''Minotaur'' is a 2006 horror film, directed by

Jonathan English Jonathan English is a British filmmaker who has written, directed, and produced several films. He is known for '' Minotaur'' (2006), '' Ironclad'' (2011) and '' Ironclad: Battle for Blood'' (2014). Career English co-founded Mythic International ...

. It stars Tom Hardy, Tony Todd, Ingrid Pitt and

Rutger Hauer Rutger Oelsen Hauer (; 23 January 1944 – 19 July 2019) was a Dutch actor. In 1999, he was named by the Dutch public as the Best Dutch Actor of the Century. Hauer's career began in 1969 with the title role in the Dutch television series ' ...

. It was filmed in

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

, and is a loose retelling of the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur.

Plot

In the Minoan

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

, 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 sacrifices 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 Leprous is a Norwegian rock band from Notodden, formed in 2001. The group was founded by singer and keyboardist Einar Solberg and guitarist Tor Oddmund Suhrke. After releasing several demos with relatively unstable lineups, the band released th ...

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 ] A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of ges ...

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

* Tom Hardy as

Theo Theo is a given name and a hypocorism. Greek origin Many names beginning with the root "Theo-" derive from the Ancient Greek word ''theos'' (''θεός''), which means god, for example: *Feminine names: Thea, Theodora, Theodosia, Theophania, ...

* Michelle Van Der Water as Queen Raphaella * Tony Todd as King Deucalion * Lex Shrapnel as Tyro * Jonathan Readwin as Danu *

as Cyrnan * Maimie McCoy as Morna * Lucy Brown as Didi * James Bradshaw as Ziko * Fiona Maclaine as Vena * Claire Murphy as Nan * Ingrid Pitt as The Sybil

Release

''Minotaur'' was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

Lions Gate Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, doing business as Lionsgate, is a Canadian-American entertainment company. It was formed by Frank Giustra on July 10, 1997, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is currently headquartered ...

on 20 June 2006;

Maple Pictures Maple Pictures Corporation was the distribution arm of Alliance Films. It was formed on April 13, 2005 when Lionsgate demerged to two companies—Lions Gate Entertainment and Maple Pictures (formerly the original Lionsgate Films). Maple Pictures ...

released the film in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

the same day. It was re-released 14 months later by Brightspark on 3 September 2007.

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. 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." ''Digital Retribution'' also rated the film three out of five, calling it "fairly mediocre". ''Popcorn Pictures'' rated the film at five out of ten, writing "''Minotaur'' is an underwhelming experience. It's totally

formulaic In popular culture, formula fiction is literature in which the storylines and plots have been reused to the extent that the narratives are predictable. It is similar to genre fiction, which identifies a number of specific settings that are frequ ...

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."

References

External links