Retro Rewatch: Demon Knight 1994

I remember back in 1994 when Demon Knight first hit the shelves of my local mom and pop video store. It proudly displayed the Tales from the Crypt logo (which from my various experiments with shoving a penny in my cable TV box, I was able to catch it on HBO once in a whileâ€¦ and maybe some softcore) so I was at least familiar with what the brand name stood for. At that time, I remember the crypt keeper scaring the hell out of me with the combination of his trademark laugh and the dried out skin. For some reason I still watched the show which of course, led me to video store for the official Tales From the Crypt movies. From reading the synopsis, Demon Knight sounded like a pretty awesome movie at the time so I rented it expecting at least an hour of a half on entertainment and I was not let down. Action, excitement, demons, Billy Zane, I mean, this movie had everything. Somehow a few days ago my mind brought it back and I figured that now would be a good time to revisit the movie. It’s been 15 years (and a lot of film classes) since I saw Demon Knight so I figured why not put it under the microscope and see if it is still as cool now as it was back in 94. Well after a successful Rewatch, I can say that it is still awesome.

Demon Knight is a film that succeeds because it takes itself seriously in a situation that is completely absurd. Brayker (William Sadler) is running away from a man known only as “The Collector” (Billy Zane) who is trying to get an ancient artifact that Brayker has been destined to protect. Brayker stumbles into a rundown hotel in the middle of nowhere and he encounters a myriad of colorful characters. Thinking that this may be a safe place (at least for now), Brayker decides to stay for a bit when soon after, the Collector shows up at their doorstep. Everyone barricades themselves in the hotel using whatever they can to keep The Collector and his demon army out of the building. The key deterrent includes a force field that is created by pouring the contents of the ancient artifact onto door and window frames thusly locking out the demons.

There haven’t been a whole lot of “siege movies” in that last 30 or so years (I can’t think of many off the top of my head at least) and chances are there probably aren’t too many good ones out there. It’s difficult to capture the true emotions of a group of people in a stressful situation where they are trapped in one place and have to deal with their own personal demons and a terrorizing force. What really takes us for the ride, and helps us invest in the characters themselves is not necessarily the writing, but the top notch cast involved. Now back in 1994, these actors weren’t exactly household names, but they have all (almost all) gone on to have pretty solid acting careers. William Sadler was fantastic in both The Mist and The Green Mile. Billy Zane was the bad guy in Titanic, Jada Pinkett Smith married Will Smith, and CCH Pounder pounded her acting chops all over the Shield. Let’s not also forget Academy Award nominee Thomas Hayden Church (from Spiderman 3, nominated for Sideways) who plays the role of Roach. This cast comes together in a unique way to really cement the film in a believable world despite a completely outlandish story.

Another fascinating element of Demon Knight is the completely simplistic plot with an extremely complicated way of meeting its end. The goal is for The Collector to get the artifact. He doesn’t really care how he gets it, he just needs it. In order to reach his goal, he uses a number of elements at his disposal including resurrecting demons from the ground and sending them to the hotel. However when this brute force method fails him, he uses the age old tool of seduction. It isn’t necessarily sexual seduction, but more of a fantastical seduction. The Collector is able to read your mind, at least to a limited degree and he uses your own dreams and fears against you. The Siege setup makes the characters become desperate to make it out of the hotel alive, especially after they start to get picked off one by one. So rather than actually compete with these people physically (which was unsuccessful), The Collector decides to try and get them to commit to the dark side one by one. In one case he offers Jeryline (JPS) eternal beauty while giving her the opportunity to travel all around the world. This is what one would think that Jeryline would want after being stuck in some Podunk hotel for most of her life. However, Jeryline is smart enough to know that it’s all a trick to let the Collector take over your body with a demon thusly putting himself inside the hotel. For some people in the film, this method works and never how they hope it does, more interestingly, The Collector cannot force himself onto you and just take over your body. You have to agree to it.

Much like Hellraiser, In order to bring about absolute terror and horror, you must actually do it yourself. In Demon Knight, our weaker characters, who actually believe The Collector are taken over by him and controlled as demons because they agreed to let it happen. Yes, they were definitely influenced while at the same time promised anything they wanted, but still the characters should have all been smart enough to know it was a lie. You can’t trust someone who can resurrect demons from the ground no matter what they promise.

Demon Knight succeeds because in an attempt to not take itself too seriously, the movie takes itself too seriously and somehow it works. It’s not the scariest movie, or the most creative, but it sure isn’t boring. William Sadler and Billy Zane both have very commendable performances with roles that are pretty two dimensional. All in all, It’s a great movie to curl up in front of the fire with a 30 rack of Pabst and then drink till you’re someone else’s problem.

Is it a cult classic, a fitting analysis, or complete forgettable?: A CAMP classic that will be forgotten and rediscovered by generations of fansâ€¦ if they can actually get a hold of a copy. Fun doesn’t get unfun with time.

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