TALES FROM THE CRYPT PRESENTS - DEMON KNIGHT (1985)

 

DIRECTED by Ernest Dickerson

SCREENPLAY by Ethan Reiff, Cyrus Voris & Mark Bishop

Based on EC Comics Tales from the Crypt by William Gaines & Al Feldstein

STARRING - Billy Zane as The Collector, William Sadler as Frank Brayker,  Jada Pinkett as Jeryline, Thomas Haden Church as Roach, C. C. H. Pounder as Irene, John Kassir as voice of The Crypt Keeper, Brenda Bakke as Cordelia, Dick Miller as Uncle Willy, Gary Farmer as Deputy Bob, Ryan O'Donohue as Danny, Charles Fleischer as Wally, John Schuck as Sheriff Tupper, Sherrie Rose as Wanda

PLOT - The Crypt Keeper has a new tale of terror for all the "boils and ghouls" at home...

Frank Brayker is a man who is older than he looks - he was once a soldier in the first world war who was charged with a holy relic containing the blood of Christ and granted semi-immortality to aid in his quest to guard it. Since than he has been wandering the Earth, keeping the blood of Christ safe.

Now, in present day America, Brayker realises his time is drawing to a close, he must find his successor to safeguard the blood's future. Only problem is - he's being pursued by the Demon known only as the Collector and his army of Hell spawn.

Seeking refuge in a backwoods hotel, Brayker and a terrified group of civilians find themselves under attack from the forces of evil...

PERFORMANCES - By any definition Demon Knight is a fun, dumb, popcorn movie - a bit of horror fluff to watch on a Friday or Saturday night with a pizza and the intoxicant of your choice...BUT for it's first act it does something rather clever - it makes you think the main protagonist is going to be the villain, whilst at the same time leading you down the garden path that the villain is actually going to be the good guy.

When we first meet Brayker (William Sadler) he seems anything BUT heroic - he's desperate and seems dangerous, he tries to steal a car and he seems secretive and evasive - he's also pretty aggressive towards the people in the hotel where he's holed up for the night - at one point he even pulls a gun on one of them and uses them as a human shield when the cops show up. At best he seems to be a "man with no name" type, at worst he could actually be a dangerous psychopath.

The Collector (Billy Zane) seems relatively respectable in comparison (at least to begin with) - he's charming, charismatic and funny - all qualities that you'd expect from your leading hero. Even the local cops think he's one of the good guys...

That is until the moment roughly 20 minutes into the movie where the Collector  PUNCHES A GORY HOLE in the sheriff's face and all Hell literally breaks loose.

Zane is stone cold brilliant as the demonic Collector - he retains his charming facade (of course he does - he's basically the Devil) but his twisted sense of humour becomes increasingly dark. He's a character you can't keep your eyes off - you never know what he's going to do next. One minute he's doing a comedy impersonation of the local redneck police force, the next he's acting like a dead eyed psychopath. He literally steals every scene he's in and is definitely one of the best horror villains of the 90's.

Sadler, for his part, also does a good job as Brayker - the character is a bit on the gruff and pragmatic side but we soon learn that he's a true hero at heart. He's also very broken and worn down after nearly a hundred years of being the guardian of the blood of Christ. We see him becoming increasingly careworn and tired as the story progresses and Sadler puts this across well.

The third main character is Jeryline (Jada Pinkett), she's basically a runaway who's ended up being a maid at the hotel. Initially she and Brayker don't get along (it's Jeryline who he holds hostage at one point), eventually though the two become friends and eventually she takes up the mantle of guardian of the blood of Christ when Brayker's semi- immortality runs out and he gets mortally wounded.

Pinkett and Sadler have good chemistry and portray a believable friendship over the course of the film, but for some reason I found Pinkett's performance hard to warm to, she plays it well enough but I never felt that I really connected with - or liked - her character very much.

Incidentally - Jeryline's tenure as guardian obviously doesn't last very long because in this film's quasi-sequel - Bordello Of Blood - one of that movie's villains is seen to be in possession of Christ's blood. I guess Brayker made a bad choice for his successor after all...

VIOLENCE - From the point where The Collector punches the cop's face in we get get wall to wall demon stomping action. Heads get decapitated and roll, people and demons get blasted by lightning and chaos reigns - all good gory comic book fun.

SFX - Some great practical gore effects.

The Hellspawn are particularly cool looking creations.

Then we get our host - the Crypt Keeper himself - one of the best and most convincingly life-like (or should that be death like ?) animatronic characters I've ever seen. He's got a lot of personality.

RATING - This is an extremely fun movie that perfectly captures the spirit of those old EC horror comics - schlocky, gory, well acted and darkly funny. Give it a go.

5 Vaults of Horror out of 5.

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