Grey Knight

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.

The creative initial idea of an unstoppable army of Union and Confederate resurrected dead soldiers, gets trampled under the weight of it's limited budget, heavy handed direction, and chop shop editing. Many scenes are way too dark for interpretation of the action, while quite a bit of lines are garbled and incomprehensible. Character development is rushed and not acceptable. Other than the fresh concept of supernatural - Civil War genre mixing, there is little here to like. Billy Bob Thornton is wasted in a very small role, and Martin Sheen seems to be doing out takes from Gettysburg. "Grey Knight" should be considered more a curiosity than anything else, because it is simply too muddled and cannot be recommended as entertainment. - MERK

This is a rare gem, probably covered by dust on many video retailers shelves. It is a civil war tale mixed by supernatural tones (with a sort of demonic unit, made up by deceased Union and confederate soldiers possessed by a demonic entity that had reached America a couple of century before on a slaver ship), with a very good cast (Adrian Pasdar, Corbin Bernsen and even a cameo by Martin Sheen - that in the same year was General Lee in Turner Television masterpiece Gettysburg) and a script that is better than you may think for such a low budget production. Director Hickenlooper was able to get all the horrors of the real war (in particular during the first minutes of the movie, when you see the atrocity of the Union field hospital) and mix them with the demonic ones. All in all, a very good movie that is, as usual, mostly unknown to the masses of horror fans out there. search it and enjoy.

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.

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