The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf
Queen Calanthe: “Tell me Witcher, why are there so few of you left?”
Geralt of Rivia: “It is no longer possible to create more of us, since the sacking of Kaer Morhen.”
The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf” is the next chapter of the Witcher on Netflix but not a continuation of the first season. Instead, the film is a prequel and explores the life of Geralt of Rivia’s mentor Vesemir which fans already know and learned to love from the games.
Not being aware of the film’s release, I first wanted to have a look at “Godzilla vs Kong”, luckily I turned down these plans after I saw “The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf”. A fine story, nice characters and a beautiful soundtrack, the film makes a wonderful Anime and addition to the world of “The Witcher”.
Since I was a big fan of the videogame “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt” as well as season one of the Netflix series, I also started reading the books. Just as them, the film tells a dark, brutal witcher plot with a political touch and a little love story. The character’s motivations feel reasonable and the antagonists have understandable motives. With a run time of 1h 23min “The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf” is pleasantly short and doesn’t unnecessarily stretch the story. All in all, there is nothing to complain about in the film. The only thing which will deter people to watch this film is that it is an Anime.
As already mentioned in the review to “Your Name“, I rarely watch Animes, not because I think that they’re bad or childish but rather because there is such a tremendous variety that I wouldn’t know where to start and therefore don’t wanna invest time into that. Just yet, I have so many films and series on my pile of shame which I can’t manage to catch up on. Animes would go beyond the scope of it. That for, I only take a look at specific pieces like the Batman films or something like “The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf” because they expand my horizon on a franchise I already know. I’m just mentioning that because I can’t tell whether this film is as good as I think compared to other Animes.
To sum up this review, I can only recommend “The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf” to everyone who is fan of either the books, the games or the series. Especially if you’ve only seen the Netflix series you should take a look at this film due to season two of the series releasing on 17th of december 2021. In season two we will arrive in the witcher castle Kaer Morhen and meet Geralts mentor Vesemir, the protagonist of this film, whose background is good to know to get a better understanding of the world of “The Witcher”. Therefore, watch “The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf” and toss a coin to your witcher!