Editorials
Witches vs. Druids – Revisiting ‘Warlock: The Armageddon’
Back in 2021, I started a recurring column here on Bloody Disgusting called The Silver Lining, where I’d try to find the good parts of movies that were generally considered “bad.” Not only did I have a lot of fun looking back on less-appreciated films while finding hidden nuggets of entertainment where there should only have been schlock, but these articles also taught me to take in the good with the bad when watching genre pictures that at least tried to do something different.
I was reminded of this lesson while revisiting Warlock: The Armageddon this past week, as I believe this strange little film contains both the best and the worst moments of the Warlock franchise in an unexpected blend of sheer creative madness and aggressively bland characters. That’s why I’d like to invite you to join us on our second foray into the Warlock series retrospective as we dive into what makes these movies so damn compelling despite their obvious limitations.
While the first Warlock technically lost money during its original run at the box office, raking in a mere $9 million on a $15 million budget, international sales and the home video market ended up turning it into a modest success for Trimark Pictures (who acquired the flick after it spent two years in distribution limbo). With that in mind, a sequel made a lot of financial sense, especially if producers could keep costs down when telling another story about a super-powered Satanist wandering about modern-day America.
However, neither Steve Miner nor David Twohy opted to return for the budget-friendly follow-up, which is probably why the new movie ended up being a completely stand-alone story with no connection to the original other than our villainous leading man, Julian Sands. This new script was cooked up by Kevin Rock (who would later go on to write 1994’s unreleased Fantastic Four film), with the production being helmed by Hellraiser III’s Anthony Hickox.
Black blood is metal as hell.
In the finished film, Julian Sands’ Warlock is literally reborn from the womb of an unsuspecting woman and tasked with collecting six rune stones in order to release Satan from hell. Meanwhile, teenager Kenny Travis (Chris Young) discovers that he’s part of a long line of druids destined to combat evil with magical powers, with Kenny embarking on a quest to hone his abilities in order to stop the Warlock from completing his goal.
In an unexpected turn of events, the sequel actually makes an effort to portray non-Christian faith in a more positive light, touching on matters of prejudice and religious persecution in a manner closer to what was initially intended by Twohy in his original vision for the first movie. Unfortunately, this druidic hero’s journey is marred by some unconvincing acting and absurd lore that feels like it was made up on the spot. For example, why do the druid warriors have to be killed in order to unlock their powers, and why is it that only they can face the Warlock if he was defeated by regular humans in the previous movie? And that’s not even mentioning the training montages that look like they were lifted straight out of a sweded Star Wars flick.
The original film was already held back by some lackluster special effects, but the filmmakers really take things up a notch here by introducing CGI-enhanced telekinetic battles and compositing that would already have been laughable in the ’70s. Naturally, this is the result of the reduced budget, though I find it curious that the script still insists on featuring more effects shots than its more expensive predecessor.
Fortunately, it’s not all doom and gloom in The Armageddon, as Julian Sands returns with an even more memorable performance as our favorite son of Satan. In behind-the-scenes interviews, the actor has since claimed that his character’s enhanced sense of humor in the sequel is derived from the fact that he somehow overcame his defeat in the previous film, with that added ego-boost turning him into a scenery-chewing sociopath that we love to hate.
There are really two different movies going on at the same time in The Armageddon, with one of them being a highly-entertaining Wishmaster-inspired slasher that accompanies the titular Warlock as he enacts increasingly absurd acts of magic-fueled violence upon unsuspecting victims, and another much less interesting film chronicling the young-adult adventures of a teenager discovering that he’s the druidic chosen one and has to learn to control his Force-adjacent powers before it’s too late.
Trippy.
These stories only really intersect in the less-than climactic final battle that feels a lot less exciting than the Redferne vs. Warlock showdown from the previous film, though I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the rotoscope-enhanced Satan that slowly emerges from the ground during the fight. Alas, Chris Young is certainly no Richard E. Grant (with especially hammy dialogue doing him no favors), so you’re likely to end up rooting for our charismatic villain by the time the credits roll even if it means the end of all creation.
Hell, the movie even goes out of its way to depict several of the Warlock’s victims as equally despicable thugs, so it’s pretty clear that even the filmmakers knew that Sands was the real heart of the picture here. From psychedelic trips to hellscapes on the other side of the looking glass to turning a snobby art collector into a living sculpture, there’s so much unbridled creativity here that it’s hard not to recommend this oddball film despite its many flaws.
While I can’t honestly claim that the good outweighs the bad, as a huge chunk of the film is devoted to uninteresting subplots (unless you can derive some form of morbid entertainment from the bafflingly primitive telekinesis effects), I can assure you that it’s worth watching this flick simply to witness Sands at his most chillingly playful.
The original Warlock is still the superior picture, offering up a duo of likable protagonists to go along with all the witchcraft and dark humor, but I’d still recommend The Armageddon to any fan of absurdist cinema willing to deal with some unflattering effects work in order to glimpse at some memorably villainous character acting.
Now don’t forget to tune in next time for the final installment in our Warlock series retrospective!
I first heard about The Mandela Catalogue through a couple of nephews who were obsessed with the ARG’s sinister mythology. It was only after watching Wendigoon’s in-depth analysis of the series that I realized just how deep this rabbit hole goes.
In fact, I’d already been exposed to the nightmarish visuals of Alex Kister’s YouTube creation for years at that point without even realizing that it was the origin of several viral “cursed images” and spooky memes that had leaked into the wider internet – with this viral element actually being a part of the Catalogue’s overarching narrative.
Flash-forward to 2026 and the unprecedented success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms has led to Hollywood betting on horrific internet properties with existing fanbases, which means that Kister’s unique hybrid of both religious and analog horror is finally headed to the big screen with a script written by Kister himself alongside Tyler Clifton.
While this news shouldn’t be too surprising if you’ve been keeping up with the ongoing success of The Mandela Catalogue (both myself and Wendigoon having previously predicted that the series would inevitably make the jump to theaters one day), plenty of horror fans are likely confused as to why so many folks are excited for what appears to be a Hollywood adaptation of a series of creepy .jpeg images under a VHS filter.
With that in mind, today I’d like to invite fellow readers to accompany me as I explore the origins of Alex Kister’s viral hit and attempt to explain exactly why we should all be excited about the Mandela Catalogue adaptation!
From High School Writing Project to Internet Horror Phenomenon
The first seeds of The Mandela Catalogue were sown when Kister was still in high school and developed a writing project subverting religious tropes in a world where biblical history had been altered by demonic forces. A little while later, Kister came across an analog horror contest on Reddit and decided to adapt his ideas into a standalone video where he would edit a religious kids’ cartoon –The Beginner’s Bible: The Nativity, to be specific- into something far creepier. This is how the iconic Overthrone video was born, with this viral short film taking on a life of its own as fans demanded more eerie content from Kister.
Though the video was originally meant to be a one-and-done sort of affair, with Kister actually regretting some of its primitive visuals and considering the editing amateurish and “YouTube-Poop-like” when compared to his current standards, fan reaction and free time during the COVID-19 pandemic encouraged the (then) seventeen-year-old filmmaker to continue producing content set in this same world. The Mandela Catalogue name was inspired by the Mandela Effect conspiracy theory, as the series would slowly begin to explore the subtle horror of alternate histories.
Inspired by existential dread brought on by extended periods of quarantine as well as a personal crisis of faith, Kister continued to expand his alternate timeline where the rise of Christianity had been prevented by what was presumably the Devil disguised as the Archangel Gabriel. This alternate course of fictional events led to the existence of certain paranormal anomalies that had come to be accepted as “normal” by the 1990s, which is why most of the series’ supernatural horror is presented in such a matter-of-fact manner.
Most of this background information and religious lore is delivered by increasingly cryptic broadcasts and in-universe PSAs, as well as the occasional found footage video, that often have to be decoded by clever viewers. Of course, it’s the consistently disturbing imagery that made the series so popular – much of which was originally created by Kister on a smartphone!
The Alternates: Horror’s Most Unsettling Modern Monsters
The show’s early episodes mostly take place within the fictional Mandela County in Wisconsin and depict life in a world where demonic entities are capable of using media to enter our reality. This process usually involves scaring victims into killing themselves and then repurposing their bodies as horrific doppelgangers referred to as “Alternates”. This terrifying phenomenon has become so common that local police already have specialized procedures in place to deal with the issue, though this usually consists of simply ignoring calls for help so as to avoid spreading so-called “Metaphysical Awareness Disorder” any further.
Over time, Kister would expand this mythology and incorporate different kinds of Alternates into the mix, though the story never stopped deconstructing religious concepts. The series’ second volume exponentially increased both video quality and the overall narrative scope as we began to follow the lives of characters who had already grown up in this dystopian hellscape where the government is forced to prohibit religion, television, and even mirrors in the hopes of mitigating the damage done by the ongoing invasion of otherworldly entities.
The really interesting part comes into play when you realize exactly how the Alternates make use of scary media in order to spread their demonic influence, with the analog horror of it all being a diegetic part of the story and something of a memetic trap orchestrated by the false Gabriel.
I particularly appreciate how some characters begin to suspect that there’s something wrong with their version of reality and that things weren’t meant to play out this way, especially when Mark utters the haunting line “who have I been praying to all this time?” That’s why I think The Mandela Catalogue is an effective piece of religious horror even if you don’t subscribe to the Christian worldview, as the mere idea of a world where evil has already won is a universally terrifying concept in and of itself. Not only that, but the series’ uncanny analog imagery alone is already worth the price of admission, as you’ve likely already noticed by looking at the pictures accompanying this article.
Why The Feature Adaptation Could Be Horror’s Next Big Success
It’s actually been a whole year since Kister first announced that he had been working on a feature-length screenplay for a Mandela Catalogue movie since 2022, with his proposed story following an ensemble of high-school graduates who uncover a supernatural conspiracy after the mysterious disappearance of a fellow student. This premise sounds similar to narrative elements present in the series’ second volume, but I’m pretty sure that Kister is going to go the Kane Parsons route and make the movie more of a spin-off than a re-imagining of its source material.
While notable Hollywood producers like Aaron B. Koontz, Scott Stuber, and Steven Spielberg himself are backing the upcoming project, I feel like there’s no one better to adapt this deeply personal exploration of faith and the dark side of communication than the person who first came up with it. That’s why I can’t wait to see Kister’s work on the big screen, as I have a feeling that this young filmmaker is the next one on the list about to make cinematic history – especially since this is clearly a passion project that has been in the works for years at this point!
That being said, there’s always a chance that the film could end up unleashing a fresh wave of Alternate incursions, but I guess that’s just a risk we’ll have to take.
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