My Favorite Witch Hunter

Have I mentioned the Witch Hunter thing before?  The fascination with the hats?  I don't know, maybe I haven't.  Okay, I have, here.

Just a reminder of the typical witch hunter look

The sorts of witch hunters you see in gaming and such are often of the Hopkins variety with tall hats and pistols and such.  My favorite, however, was Giles Redferne as played by Richard E. Grant in the 1989 (cult) classic Warlock.  The story should be familiar to everyone by now.  An evil warlock from the 17th century is transported to the 20th century (from Massachusetts to LA, no less) by Satan to find the Grand Grimoire, put it together and unmake creation.  Redferne is a hunter that follows him to the 20th century and with the help of a local gal named Kassandra they save the world.  Pretty normal stuff.

Our Subject

Why I like Redferne is a mixture of the costume, the writing, and the performance that Grant turns in.  The film is a bit camp, which is good in my book, and with Julian Sands doing his villainous best (Skeletor would be proud) they make an excellent dichotomy.  Part of Redferne's charm, to me at least, is that he's portrayed as a woodsman (so, ranger in essence) with a personal grudge against the Warlock (we are now capitalizing because the character has no other name).  If you can hunt wolves and bears, you can certainly hunt a man.  Redferne also displays a vast knowledge of magical lore himself, including bits of folk magic he uses to counter the evil of the Warlock.  For example using brass keys to counter and cure a spell that caused an old Mennonite farmer to bleed from the eyes.

In terms of weapons he comes to the 20th century carrying a leather whip, a dirk, and a weirdo S&M device that he uses to lock the Warlock's thumbs to his big toes to prevent him using magic.

Thumb locks...which also lock toes, but toe lock sounds like a crap wrestling move.

He also has a witch compass, which is the strange brass and wood device that points him in the general direction of his quarry when he puts his prey's blood into it.  You know, come to think of it, for a witch hunter, Redferne uses a fair bit of magic himself.

Setting up the witch compass

And then there's the weather vane.  Early in the film Redferne is astounded by Kassandra's container of salt.  "Witches loathe salt," he tells her.  However it is his adapting a fallen iron weather vane into an improvisational spear that really makes me grin.

Yes, that happened.

And that too.

I presume this kind of awesome needs no explanation.

Go, Redferne, go!
For the record, he stole the weather vane.  It was the Mennonite family's property, and he just kept it.  I'm sure grandpa didn't mind, what with the bleeding out of the eyes and all.  Maybe off screen he gifted it to Redferne, knowing the gravity of the mission.

Most witch hunters are presented as priest types, or as my previous article noted, Puritan Hat wearers.  They act like judges (okay, they are) not actual hunters.  Then along comes Giles Redferne and he actually is a fur clad hunter.  This is good stuff.
It's a way to play that ranger character you've never tried before, elf boy.  None of your Legolas bow antics and double scimitars here.  Hunting humans.

One of these things is not like the other, one of these things just doesn't belong...

If you've never seen the film, I urge you to check it out.

I do sometimes wonder if he was actually present at the trial as expert testimony or arresting officer.  It started off quite official.  His dialog demonstrated a respect for law and order.  He was quite willing to watch the Warlock hang for his crimes...until they got to the 20th century and then it was a witch killing free-for-all.

Keep your pumpkins lit.