TALES FROM THE CRYPT PRESENTS DEMON KNIGHT (1995)

PLOT

Brayker, a tormented protector of a holy relic holes up in a former church and along with it's tenants faces off against demons led by the Collector, who wants the relic to claim superiority of all of existence to his boss old scratch

REVIEW

Issue # 33 of INCREDIBLE SCIENCE FICTION marked the very last issue of the late great EC COMICS

In their prime, EC comics produced the definitive Horror comics of all time through the pages of titles such as THE VAULT OF HORROR, SHOCK SUSPENSESTORIES, THE HAUNT OF FEAR, and of course, TALES FROM THE CRYPT. EC comics were the cream of the crop and are untouched to this very day, they had marvelous storytelling with phenomenal artwork thanks to artists like Jack Davis, Al Feldstein, Graham Ingels, and a whole slew of talent that brought fear and terror with every pencil stroke. EC had it all, and only went away because they were deemed too far ahead of their time by a then-pale and unadventurous public. William M. Gaines rebounded and continued his pioneering reputation with the creation of MAD magazine, the definitive humor magazine, and although EC was gone forever it was not to be forgotten

1989 saw the coming of TALES FROM THE CRYPT, a television series on HBO produced by Joel Silver, Richard Donner, Robert Zemeckis, David Geffen, Walter Hill and David Grier, that featured episodes adapted exclusively from the pages of EC comics. TALES FROM THE CRYPT was a success that ran on television for 8 years, and then widely syndicated afterwards. It was an important show, despite the bleak and unfair cessation of EC's publishing, the stories and spirit of EC lived on and became more popular than ever

Success nurtures opportunities for expansion, and after the usual T-shirts, Halloween masks and assorted swag came and went, in 1995 the Cryptkeeper would be brought to the big screen to enchant us with one of his longer and more ambitious of his tales

DEMON KNIGHT had a long history prior to being filmed, there's actually a fascinating article on the script's journey to production in an issue of Fangoria, the exact issue in question escapes me and I'll have to be forgiven as it would be quite a project tracking it down from my dozens of issues in my closet. From what I remember though, at one point DEMON KNIGHT was to be made by none other than FULL MOON, the studio behind PUPPET MASTER, DEMONIC TOYS, ETC. Brayker was to be played by Tim Thomerson (TRANCERS,DOLLMAN) and the collector would have 'been played by Dr. Herbert West himself Jeffrey Combs

DEMON KNIGHT refers to an old battle of good vs evil, heaven vs hell, one side represented by an unwilling protector of a key filled with holy blood, while the other by a charismatic and conniving agent of Satan, who is on Brayker's trail to take the key and brings a few hideous demons to join the party

There are many things I love about this movie, chief among them being the story's historical aspect of defending the key, the many battles strewn through time. Every time a battle ends the key and guardianship is handed down to a lone survivor, and the cycle continues on, seemingly forever. There was potential for a more epic story, DEMON KNIGHT had an average budget and because of that it could not go as far as it should have which is a real shame, I would have loved seeing more of the battles for the key integrated into the film in someway, as opposed to just centering everything on one and dragging it to an hour and a half. Mind you that hour and a half is not a pain to watch but a brief glimpse via flashback was never enough for me

Billy Zane as the Collector is the lone acting highlight among the pack of actors in DEMON KNIGHT, no one does a shit job but they are completely dwarfed when compared to Zane, he's comically suave and it would have 'been a much lesser film without him. The Collector twinkle-toes through his mission with spunk and never detracts from being an evil sumbitch. Even with a horde of demons at his disposal he himself is deadlier and shines best when he attempts to claim everyone from the inside out, using whatever greed or chance for corruption to tempt them and rob them of their souls. A lesser actor would have 'been truly obnoxious and total crap but in Billy Zane's capable hands you can't get enough of him

The demon litter he commands are your typical demons, no horns, but evil looking and they look good in a group. They do have a weakness, which is destroy their eyes and they're dead, it always seemed kinda stupid to me but more on these kind of faults later. The post-possession demons are much more attractive to me, if there's anything else I would have changed in the film, I would have had the Collector skip on calling demons from the ground and just recruit from the people in the house. We get to know each one of the cast of characters at least for a wee bit, and watching them fail the test and go from human to demon would have 'been not only more rewarding but every demon would have had his or her own touch and identity

William Sadler plays Brayker, who is great at being a very exhausted and weary nomad, tired and strained as anyone would be from having to be on the run with cloven hooves at your heels. Not sure if it was done on purpose, but it's pretty neat that Sadler was cast in the first TALES FROM THE CRYPT movie (Associated with the tv series, we all know the first Tales from the crypt movie was released in 1972*wink) when he was also in the very first episode of the tv series

Everyone else does fine, Dick Miller, CCH Pounder, Thomas Haden Church, Charles Fleischer and co. are okay but you know from the starting line who's not going to make it, who'll betray the others etc. Jada Pinkett-Smith comes across as headstrong and resilient, she does okay,  but I never felt interest in her character's survival or what her own journey guarding the key would entail. Sure she resisted temptation, but then again so did CCH to the point that she still flipped off the Collector without an arm and went out like a boss taking out all the remaining demons, she had Demon Knight written on her more than Jada did but maybe there was a two-arm minimum

Gore is nice with severed body parts, guts pulled out, a lot of it eye-centric, it's chunky and drippy, and thankfully satisfying. This is before cgi became overwhelmingly prominent, and practical effects were the norm, the 90's were the last decade where they were so if you' re in the mood to remember those good times then this is top-notch viewing

DEMON KNIGHT did well at the box office, I had the pleasure of watching it when it first came out in a double-feature with Jean Claude Van-Damme's STREET FIGHTER THE MOVIE(ha). It was certainly well received at my screening and I had a hell of a good time, although looking back, it doesn't seem to hold up as well as that point in time, but I still remember it fondly and I'm glad I got to see it then. The Cryptkeeper came out post-credits and announced that another film was on it's way, “Dead Easy”, which was renamed BORDELLO OF BLOOD, a film so agonizingly bad that I will never ever review it here, it's a putrid pile of shit and I personally blame it for killing whatever chance TALES FROM THE CRYPT had of growing it's film franchise. Dennis Miller fighting vampires?? I wouldn't even wipe my ass with it

At least we got DEMON KNIGHT, a solid horror flick that while not to die for is still very enjoyable and still contains the old EC spirit that I and other Horror fans love

THE GOOD

.The Cryptkeeper on the big screen – As a kid watching this movie at the theater and hearing John Kassir's laugh echoing through that big room was pretty sweet, in the moment it felt indicative of a bright future for TALES FROM THE CRYPT that sadly didn't pan out

.The Demon Knight war – I was enraptured brainstorming all the possible other scenarios where the key was defended against the forces of hell, sucks that we will never see any of them

.Scenes with Tales from the Crypt comics – I loved seeing the comic books in the film

.Billy Zane – Can't say enough good things about him regarding this film, far as I'm concerned, this is his film

.Great soundtrack – Megadeth, Pantera, Ministry, Machinehead, Sepultura, good stuff. “Hey man nice shot” by Filter has it's best use ever in this film

THE BAD

.The demons are retarded – Described by the Collector himself as “low-level demons”, it is quite evident, you got claws and sharp teeth but all you do is grab people by the neck?

.Everyone is an expert marksman – Somehow anyone holding a gun can shoot each demonic eyeball in succession with pin-point accuracy, even with a demon flailing back and forth with some even holding someone in their path

.January release date – Universal strikes again, way to undermine your product by changing the original Halloween release date to goddamn January

THE FINAL CURTAIN

A great movie and a great addition to TALES FROM THE CRYPT's history, not a perfect film in my eyes but it's still damn enjoyable with plenty to satisfy any Horror fan

RATING 7.5