of the cast to deliver his lines with any relish, probably because he was getting paid the most money to appear in the film.

Watching the movie, I was mostly confused as to why the six stones existed in the first place. If Satan’s already locked up, why not throw away the key instead of expecting a bunch of druids to look after it?

The Warlock would return for a third movie. Julian Sands would not.