- Directed by Ernest R. Dickerson
- Written by Ethan Reiff, Cyrus Voris, Mark Bishop
- Stars Billy Zane, William Sadler, Jada Pinkett Smith
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 32 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40bOBBbjbIQ
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
It’s like a longer episode of Tales From The Crypt, with familiar actors in a lot of the roles, murder and mayhem, and dark humor. Billy Zane and William Sadler were especially good in the two main roles. The only complaint is that it seemed a little too long, especially at the end. Run time could have been trimmed down a bit. But it was still a fun watch.
Synopsis
We begin with the opening scene of the Cryptkeeper’s house from the TV series. We cut to a woman talking about how sexy it was killing her husband with an axe. Meanwhile, downstairs, the husband’s very messy dead body makes its way up to where she’s in the tub. He raises his axe and- No, wait, this is only a movie set. The Cryptkeeper yells at John Larroquette’s bad acting and threatens to only give him bit parts in the future. The Cryptkeeper turns to the camera and introduces the real story, “Demon Knight.” Credits roll.
Brayker drives down the street and shoots at an approaching car. Both cars collide and burst into flame, but Brayker has rolled to the side and is safe. He looks at his hand a little star appears there with several others. He walks to the town of Wormwood, New Mexico and tries to steal a car. Uncle Willy tells him where to go for the night.
Brayker meets Cordelia and Irene at the hotel that used to be an old church. Jeryline shows him to his room. Wally is there, and he was just fired as a mail carrier. We spend a bit of time getting to know the residents. Roach arrives, and he and Cordelia go upstairs.
A man, “The Collector” gets out of the burning car, and he’s just fine. He gets a ride into town with the sheriff and deputy. They arrive at the hotel, and there’s soon an armed standoff between Brayker and the police. They cuff Brayker, but the thing that The Collector is looking for isn’t there. Actually, Brayker died several years ago according to police records when they run his license. Uncle Willy knows where the objects is, and The Collector tells Willy to drop in in his suitcase.
The sheriff decides to confiscate the item. The Collector runs his fist right through the sheriff’s head. Brayker grabs the object, a key, and The Collector runs away. The Collector cuts himself and summons small demons with his blood. Soon, the little hotel is under siege by demons. He wants that key!
Brayker uses the red fluid inside the key to seal off the doors and windows to keep the demons out. The demons can only be killed by destroying their eyes. Roach wants to give the key to The Collector, but Brayker says that’s really bad idea.
Cordelia starts hearing The Collector in her head; he says she knows what she really wants. She lets him in and then she eats Willy. She rips Irene’s arm off before Irene blasts Cordelia’s head off.
They know about a mine underneath the hotel, and they think they might be able to escape that way. Brayker says that way won’t work, and he can’t help them down there. They go anyway. They find a little boy, Danny before the demons chase them through the tunnels. They end up back in the basement.
We get various flashbacks to the previous people who held the key and the source of the key. Brayker explains what happens if the demons get the key. It would be very, very bad.
Jeryline gets tempted by The Collector next, but she refuses. Uncle Willy gets it too, as does Roach. Roach finally succeeds in giving the key to The Collector, but he has the demons kill him anyway. Just then, Brayker shoots The Collector in the eye with an arrow, which does slow him down for a bit. Bob and Irene stay behind to deal with the demons and give the others a chance to escape.
Danny attacks Brayker next, and Jeryline fights him off. Brayker refills the key with his own blood and passes it on to her; she’s going to be his new successor. He gives her some final instructions before he dies.
The Collector finally comes back in and checks out Brayker’s corpse. He confronts Jeryline, so she stabs him in the eye and drinks the blood from the key. She spits it on him, and he bursts into flame and explodes.
The next morning, Jeryyline gets on the bus out of town, and she’s careful to use the key to protected the bus after she gets on. At the next stop, another Collector tries to get on, but can’t because of the barrier. He walks on down the road, whistling the “Tales from the Crypt” theme as the bus drives away.
Back in the crypt, the Cryptkeeper tells us that Jeryline had a happy ending. He then goes to the big premiere of his new movie, where he gets his “final cut.”
Commentary
It’s got a lot of campy horror and jokes, much like the TV show. It’s got a lot of familiar faces form the 80s and 90s here, so the cast is pretty good for this kind of film. Several of these actors appeared over the years in individual episodes of the “Tales of the Crypt” series.
It’s good. It’s a group of people trapped in a demon-siege, but it’s done well, has a lot of humor, and the special effects hold up pretty well. Kevin said it was about a half hour too long, which I’d have to agree with. The last third seemed to drag a bit.