Grey Knight

Lots of celebrities made this movie just to pay the bills. The tv guide channel called it "Lost Brigade", opening credits called it "The Killing Box". Here it's found as "Grey Knight", but the vcr (?) box image shows it as "Ghost Brigade". My guess is that nobody wants to admit involvement.

All that being said, this civil war zombie movie is adequately made for background entertainment while seeing many stars in lesser roles, like watching reruns of Nash Bridges or Macgiver.

No rotten zombie makeovers, just face paint like a Native American, Cajun voodoo mixture.

I wrote the alternate versions section, and I'll add here that the director's cut (GHOST BRIGADE on laserdisc, I don't know if you can get it anywhere else) is much better than the version called THE KILLING BOX, which I've seen on cable.

I don't much care for the shorter version because it tries to make the "good guy" better (by skipping his drug habit) and the "bad guys" worse (by not developing them as characters). All it really does is make the whole thing much more flat and the ending less interesting.

See if you can track down the longer version if the idea of a Civil War horror movie, or even another spin on HEART OF DARKNESS / APOCALYPSE NOW appeals to you. The other version's probably not worth your time.

The plot comes in a distant 2nd or 3rd in this movie, just watching some people run around in the wild, it ends up feeling a lot like a stage act. The uniforms and accents are decently portrayed. Martin Sheen does a great job at narration which adds much needed depth to the events and characters that the weak storyboard fails at. The directing and music isn't bad and at times I found it easy to nod off. But when you consider the general entertainment value instilled in this movie its still good.

What at first seems like a civil war flick turns into a reasonably good horror/supernatural film with better than average production values. The strange mix of Vampire folklore, Voodoo and Zombie elements aside, The Killing Box manages to rise above many horror films and put forth a powerful anti slavery message for good measure. Definately recommeneded though unlikely to be found easily except on late night TV.

Set during the American civil war, The Killing Box tells the tale of a Union expedition sent to discover the fate of a group of Union soldiers slaughtered in bizarre circumstances. As the film progresses, it becomes evident that this slaughter isn't just an isolated incident, but rather a series of mass murders of both Union and Confederate soldiers. To complicate the expedition, the Union soldiers have to rely on the aid of a captured Union defector to help investigate the incident. Who or what can be responsible for these grizzly deaths?

The Killing Box takes a fairly well-worn horror/supernatural concept, but turns the concept around by putting the film in the unique setting of the American civil war. The film and its concept had me hooked for the first fifteen minutes, although my attention began to slip away a bit from that point on once the "enemy" was revealed. Quite frankly, the "enemy" were very hokey, and didn't instill any real fear or suspense into the story. I've seen actors at a horror-themed dinner theatre inspire more terror than what the Union soldiers faced in The Killing Box.

Overall The Killing Box tried to be an interesting war/horror hybrid, but fell short of the mark.

5/10