Hello, boils and ghouls! Today we take a look at Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight! Released this very day on Friday the 13th of January 1995! (Yes this was totally intentional) Demon Knight is the first of three feature lengths to come from the Tales from the Crypt gang, and features some familiar names from the TV show, such as William Sadler, Billy Zane and yes of course John Kassir as the voice of the beloved Crypt Keeper.
What we see with Demon Knight is a more polished and a bigger budget version of an epsiode from the show, it follows exactly the same formula as the TV episodes, an introduction from the Cryptkeeper, the Tale itself and then an outro from the Cryptkeeper, so followers of the series need not to worry, what you see is essentially an extended episode, just taken up a level, more gore, more horror and more of everything you would come to expect from a Tales from the Crypt story!
So what is Demon Knight about then? Let me tell you kiddies! The film follows the story of Frank Brayker (William Sadler) who carries the last of seven keys, special containers which hold the blood of Christ, the containers were scattered across the universe to prevent the forces of evil from taking over, however hot on his heels is a man referred to as The Collector (Billy Zane) who is determined to take this precious artifact and unleash all out hell upon the world, using demonic possession and a team of demonic creatures. After a cat and mouse chase, Brayker is forced into seeking refuge at a decommissioned church that has been converted into a boarding house and now occupied by various different residents. Soon though the Collector discovers the whereabouts of Brayker, and the location of the boarding house, forcing Brayker to tell the residents that they need to survive into the morning and see it through until sunrise, using blood from the artifact to protect the building, Brayker is at the helm and in the driving seat, going up against the Collector and his demons. An all out seige ensues and it is now a matter of life or death for the residents and Brayker himself as they team together to fight off the powers of evil!
Demon Knight is a solid entry into the Tales from the Crypt franchise, taking all of the elements from the show, the bar is well and truly raised, giving us an all out war full of blood splatter, suspense, the fight of good vs evil, and a nice side helping of tounge in cheek humour that you just can't help love. Demon Knight is the first tale that is not based upon the infamous E.C comics, it is its own standalone work and was circulating around Hollywood for a number of years before Tales from the Crypt decided to step in and make it one of their own, and boy are we sure as hell glad they did! I would suggest anyone check out this one, fans of the show or not, it is in its own right a neat little flick, but as part of the Tales from the Crypt universe it is ceraintly a fantastic silver screen debut. The film was originally intended to be followed up with a film called "Dead Easy" (aka "Fat Tuesday") which was a zombie story based in New Orleans but never did come to fruition, a third was also in the pipeline called "Body Count,", despite these two films not getting produced, Demon Knight was followed by "Bordello of Blood and "Ritual, all coming together to make the Tales from the Crypt film trilogy, the films are not in anyway related, but in true Tales fashion have little nods to eachother and references scattered througout.
Go check out Demon Knight folks, its a blast, and as the Crypt-Keeper himself would say, its a real scream.
-Otto
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