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Stars:
Billy Zane, William Sadler, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Brenda Blake, CCH Pounder, John
Schuck, Dick Miller, Thomas Haden Church, and Charles Fleischer
With
The Voice Of John Kassir As “The Crypt Keeper”
Writers:
Ethan Reiff, Cyrus Voris, and Mark Bishop
Inspired
By The “E.C. Comics” Series
Director:
Ernest Dickerson,
Feature
length: 93 minutes
Extras:
Theatrical Trailer
Languages:
English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and French Language Dolby Surround
Sound
Subtitles:
English Captions and French and Spanish Language Subtitles
Packaging:
Keep Case
Chapter
Stops: 18
Sound:
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Dolby Surround Sound
Year
of Theatrical Release: 1995/DVD Release: 2003
Theatrical
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Home
Video Distributor: Universal Studios Home Video
MPAA
Rating: R
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
From
the dawn of time the forces of darkness have sought the seven keys to cover the
universe in darkness, but despite having successfully obtained six of them, the
seventh key, which contains the blood of Christ has remained elusive as it has
moved from one chosen protector to another at select times. Now with the
alignment of the seven marking upon the protector’s hand, known only as
Brayker (William Sadler), the time has come for a new chosen one to come forth
at the sight of a decommissioned church turned hotel in the middle of Wormwood,
USA. Hot upon his trail and summoning up forces of flesh eating demons is the
Collector (Billy Zane) who attempts to seduce the inhabitants of the hotel in
return for demonic possession. If evil gets the key then the Earth as well as
all of creation will once again become the domain of demons and so our bloody
tale begins complete with the requisite introduction by “The Crypt Keeper.”
“Tales
From The Crypt Presents Demon Knight” was the first big screen spin-off from
the popular HBO TV series produced by Richard Donner, David Giler, Walter Hill,
Joel Silver, and Robert Zemeckis and Directed capably by Ernest Dickerson. The
film is quite lively with great splatter gore effects mixed in with a bit of
macabre humor. Billy Zane camps it up a bit as the high level Demon tracking
William Sadler’s character, but the supporting turns by CCH Pounder, John
Schuck, Thomas Haden Church, and an uncredited cameo by John Larroquette help to
bring a certain degree of excitement from the otherwise straight forward
storyline that has been dramatized before by other auteur filmmakers of the
horror genre in a darker and more serious tone. Jada Pinkett-Smith gives a good
heroic turn in the film and by the end of the story there is enough of sense of
self-referential humor to the whole story to make it both fun and mildly
unsettling.
Originally
licensed to and released on DVD by Image Entertainment years ago, “Tales From
The Crypt Presents Demon Knight” is now available from Universal Studios Home
Video complete with the same good anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) aspect ratio
presentation from the previous release and a well-balanced English Dolby Digital
5.1 Surround Soundtrack. Additional features exclusive to Universal Studios Home
Video’s DVD release include a French Language Dolby Surround Soundtrack and
English Captions for the hearing impaired coupled with French and Spanish
Language Subtitles encoded onto the dual layered DVD as options as well as the
film’s theatrical trailer (2:02). There is a scene in the trailer not included
in the feature of The Crypt Keeper dressed as “The Terminator” complete with
the signature leather jacket and sunglasses. I am not sure if that was shot for
the feature and then dropped or if it was just something done just for the
trailer or maybe a clip from an episode in the series, but whatever the
intentions were, it’s in the trailer for everyone to see on this DVD. The
menus are standard interactive still frames that are easy to navigate and the
DVD comes housed in a genuine keep case instead of a crappy snap case like the
original Image Entertainment release. Watch
the credits through to the end on the DVD and The Crypt Keeper appears to
announce his next feature film. Unfortunately the title of that film must have
either been the working title for the second feature film spin-off “Bordello
Of Blood” or maybe was never produced or just a joke? Only The Crypt Keeper
knows for certain.
“Tales
Of The Crypt Presents Demon Knight” is available on DVD-Video at retailers on
and offline now from Universal Studios Home Video.
©
Copyright 2003 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
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