The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf

Director Kwang IL Han best known for his work on The Legend of Korra and The Boondocks returns on his latest work The Witcher Nightmare of the Wolf.

This film is based on the witcher Vesemir voiced by (Theo James), during his younger days before becoming a Witcher himself, and the events that took place after.

In the case of those that don’t know who Vesemir is, Vesemir is the mentor of our favorite witcher Geralt of Rivia on which all the games are based as well as the Netflix series played by Henry Cavill.

Straight of the bat whilst watching this film I was reminded of Castlevania the Netflix series, which is one of the best-animated series on Netflix.

Vesemir’s persona and charisma just resembled Trevor Belmont so much, I mean his easy-going personality, his charming mannerism even during a fight is a clear carbon copy of Trevor Belmont yet they don’t share the same actor, however, I still found myself enthralled by the character.

In his first meeting with Tetra, the mage did the same by reminding me of Sypha Belnades who too had the authority of the elements and had an identically strong personality.

Though the film’s pacing is a bit slow at some points, the animation quality and its gruesome brutality will keep you awake. 

It’s truly a shame to see the kids being slaughtered during the test as if they are worth nothing but this is the harsh reality in the world of the witcher, even the process of turning children into witchers is such an inhumane procedure it’s amazing any of them even survived.

What makes Vesemir different from other witchers is that he chose to become a witcher, he made that choice himself rather than being sold away by his parents or master unlike most children are, and this explains why unlike the others Vesemir is cheerful and upbeat. 

He’s looking forward to the days he can earn coin for himself so that he may escape the days of poverty that plagued his life but all of this is strung along by Deglan, who tempted Vesemir with coin after helping him kill a monster. 

And let’s be honest, Vesemir after becoming a witcher was enjoying himself, it was clear that he did what he did not for the people’s safety but to earn more coin even if he had to take it from a corpse, yet even he had some he held dear to his heart, Lady Zerbst, his childhood friend, they were such a perfect match though.

Deglan’s ambition for more money and creating new monsters was honestly the dumbest thing, not only did he put his people in danger against the mages but monsters too. Imagine if all the witchers had perished that day, I guess not all witchers are created the same because this was pure greed.

The ending had me in tears but I’m glad I could understand Vesemir’s character much better now. The reason why he didn’t approve of Geralt getting his feelings involved with Ciri and Jennefer, he was just trying to protect him from the pain he experienced after losing Illyana Zerbst at his own hands.

Outside of its outstanding visuals, this film gives you a different perspective to look from either than that of Geralt of Rivia which is great simply because the world of “The Witcher” is far bigger than one character and its lore is older than one witcher can live through.

I recommend this film to any Castlevania fans, I trust you will enjoy it and find it very reminiscent.

Thanks for reading…