MovieChat Forums > Warlock (1991) Discussion > God's hero, Giles Redferne, like another...

God's hero, Giles Redferne, like another Solomon Kane

posted 14 years ago by jeffyoung1
15 replies | jump to latest

While it is true the movie was all about the horrific, diabolitically evil Warlock (brilliantly played by Julian Sands), kudos goes to the hero of God, warlock hunter GILES REDFERNE (well played by Richard E. Grant).

The movie was all fiction, yes, but still, I found it greatly comforting that there could be men of faith, courage, and religious conviction like hero, Giles Redferne, who would take extreme risk in confronting and defeating an almost supernatural evil practitioner of black magic and sorcery, essentially a disciple of the devil.

Giles Redferne is something like the other English hero, Solomon Kane. Both are simple men, really, uncomplicated, not simple-minded, but intelligent and open for all to see, nothing deceptive. Giles Redferne had no superhero powers. It helped he stood 6'2" but all he had was his own physical strength, hand-to-hand fighting experience, and deep religious conviction and faith in the power of God's good over evil and yet Redferne was not a religious fanatic at all. He was more of a righteous bounty hunter tracking down and apprehending the dangerous practitioners of the black arts. We're not talking about harmless ladies and others tinkering with herbs and potions in their basements. Redferne was on the lookout for the black magic sorcerer warlocks who had become seriel murderers.

Like others, there could have been followup movies based on Giles Redferne as a itinerant tracker of black magic murderers, taking in only enough gold and silver payments to support himself on the road. He reminds me of the so-called, 'paladin' knight warrior of Dungeons and Dragons.

Ten years later in the 1999 version of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol", Richard E. Grant looks so thin and frail and completely harmless, as Bob Cratchit. I was dismayed at his gaunt appearance.

[–] phillise 14 years ago

Very good assessment of Refern's character. I once had an email exchange with Ray Tate, a comic book reviewer, about some comments he had made about the Warlock comic. He opined that he wouldn't have minded seeing Kassandra and Redfern go up against other supernatural evil-doers.

You sound like you might be a "moderate" Christian like myself. Are you?

[–] jeffyoung1 13 years ago

Yes, I consider myself a 'moderate' Christian. I a firm but quiet believer in God, Heaven, and His angels. But it's a package deal. If you believe in God and His angels then you have to believe in fallen angels who have turned to immense diabolitical evil and those humans who follow their example. In this day and age it doesn't help to go around discussing this too much otherwise you're noted as some kind of religious fanatic or kook, the kind more likely to commit some heinous crime in the name of religion. You can actually frighten people by talking too much about it, while others might ridicule you for medieval superstitious beliefs and childhood fears. I don't consider myself superstitious but I firmly believe there are evil entities in existence. Maybe there is a scientific basis. Suppose there does exist on this planet intelligent, sentient beings comprised not of carbon, but of some kind of cohesive, photon-energy matrix. It would be incredible and fantastic to verify the existence of such beings. But if so, such intelligent, non-carbon-based entities might be supremely dangerous. They could easily kill by extending some form of directed energy, literally slicing through you like a focused microwave beam. There are no fangs and claws here, as the ancient and medieval artists depicted. Angels and fallen angels are supremely self-confident and proud of their existence as an advanced species. They have little incentive to want to appear as a reptilian or mammalian mythological monster, much less as a human, of whom we are an inferior species to them. But it doesn't stop the evil entities from employing any dirty trick or illusion to their advantage.

[–] phillise 13 years ago

Agreed, about the existence of evil and of Satan (who is supposed to be a fallen Angel). I beleive that Satan is very much an active presence in this world, both in the lives of individuals and society. And Satan IS full of pride.

Not sure if science can detect the presence of spiritual beings. I think God intentionally keeps the spiritual realm "under wraps," so to speak, from discovery by science. Otherwise the power of faith would be diminished.

Here is the blog I post to, for some food for thought:

http://atheismvsfaith.blogspot.com/

I pot my thoughts regarding spirituality and faith here. See if you see anythin that you agree or disagree with.

I first experienced the real presence of Christ about two years ago in late 2009. What happened before that is too complicated to recount here. But my spiritual awakening convinced me that He is real.

[–] phillise 13 years ago

Since I posted a link my blog, I thought I should also post THIS link as well:

http://afitd.blogspot.com/

This is a link to the Flame in the Dark website. It is all about Christian Horror. My one posts are under the name Sweet One. This site wuld be of more interest to posters here, most of whom are proabably horror fans.

[–] jeffyoung1 13 years ago

There is a belief in Christianity that many Christians might experience some kind of personal revelation, happening, spiritual experience, et al, that convinces them there is a God and there is a God's Plan. But this experience cannot be proven or shown to others so it remains solely with the person who had the fortune to experience it. You wrote previously that you experienced something like that years ago which strengthened your faith and conviction. My belief and conviction in God and His angels was also strengthened, but through a vision of supernatural evil, unfortunately. That has to be the worst way to cement one's faith and belief. But the the results are the same. God exists and good will ultimately triumph over evil.

[–] phillise 13 years ago

What was the vision of evil?

[–] jeffyoung1 13 years ago

Each vision, if experienced, is an intensely private one. Had this been a beautiful vision or revelation of light, I would have been delighted or even thrilled to share it with you. But it was an intense, frightening experience and the least you know the better for you. The last thing I want to do is instill nightmares in your dreams.

[–] phillise 13 years ago

Ok-maybe it is for the best. I disturb easily.

[–] jeffyoung1 13 years ago

You're wise to understand.

I can recommend googling the following:

1) Father George Aquaro

a) Fr. Aquaro was interviewed three times on a radio show named, "The Illumined Heart". Fr. Aquaro, an Eastern Orthodox priest, discusses how dabbling in the occult, black magic, white magic, sorcery, seances, ouiji boards, et al, call all end up causing demonic entanglements that you don't want and will possibly have an extremely difficult time dealing with.
b) Father Aquaro is shown and quoted in the 2011 Discovery Channel show, "The Exorcist Files". Fr. Aquaro is quoted as warning, "Once evil is turned out into the world, it is exceedingly difficult to put back into the box".

2) Adam Blai

a) Adam Blai is one of very few lay persons trained and authorized by the Roman Catholic Church to assist in exorcisms; and that is just that, assist, not to conduct an exorcism.
b) Adam Blai operates a website, religiousdemonology.com, which offers a Roman Catholic perspective on demonology. The purpose is not to sensationalize, but to offer information, warning, and what you might have to do if you end up with a demonic entanglement, be it, demonic infestation, demonic oppression, or the worst, demonic possession.

The reason I write this is that something happened to me years ago, that experience I told you about that still scares me and freaks me out to this day. But it did leave me with a stronger conviction in my faith and in God and His angels and the absolute conviction the demonic spirits (fallen angels), are destined for ultimate failure. I also now believe in the existence of good spiritual beings (the loyal angels of God). Father Aquaro briefly mentioned something in his radio interviews that was like my own experience and it spooked me because it happened and I had absolutely no deliberate dealings or dabbling with the occult or black arts. I can't even recall if I did something accidentally which might have brought it on. It's my hope that it was just random.

[–] phillise 13 years ago

Have you seen The Rite with Anthony Hopkins and...I can't remember the other guy's name offhand. But it was supposedly based on a reallife incident. You also might want to check out a movie called Bless the Child which deals with spiritual warfare from a Christian perspective.

I have a friend who is way more fundementalist than I am. She claims to have had an experience with the demonic while involved in New Agism. She sometimes accuses me of not being serious enough on my walk with Christ. She tells me that the Harry Potter books are indeed evil becuase of the ficticious magic they contain. Do you concur with her on that? I'm very serious about this, even though it used to be easy for me to laugh that kind of thing off as extremist.

[–] jeffyoung1 13 years ago

Hi Phillis,

more info on your questions.
Yes, it is true that dabbling into New Age mysticism and occultism brings the same risks and dangers because New Agism is simply a new name on an old game, delving into the supernatural, preternatural, escoterism, occultism, and mysticism. Everything above are deceptions employed by human to deceive themselves into believing we have powers that we don't; can acquire powers we can never acquire; and are used as deceptions by the demonics to make us believe we can so that they (it) can establish relationships with us in order to gain control over our thoughts and actions and draw us further away and hopefully permanently so, away from God.

Here's a recommendation for you: Google the name of, Father George Aquaro, and see if you can click on one of his three radio interviews on a show named, THE ILLUMINED HEART. The first two are part one and part two radio interviews from 2010-11 and the third interview is a standalone radio interview from this past May 2012. Father Aquaro mentions, Harry Potter. His stance was, well, people study Greek mythology all the time, but you don't see temples to the worship of Zeuss popping up. It's what you do afterwards with such information or entertainment that is what matters. The radio interviewer, Kevin, recounted how his parents wouldn't let him watch, "Bewitched", because it was a tv show about a modern-day witch, LOL. Now, one can go too far in being so afraid that they see evil everywhere.
There are two bad positions on demonology. One extreme is to discount the existence of demons, demonic manifestations and possessions and the dangers thereof, to the other extreme where someone sees the devil in everything. At that point one's faith has become fearful superstition and more akin to shamanism which places the spirit world in charge of the temporal, corporeal world. In between there is another bad position, sometimes taken by Catholics in that there really isn't a satan and that the word or term is just a metaphor for the description of temptation, evil, and wrongdoing in the hearts of men. One's understanding should be somewhere appropriately where one believes in the existence of the demonics and knows and understands their capabilities, deceptions, and manipulations, but more important, knows their weaknesses and limitations well enough to feel confident that this world is ours and they can't take it from us unless we hand it over to them. The rest involve precautions, and what to do incase you're confronted with something that is demonic in nature. Also included in this knowledge is the understanding of what is a human haunting, and not to be afraid but to understand those are earthbound souls who have not passed over for some reason yet remain here, in pain. From a religious understanding, these souls are not trying to spook us but to trying to gain our attention for prayers and masses to alleviate or shorten their purgatory time on earth. Anything else in spirit guise is probably a demonic deception. There are no fairies, no spirits of the trees or rocks, no helpful spirit guides, no aunt Ethel or grandma coming back to talk to you. Those are demonic deceptions. There exists in this world only the angelic spirits, the demonic entities, and those human souls who for some reason have not passed over and 'haunt' some physical place.

[–] phillise 13 years ago

BTW Jeff, did you get my PM? I'm not sure I'm sending it right, so I'm writing this here to let you know. You take a long time sometimes between posts, so let me know if you got it or not.

[–] jeffyoung1 13 years ago

Sorry, IMDB does not notify its users if a response has been written to a post. You just have to remember to log in and check your own posts to see if someone has written a response. I wish IMDB would add a 'notification' feature that way I could respond faster.

I was surprised when a renown Roman Catholic priest who specializes in exorcisms and has written two books, Father Gabriele Amorth, stated that the old horror movie, THE EXORCIST, is quite accurate (except for the spinning head and green vomit) in its depiction of a demonically-possessed person and of the subsequent Roman Catholic exorcism ritual shown in the movie. In fact, Father Amorth still claims that THE EXORCIST is the best and most accurate Hollywood depiction of possession and Catholic exorcism, except for the nonsensical head-spinning and green vomit, which never happen.

I finally spoke to a priest about my own personal, frightening experience. It gave me great comfort and more, the confidence not to be frightened anymore. This is our world not theirs. They can't hurt us unless we allow them in.

The Internet is chock full of valuable information about these things. Best of all, all the sources from the different experts and religious person support one another, my guess is, over 90% of the time. It convinces you, scares you, but keep reading and you'll learn confidence not to be frightened.

[–] phillise 13 years ago

BTW Jeff, I've responded to your PM.

[–] lorri789 14 years ago

'cept he was Scottish