Knight of the Dead

A priest has to get The Holy Grail across a valley during the Black Plague. The plague is a horde of medieval zombies.

This thing had awesome locations, and a potentially cool idea, but then screwed it all up. The first annoying factor is the grey dull tinge they give to the picture. I know they want to create a mood but it just makes people think their TV is on the fritz.

The acting wasn't bad, the effects on the other hand were CGI crap. Another thing that ticked me off was they had to kill them by removing the head, or by damaging the brain. All through the film they show countless little gut stabs that finish off these zombies. So what gives? Maybe it was a time issue or continuity.

Not very good at all. You don't really care what happens after about half of an hour.

Some blurays in my collection I am not proud of. Occasionally you have to make three for a quid at the charity shop, so you add one that otherwise you'd never have gone for. "Knight of the Dead" is one such film, a woefully cheap British historical horror that is unbelievably dull.

A group of crusading Knights, led by a monk, attempt to return home with the Holy Grail, though are tracked and hunted by those formally in its possession. As they attempt to cross a fenland area, they are attacked by Zombies taken by the Black Death, or something - I dunno. It was incredibly boring.

Look. I'm going to show a reasonable level of restraint here because, whilst the film is not good, I also don't imagine there was much budget to utilise. So, whilst the actors are generally quite poor, they are mostly stunt performers, or bit part actors, who were able to be in Snowdonia on the day in question. Should I really be attacking the film for that? There's a haphazard regard for continuity, cinematography or sound design - but again, those things cost time and money so it's understandable that they were sacrificed.

I'm less willing to be forgiving of some of the writing issues though, as decent characterisation doesn't necessarily cost more, nor does a compelling story and this has neither of those either. There are occasionally half decent CGI moments, but most of the fighting is terrible and the practical effects are again hampered by those budgetary issues.

Maybe it's that the practicalities couldn't match the ambition, maybe it's that they were making it up as they went along with whatever was available to them. Either way, I can't begin to argue that it's not rubbish - but it's real crime is how dull it makes it what should be schlocky fun.

There are many bad movies out there, but most have a disappointing, cliché setup to start with. This movie actually had the concept going for it. So cautious though I am with any title -of the dead, I did decide to give it a shot. Knights, the plague, zombies... works for computer games so why not a movie right?

Wrong... I should have known better, I really should have. The acting is bad and cliché at best, special effects are absent so basically zombies are recognizable by either white faces or bandages. The whole movie is shown in a nearly colorless scheme, which though it works for some movies here just added to the overall feel of "low budget". The plot plays out exactly as you expect including all possible obligatory story progression.

I write this 'review' just because I would have wanted a warning before I pressed play this morning, so there you are.

With the exception of some lovely Snowdonia locations and a couple of decent costumes, while not the worst zombie movie out there(Vampegeddon, Zombie Night and Dead Men Walking for examples are far worse) Knight of the Dead is a disaster. The special effects are wisely sparsely used but that wasn't an excuse for them to be as cheap as they were- yes even for the budget the movie had, they looked hastily slapped together and made-at-last-minute quality. The gore and decapitations looked silly and felt excessive at times, and there is no better news about the photography and lighting, which takes bleak to extremes to the extent some of the action is not easy to see and there is the very odd effect of the zombies' heads looking like they were floating like balloons. Aside from a couple of the costumes(not all, others did look fancy-dress remains), there was very little sense of the medieval atmosphere or atmosphere in general. The script certainly sounds like a rough draft and has so much cheese it makes the eyes roll. Again it doesn't very little like how medieval speak, a lot of it is very bad modern talk that fails to make sense. The characters are basically archetypes lacking in any kind of personality and development, plus they annoy with how nonsensical a lot of their actions are, and the acting is very going-through-the-motions and mannequin-like from the whole cast with no spontaneity or enthusiasm whatsoever. The worst thing to me was the story, which is so thin it's barely there and it's made worse by a pace that begs for a steroid shot of a very large dosage, some slower-paced scenes barely even move. The scenes with the zombies are very under-populated, the horror is cheaply done and predictable that they are no scares, the movie is far too dull to be fun and it is difficult to be excited when everything just seems so half-hearted. To me as well, the medieval vibe and the use of zombies had a very two different movies feel which was really jarring. To conclude, not the worst zombie movie out there but apart from two halfway-decent things is a disaster. 2/10 Bethany Cox

I should start by saying I am a big fan of Zombie and Post-Apocaliptic movies, and when I heard about this one, it sparked my curiosity.

I read a review here saying it was a refreshing movie, different style than the million zombie titles made in the recent years.

It was a total disappointment...

Yes, the setting was different from what we usually see in zombie movies, but the story is quite weak, the acting is as good as the story and there is no explanation or a proper ending.

The cinematography is good enough and there is little CGI, which could be a good thing seeing the abuse of it in the new movies, but still, doesn't add up to being a good movie.

I wouldn't recommend it.