Tales from the Crypt Presents: Demon Knight (1995)
Directed by Ernest Dickerson
Starring William Sadler, Billy Zane, Jada Pinkett Smith, Thomas Haden Church, and CCH Pounder
The Crypt Keeper goes through his usual puns and jokes before introducing a story in mid chase. Frank Brayker is trying to outrace a fiendish demon in a cowboy hat. Brayker has an artifact of great power that he needs to keep away from this infernal antagonist, The Collector. Brayker manages to ditch Collector and attract the ire of local law enforcement, causing him to slink away to the nearest safe spot. He stumbles upon a boarding house full of colorful characters, hoping to hide amongst them. When The Collector and the police show up to detain Brayker, all hell breaks loose. Now, the ragtag band of residents and Brayker will have to work together to keep the key to everything falling into the hands of pure evil.
Demon Knight is a solid movie with a good script and an interesting story. It is a slow burn siege movie that focuses on good characters and great dialogue. You get a lot of who these people are from just a few lines and a little body language. This is all done while gradually advancing the plot between Brayker and The Collector, taking their high speed chase to some claustrophobic encounters within the boarding house. The story itself includes a detailed and well done history to these two characters and what their quests mean for the supporting players. For a Carpenter style siege flick, there is a lot of time taken to explain what is at stake and make you care about the situation.
The acting is all over the place, but quality work. William Sadler is a character actor who finally got the lead in this movie and he delivers. In the midst of all the craziness, Sadler’s Brayker is cool and collected. His every move speaks to the weariness of carrying such a huge burden for so long. Billy Zane does not even try to ground The Collector in any kind of reality. He chews scenery like he has not been fed in weeks. Zane’s campy and over the top performance is excellent; making all those great lines have an extra punch of menace and comic whimsy. CCH Pounder and Dick Miller also turn in some solid work as the boarding house owner and the town drunk respectively.
The special FX and creature makeup are serviceable, but not great. The demon killing looks dated now, with some green lightning shooting out of their eyes every time they bite the dust. It does not take you too much out of the movie, and the demons help reel you back in. Their design is creepy enough and certainly worthy of the Tales from the Crypt name. The gore is pretty standard fair, but it works.
Demon Knight is a pretty great horror movie and an admirable attempt at bringing the show into film. If you love hearing that familiar music and high pitched ghoul introduce something, check this out. If you are jonesing for a good horror movie with some twisted humor and engaging story, I highly recommend it.
8 out of 10
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