Minotaur (film)

Last updated
Minotaur
Minotaur Poster.png
DVD cover of Minotaur
Directed by Jonathan English
Written byNick Green
Stephen McDool
Produced byJonathan English
Starring Tom Hardy
Tony Todd
Rutger Hauer
Ingrid Pitt
CinematographyNick Morris
Edited byEddie Hamiltons
Music by Martin Todsharow
Distributed by Lions Gate
Release dates
  • March 11, 2006 (2006-March-11)(United States)
  • July 26, 2006 (2006-July-26)(Germany)
Running time
93 minutes
CountriesUnited Kingdom
Luxembourg
Germany
France
Spain
Italy
United States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$7,000,000 (US)

Minotaur is a 2006 horror film, directed by Jonathan English. It stars Tom Hardy, Tony Todd, Ingrid Pitt and Rutger Hauer. It was filmed in Luxembourg, and is a loose retelling of the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur.

Contents

Plot

In the Minoan Bronze Age, a shadow looms over the village of Thena. Every three years, under King Deucalion's order, eight youths are taken from the village to the capital of the Minoans. There, they are placed in an underground labyrinth, to be sacrificed to the Minotaur, a Minoan god.

Theo, son of the village chief Cyrnan, is haunted by the loss of his beloved Fion in an earlier sacrifice. A leprous prophetess tells him that Fion still survives in the labyrinth. Against his father's wishes, Theo replaces one of the chosen sacrifices and is taken captive to the capitol with the others: Danu (Theo's best friend), Morna (Danu's love interest), Tyro (who initially resents Theo's high status), Didi (Tyro's love interest), Vena, Ziko, and Nan.

Immediately after the group are dropped into the labyrinth, the Minotaur begins hunting them, first killing Nan. The survivors are approached by Queen Raphaella, Deucalion's sister and unwilling lover, who offers them a way out. Vena does not believe her and attempts to leave the group, but is quickly killed by the Minotaur. The rest of the group escape, and Raphaella leads them to a chamber at the center of the labyrinth where a heavy wooden door leads out of the labyrinth. The monster lies there, sleeping on a pile of its victims' remains.

Raphaella had previously arranged for her servant Ramaya to open the door from the other side, but Deucalion catches the servant and executes her. The desperate group try to break open the door, but the noise wakens the Minotaur. It kills Ziko and the group scatters.

Theo, Danu, and Morna encounter a villager from a previous offering, named Turag. Turag has managed to elude the Minotaur, but has become unhinged after years of being trapped with the monster. Theo sees his beloved Fion's likely location while examining Turag's map of the labyrinth. Theo goes off alone to find her, but instead finds her corpse, lying where she was poisoned by an underground gas deposit.

Meanwhile, Tyro and Didi reach the hole in the ceiling that they were dropped through. Tyro climbs up and reaches down to pull up Didi, but the Minotaur arrives and Didi panics, loses her grip, and falls onto one of its horns. The Minotaur also corners lovers Danu and Morna; Danu sacrifices himself to save Morna.

Raphaella reaches Theo again and explains the Minotaur's origin: Her mother committed bestiality to create a living god, and gave birth to the Minotaur. As the monster grew, so did its appetite, culminating in it murdering Raphaella and Deucalion's brother. The prince's death was blamed on Theo's village, resulting in them providing human sacrifices to appease the Minotaur, ensuring Minos' survival from the sated monster. Raphaella sent the leper to find someone in the village capable of killing the Minotaur, and thus the leper lied to Theo about Fion's survival to move him to confront the Minotaur.

Theo had discovered an underground gas vent in the labyrinth near Fion's corpse. When the Minotaur prepares to kill Theo, Tyro sacrifices himself to distract it. Theo tempts the beast into attacking him, lures it to the gas vent, and makes a spark with Fion's amulet. The gas ignites and the flame engulfs that part of the labyrinth; Theo and Raphaella survive by diving into a pond of water. They emerge from the water as the flames die out, and find the monster is still alive and now even more aggressive. As the Minotaur charges at him, Theo jams one of its horns which had broken off earlier into its mouth. Injured but still enraged, the beast charges forward and collides with a rock, which drives the horn all the way through its head, finally killing it.

Theo and Raphaella, together with the remaining survivors Morna and Turag, escape the collapsing labyrinth. On the surface, they discover that the explosion under the palace collapsed it, leaving Deucalion gravely wounded. Raphaella smothers him to death. With the deaths of the Minotaur and king Deucalion, the Minoan empire dissolves, and Theo becomes a legend for killing the monster.

Cast

Release

Minotaur was released on DVD by Lions Gate on 20 June 2006; Maple Pictures released the film in Canada the same day. It was re-released 14 months later by Brightspark on 3 September 2007. [1]

Reception

Allmovie gave the film a negative review, calling it "highly forgettable". The reviewer, J. Wheeler, wrote that, although it had a strong first act, the film was undone by slow pacing, and an unimpressive or scary monster design. [2] Dread Central reviewer J. Condit rated the film three out of five, writing that "Minotaur is the sort of film that if you paid to see it in a movie theater you'd probably come out not so much disliking the film as feeling a bit underwhelmed by it. But as far as Sci-Fi Channel premieres and direct-to-DVD movies go these days, Minotaur is an above average monster movie that's definitely worth a look – if for no other reason, see ... whatever it is Tony Todd is doing here." [3] Digital Retribution also rated the film three out of five, calling it "fairly mediocre". [4] Popcorn Pictures rated the film at five out of ten, writing "Minotaur is an underwhelming experience. It's totally formulaic but somehow different. You'll feel like you've just watched something like The Relic again, but then the whole mythological spin immediately throws that out of your mind. The jury is still out." [5]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minotaur</span> Creature of Greek mythology

In Greek mythology, the Minotaur is a mythical creature portrayed during classical antiquity with the head and tail of a bull and the body of a man or, as described by Roman poet Ovid, a being "part man and part bull". He dwelt at the center of the Labyrinth, which was an elaborate maze-like construction designed by the architect Daedalus and his son Icarus, on the command of King Minos of Crete. The Minotaur was eventually killed by the Athenian hero Theseus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minos</span> Mythological king of Crete

In Greek mythology, Minos was a King of Crete, son of Zeus and Europa. Every nine years, he made King Aegeus pick seven young boys and seven young girls to be sent to Daedalus's creation, the labyrinth, to be eaten by the Minotaur. After his death, King Minos became a judge of the dead in the underworld.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pasiphaë</span> Queen of Crete in Greek mythology

In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, Pasiphaë was a queen of Crete, and was often referred to as goddess of witchcraft and sorcery. The daughter of Helios and the Oceanid nymph Perse, Pasiphaë is notable as the mother of the Minotaur. She conceived the Minotaur after mating with the Cretan Bull while hidden within a hollow cow that the Athenian inventor Daedalus built for her, after Poseidon cursed her to fall in love with the bull, due to her husband, Minos, failing to sacrifice the bull to Poseidon as he had promised.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Theseus</span> Legendary king of Athens

Theseus was a divine hero and the founder of Athens from Greek mythology. The myths surrounding Theseus, his journeys, exploits, and friends, have provided material for storytelling throughout the ages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ariadne</span> Daughter of Minos in Greek mythology

In Greek mythology, Ariadne was a Cretan princess and the daughter of King Minos of Crete. There are different variations of Ariadne's myth, but she is known for helping Theseus escape the Minotaur and being abandoned by him on the island of Naxos. There, Dionysus saw Ariadne sleeping, fell in love with her, and later married her. Many versions of the myth recount Dionysus throwing Ariadne's jeweled crown into the sky to create a constellation, the Corona Borealis.

The King Must Die is a 1958 bildungsroman and historical novel by Mary Renault that traces the early life and adventures of Theseus, a hero in Greek mythology. It is set in locations throughout Ancient Greece: Troizen, Corinth, Eleusis, Athens, Knossos in Crete, and Naxos. Renault wrote a sequel, The Bull from the Sea, in 1962.

<i>How to Make a Monster</i> (2001 film) 2001 television film by George Huang

How to Make a Monster is a 2001 film starring Steven Culp and Clea DuVall. It is the third release in the Creature Features series of film remakes produced by Stan Winston. Julie Strain made a cameo appearance in the film as herself. How to Make a Monster debuted on October 14, 2001, on Cinemax. In 2005, it was nominated for a Hollywood Makeup Artist Award and Hair Stylist Guild Award.

The Horns of Nimon is the fifth and final broadcast serial of the 17th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 22 December 1979 to 12 January 1980. It is the last broadcast of David Brierley's voice as K9.

"The House of Asterion" is a short story by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. The story was first published in 1947 in the literary magazine Los Anales de Buenos Aires and republished in Borges's short story collection The Aleph in 1949. It is based on the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur and is told from the perspective of Asterion, the Minotaur.

<i>Arianna in Creta</i>

Arianna in Creta is an opera seria in three acts by George Frideric Handel. The Italian-language libretto was adapted by Francis Colman from Pietro Pariati's Arianna e Teseo, a text previously set by Nicola Porpora in 1727 and Leonardo Leo in 1729.

<i>Doll Graveyard</i> 2005 film

Doll Graveyard is a 2005 horror film released by Full Moon Features and directed by Charles Band. It involves four haunted dolls that are possessed by the spirit of a young girl and come to life with murderous intentions.

<i>The Minotaur</i> (opera) Opera

The Minotaur is an opera in two acts, with 13 scenes by English composer Harrison Birtwistle to a libretto by poet David Harsent, commissioned by the Royal Opera House in London. The work, a retelling of the Greek myth of the Minotaur, premiered at the Royal Opera House on 15 April 2008 under the stage direction of Stephen Langridge. The score is modernistic, and the scenes fall into three types: bullfights; scenes between Ariadne and Theseus; and dream sequences for the Minotaur, in which the creature has the gift of speech. The opera lasts about 140 minutes. A detailed analysis of the opera was published by Rhian Samuel.

<i>Arachnid</i> (film) 2001 Spanish film

Arachnid is a 2001 Spanish action-adventure natural-horror film directed by Jack Sholder. The film centers on a group of plane crash survivors who has to survive the attacks of a giant alien spider. The film stars Alex Reid, Chris Potter, Rocqueford Allen, Robert Vicencio and José Sancho. It was the second film under the Fantastic Factory Label, created by Brian Yuzna and Julio Fernandez in Spain. The film received negative reviews.

<i>Minotaur, the Wild Beast of Crete</i> 1960 film

Minotaur, the Wild Beast of Crete is a 1960 film based on the Greek legend of Theseus, the Athenian hero who is said to have slain a minotaur on Minoan Crete around 1500 or 1450 BC. The film was directed by Silvio Amadio and starred Bob Mathias.

<i>Sinbad and the Minotaur</i> 2011 Australian film

Sinbad and the Minotaur is a 2011 Australian fantasy B movie directed by Karl Zwicky serving as an unofficial sequel to the 1947 Douglas Fairbanks Jr. film and Harryhausen's Sinbad trilogy. It combines Arabian Nights hero Sinbad the Sailor with the Greek legend of the Minotaur.

<i>Shapeshifter</i> (film) 2005 American film

Shapeshifter is a 2005 horror film with supernatural elements created by the independent film group The Asylum. It was directed by Gregory Lemkin who also co-wrote the film.

<i>Bottom Feeder</i> 2007 American film

Bottom Feeder is a 2007 American monster movie written and directed by Randy Daudlin. The film centers on a group of utility workers who have become trapped in the maze of tunnels underneath the city where they are stalked and killed by something terrible.

Minotaur is the name of different fictional characters appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.

<i>Malatestas Carnival of Blood</i> American horror film

Malatesta's Carnival of Blood is a 1973 American horror film, directed by Christopher Speeth and written by Werner Liepolt. It is the only film that Speeth and Liepolt made.

References

  1. ↑ "Minotaur (2005) – Jonathan English". Allmovie.com (DVD review). Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  2. ↑ Wheeler, Jeremy. "Minotaur (2005) – Jonathan English". Allmovie.com (DVD review). Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  3. ↑ Condit, Jon (13 March 2006). "Minotaur (DVD)". Dread Central.com (DVD review). Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  4. ↑ Devon B. "Minotaur DVD review". Digital Retribution.com (DVD review). Retrieved 7 March 2018.
  5. ↑ "Minotaur (2006)". Popcorn Pictures.co.uk (DVD review). Retrieved 7 March 2018.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.