“Knight of the Dead”
Day 8 of the 2025 31-Days of Horror
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Hunted by assassins, a band of Crusaders escorting a Priest and the Holy Grail are forced into a valley of Black Death where they must fight their way through hordes of zombies to freedom.
Director, Mark Atkins, appears to specialize in low budget trash (Sand Sharks, 6-headed Shark Attack… you get my drift?). But, hey! I love low budget trash, and I’ve enjoyed several of his previous films, so why the heck not!
Oh boy, was this a slow burn. Worse, it really takes itself seriously. This is supposed to be intense and tension filled, and it really just isn’t. The plot was thin, Knights guard a priest who must transport the Holy Grail through a valley ravaged by the Black Plague and infested with zombies. No real explanation why. The assassins after them for revenge makes almost as little sense. Perhaps the filmmakers were counting on great action and battle scenes supplemented by bleak yet beautiful sweeping vistas. After all it worked for Peter Jackson, right? The location and color palate does set an appropriately gorgeous and grim ambiance for the film and some of the action scenes were almost thrilling. The acting was fair to middle, but the direction made it worse. I can’t even say that it looked like the cast was enjoying themselves.
I’ll mention the sex scene because it felt like it was added only because they knew they didn’t have anything to propel the plot unless they added some romance. Or possibly, they added the romance to lengthen the movie. Regardless, it was a mistake.
The absolute worst part is that the story actually had some potential. For now, I cannot in good conscience recommend this.
