History Film / Warlock1989

The Warlock is tasked by {{Satan}} with finding the three parts of the [[TomeOfEldritchLore Grand Grimoire]], which contains the true name of {{God}}. Redferne meets Kassandra (Singer), a young woman who was cursed by the Warlock to age rapidly until she dies of old age, and informs her that speaking God's true name backwards will cause TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. So Redferne and Kassandra join forces to stop the Warlock before he finds all three parts of the Grand Grimoire.

The film was followed by two sequels, ''Film/WarlockTheArmageddon'' (1993) and ''Film/WarlockIIITheEndOfInnocence'' (1999). 1995 also saw a video game (very) loosely based on the second movie.

* AgonyOfTheFeet: While pursuing the fleeing Warlock through a train yard, Kassandra drives nails into the Warlock's footprints, causing him pain. In the final battle, the Warlock takes Kassandra captive and stabs nails into her own feet.
* TheAllegedCar: Kassandra drives a 1964 Chevrolet Corvair; it's in less than mint condition.

* TheAntiChrist: What the Warlock hopes to become once he gets the Grimoire.

--> '''The Warlock''': I am he of empty crib and stillborn foal. I am he whose coming the stars have foretold. I am he with heart forged by blackest coal. I am he who makesth whole the glorious goal of '''Satan's unborn soul'''!
* BadassLongcoat: Redferne wears one, and stands out terribly once he teleports to TheEighties.

** The Mennonite Farmer, despite being an old man from a pacifist sect, is more badass than nearly anybody else in the film.
* BeautyIsBad: The Warlock is a tall, slender, handsome guy with long blonde hair and a British accent.
* BigBad: The Warlock is the source of all the conflict around him, going way back to the late 1600s.
* BigDamnHeroes: Redferne and Kassandra literally save ''the entire universe'' by defeating the Warlock.

* ChristianityIsCatholic: {{Averted|Trope}}. All the clerics featured in the film (the elders from the opening, the priest whose pregnant wife is threatened by Warlock) as well as the Mennonite farm in which one part of the Grimoire is hidden, and the protagonist witch hunter Redferne, are Protestants. On the other hand, the cosmology of the film includes some catholic-like aspects, such as [[HolyBurnsEvil the power of the holy ground]], and others drawn from European folklore.

* CreepySouvenir: A justified case. The Warlock takes the possessed spritualist's eyes, using them as a compass to track Kassandra and Redferne.

* DeathOfAChild: The Warlock strikes up a conversation with a young boy when he learns his family aren't church-goers. In the next scene, the heroes come across two constables and a grieving mother, staring at the boy's off-screen body and assuming coyotes must have skinned him.
-->'''Redferne''': There's only one reason he'd need the fat of an unbaptized male child.\\
'''Kassandra''': Why?\\
'''Redferne''': [[PoweredByAForsakenChild Flying potion]].

* DemonicPossession: The Warlock tricks a phony medium to channel the Devil by providing her with one of his lesser-known names. The medium mutates to something more demonic and the Devil offers the host's eyes for the Warlock's use.
* DepravedHomosexual: The Warlock is a sadistic Satan-worshipping sorcerer, "the rudest of them all," and the first thing he does upon being transported to our time and given shelter by a gay dude, is murder his hapless host by ''biting off his tongue'' in what looks like a sensual kiss and then (it's implied) raping him to death.
* DiscoveringYourOwnDeadBody: Giles Redferne digs up his own centuries-old corpse out of the graveyard in Boston, having time travelled from 1691.

* DubInducedPlotHole: There is at least one Portuguese translation that has the Grimoire revealing ''Satan's'' name instead of God's (possibly out of fear of being accused of blasphemy). The problem? The Warlock is very explicitly working for Satan the whole time, meaning if that were the case, Satan could just ''tell him his name'', he could say it backwards, and the movie would be done.

* EvilIsNotAToy: Or rather, Talking With The Dead Is Not A Toy, even if you're just pretending.

* EvilSorcerer: The Warlock is a servant of Satan, tries to destroy the world, and mutilates innocent people for fun.
* EurekaMoment: When Kassandra realizes that she was thrown into a body of ''salt''-water that can be used as a weapon against Warlock.

* EyeScream: A seer offers her assistance helping the Warlock find what he is missing. He takes her up on the offer, literally, by taking her eyes. Later, you can see the eyes, with some of her optic nerves still attached, moving in the direction of the Warlock's book.

* FaceOfAnAngelMindOfADemon: The Warlock has typically angelic-looking long blonde hair, yet he is a thoroughly SatanicArchetype and the BigBad of the movie.
* FamilyUnfriendlyViolence: Innocent bystanders and children are viciously killed without a second thought.
* FateWorseThanDeath: Discussed when Kassandra questions why the Warlock didn't just kill her instead of casting a RapidAging curse on her that would do the process much more slowly, and says she can't imagine a worse fate. Redferne confirms that this was the Warlock's intention.

* FingerTenting: The Warlock on the poster.

* GayBestFriend: Chas, Kassandra's roommate. He doesn't last long.

* GodsHandsAreTied: The Warlock seems to know God's one true weakness: uttering his name backwards. Giles Redferne has to protect the Grand Grimoire to prevent the Warlock from finding the name itself, written within.

* IHaveManyNames: The Warlock uses this to trick a professional medium into [[DemonicPossession channeling Satan]]. When he asks her to channel [[MetaphoricallyTrue his father's spirit]] and she asks for a name, the Warlock replies "He has many names." When she says that she only needs one, he deliberately gives her one of the Devil's more esoteric names; Zamiel.

* ImperiledInPregnancy: The Warlock threatens to kill a priest's pregnant wife along with the child she's carrying to get the information he wants. Presumably {{subverted|Trope}} because the priest ultimately caves in to the Warlock's demands, although we don't get to see if he did leave them unharmed.
* InstantRunes: Of course, in a movie about witchcraft: "hexmarks" as they are called by Redferne.

---> '''Warlock''': I KNOW THEE! I KNOW THY NAME! I KNOW THE WORD THAT CAN UNDO ALL OF CREATION!

---> '''Redferne''': (''to Pastor'') Our interest lies in stopping those who would see all good falter. It lies in stopping the powers of misrule from coming of age. It lies in finding that damned book and thwarting a vile beast of a man who shall not rest until God Himself is thrown down, and all of Creation becomes {{Satan}}'s black, hell-besmeared farting hole!
* LittleMissAlmighty: Implied. When the Warlock gets the Grimoire and is looking through it, we can see God's true name begin to form, and are almost able to read it before it cuts away [[spoiler: it looks like either "Roaisha" or "Rokisha", which certainly sound like female names.]]

* {{MacGuffin}}: The Grand Grimoire, which the 2 main characters plus Kassandra spend most of the movie on a mission to find.

* MagicAIsMagicA: At one point, Kassandra is hunting the Warlock through a train yard, driving nails into his footprints to slow him down. The Warlock then holds a board against his feet to protect himself. At this point, Kassandra quickly notices that he's not screaming anymore, but also notices an interesting set of prints where the Warlock not only sat down, but rested his head against a pile of dirt. Kassandra gets an inquisitive look on her face and drives a nail into the latter. Turns out that ALL of a warlock's body-prints have that weakness.

* MyNaymeIs: The heroine is named "Kassandra." She says that it's "Kassandra with a K" and Redferne calls her that when speaking to her.
* OmnicidalManiac: Though he denies being one, the Warlock tries to collect the Grand Grimoire to reverse God's work and unmake Creation itself to advance himself in Satan's eyes.

* OneWordTitle: AntagonistTitle, named for the Warlock.
* OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions: Pretty much the crux of Satan and the Warlock's plan. In the 1600s, the Warlock was being hunted by Redferne and everyone knew to be on the lookout for witches and their ''modus operandi''. Sending the Warlock into the future to the 20th century, where modern people thought of witches as fantasy, would have allowed him to operate with impunity. That is until [[{{SpannerInTheWorks}} Redferne follows him to the present]].

* PhonyPsychic: The Warlock visits a medium after arriving in the present day to contact his master Satan. The medium in question is clearly a fraud, but since the warlock himself isn't, he just hijacks her body against her will to channel the devil.
* PlaceOfProtection: The titular BigBad is a Satanic creature who can't set foot on holy ground.

* PreMortemOneLiner: Kassandra, right as she delivers the killing blow to the Warlock by sticking a syringe in his neck and injecting saltwater: "Try saltwater, fuck brain!"
* TheQuest: For Redferne to pursue the evil Warlock into the future, secure the Grand Grimoire and prevent the erasure of the universe.

* RealAfterAll: The phony medium, who pretends to channel a spirit. Her client is the Warlock, who needs to talk to Satan, and while ''she'' has no power, both the Warlock and Satan do.

* {{Satan}}: The Warlock considers Satan his father, and conjures him in a human vessel to receive further orders.
* SatanicArchetype: Not Satan himself, but the Warlock is essentially his representation on earth.

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Kassandra notes that her name is spelled with a K, and Redferne takes this to be her name.
* SpookySeance: The Warock went to a supposed medium to contact his demonic boss and has his patience tested when it is obvious that she is faking it. However, his demonic master suddenly takes possession of the medium for real and they get down to business.
* SquishyWizard: {{Subverted|Trope}}. For the most part, the Warlock indeed relies on his eldritch powers and avoids physical confrontation. In the climax, Redferne dares him to take the final pages of the Grand Grimoire by force alone, without magic. The Warlock agrees and it looks like a typical BatmanGambit when the hero plays on the villain's [[{{Pride}} hubris]] to even the scale, but the Warlock holds his own pretty well in a fight and it's ''Redferne'' who has to resort to [[HolyBurnsEvil supernatural means]] to stop the Warlock from kicking his ass.
* TearsOfBlood: The Mennonite man suffers this when the Warlock comes to his farm.

* TerminatorTwosome: A variant; the Warlock escapes to the future and Redferne follows to hunt him down.

* TimeTravel: See: TimeMaster.

* WeHaveThoseToo: Redferne may be a FishOutOfTemporalWater but he's not as backwards as Kassandra initially thinks. At one point Kassandra asks him if he knows the world is round, to which he dryly replies "for quite some time".

-->'''Kassandra''': What is it?\\
'''Redferne''': Peace, do not even breathe on it.\\
'''Kassandra''': Some kind of compass?\\
'''Redferne''': Witch compass.\\
'''Kassandra''': This one here.\\
'''Redferne''': What of it?\\
'''Kassandra''': What is it?\\
'''Redferne''': As I say, it is a witch compass.\\
'''Kassandra''': ...Oh, you mean ''witch'', not ''which''. Like [[Series/{{Bewitched}} Samantha, Tabitha]], witch.\\
'''Redferne''': Like the Warlock.
* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: During the encounter in which Redferne first uses the "put nails on the Warlock's footprints" trick, he has to go back and help one of the Warlock's victims. He tells Kassandra to keep nailing and Kassandra (in anger and desperation) points at the Warlock in the distance and yells out: "just give me a shotgun and I'll nail the bastard from here!"
* TheWitchHunter: Giles Redferne is a witch hunter [[FishOutOfTemporalWater transported from the 17th century]] to kill the evil Warlock who [[YouKilledMyFather murdered his wife]]. He's actually a pretty nice guy, going out of his way to save as many innocent bystanders who fall prey to the Warlock as possible. He only has his [[SaltSolution salt-coated whip]], knives, and some limited knowledge of the Warlock's weaknesses to defeat him.

* BadassNormal: Redferne has only his combat skills and limited magical knowledge to defeat the powerful Warlock.

Not to be confused with 1959 Henry Fonda {{Western}} of the same name.

* WhipItGood: Redferne uses a whip coated in salt against the Warlock.

* TheWitchHunter: Giles Redferne is a witch hunter [[FishOutOfTemporalWater transported from the 17th century]] to kill the evil Warlock who [[YouKilledMyFather murdered his wife]]. He's actually a pretty nice guy, going out of his way to save as many innocent bystanders who fall prey to the Warlock as possible. He only has his salt-coated whip, knives, and some limited knowledge of the Warlock's weaknesses to defeat him.

* IHaveManyNames: The Warlock uses this to trick a professional medium into [[DemonicPossession channeling Satan]]. When he asks her to channel [[FromACertainPointOfView his father's spirit]] and she asks for a name, the Warlock replies "He has many names." When she says that she only needs one, he deliberately gives her one of the Devil's more esoteric names; Zamiel.

* DubInducedPlotHole: There is at least one Portuguese translation that has the Grimoire revealing ''Satan's'' name instead of God's(possibly out of fear of being accused of blasphemy). The problem? The Warlock is very explicitly working for Satan the whole time, meaning if that were the case, Satan could just ''tell him his name'', he could say it backwards, and the movie would be done.