The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf (2021)

The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf (2021)

 7/10

Starring the voices of

Theo James

Lara Pulver

Graham McTavish

Mary McDonnell

 

Directed by Kwang Il Han

 

Nightmare of the Wolf is a South Korean produced adult animated dark fantasy for Netflix, it is a spin-off of the Witcher series. It features the life of Geralt’s mentor Vesemir. Geralt is only shown in the ending as a small child. If you have caught the cold from the Netflix series The Witcher, which is based on a video game, which is based on a book series by Polish Author Andrzej Sapkowski then you will like this. It focuses on what happened that led to there being very few Witchers left. Plus, the issues that there is in making more. The tale is a very dark one, which is fueled by revenge, hate and sorrow. The way the plot is written, the influx of action makes this one of the coolest things to see. The final fight which has Vesemir go up against the witch Tetra was just magnificent to behold.

The plot starts with a family of nobles lost in the woods. They were attacked by a monster which killed all of them except one boy. Who ran and was saved by a Witcher named Vesemir. He returned to his town, and we see a lady named Tetra use this incident to incite hate towards the Witchers. On the other side of things against Tetra was an old lady, who asks for peace and tries to counter all Tetra’s arguments for the kingdom to declare war on the Witchers.

The movie then takes a step back to Vesemir’s childhood and we him and a young girl (Illyana) as servants to a house, where the lady of the house gets into violent phases and is hard to keep sane. Vesemir and Illyana were sent to get a drug which could calm her nerves when they run into a Witcher named Deglan. Deglan forced Vesemir to take him to his master’s home, where he used his witching skills to remove the monster causing the lady’s fits. He gave Vesemir a small share of his pay, the money and magic were all that was needed to woe Vesemir.

Vesemir was mesmerized and upon Deglan’s offer chose to follow him. Illyana told him not to go, but he went alone, and we see the dreadful and deadly trials which mutate these young boys into witchers.

We come back to the present, and see that Tetra is working hard for this war and a series of unfortunate event, placed Vesemir in her presence. The old lady was able to get the king to send Vesemir to rid the woods of these monsters, with Tetra as his ride.

It is from here that the movie shows us, all the deep turnings that led to the present state of things and which side everyone is truly on and why.

You can catch this fun animation on Netflix. As the Witcher books are, the fun is in the tales and the deception. The deep wounds which refuse to heal and what people are willing to do to get their life back to normal or get back what they believe was taken from them.