demon knight

Before their runaway success with The Sopranos and Game of Thrones, HBO struggled for years to build an identity as the home on pay-cable TV for compelling original program. Their first breakout success was Tales from the Crypt, a horror anthology series with a who's who of Hollywood producers and directors (Richard Donner, Walter Hill, Joel Silver, David Giler and Robert Zemeckis) championing the "not-safe-for-broadcast-television" Grand Guignol storytelling. While there was a strong emphasis on humor over horror, the series, which ran for seven seasons, attracted a great deal of A-list talent and even inspired two feature-film spinoffs.

The first, Demon Knight (1995), actually jettisons most of the tongue-in-cheek style of the show (except for those terrible Crypt Keeper intros) and focuses instead on action-horror thrills with an ensemble cast of characters fighting off the physical and psychological attacks of the Collector (Billy Zane), a disguised demon who, along with his green-eyed army of cloven-hooved servants, is after a relic that will bring about Hell on Earth!

Using the tried-and-true horror formula, at first glance Demon Knight is really nothing more than another take on the zombie attack from Night of the Living Dead. But the script layers in a wickedly clever mythology that has its hero, Brayker (William Sadler), carrying around a vial of Christ's blood that grants immortality and forces him to choose a successor when the time is right. Meanwhile, Zane's Collector tries to tempt the trapped residents holed up inside the Mission Hotel to come over to the dark side, playing on their weaknesses, dreams and fantasies with elaborately amusing illusions.

Directed with a great feel for the genre by Ernest Dickerson (who's also helmed more than a few episodes of The Walking Dead), he gives most of the credit to the commitment of his cast, which includes Thomas Hayden Church, Jada Pinkett Smith, Dick Miller and the aforementioned Zane, who steals every scene with his supernatural shyster delivery. But, beyond the gore and visual effects, the film rides on Sadler's shoulders as a "hero story," giving the audience as surprisingly strong and tragic character that rises above the films E.C. Comics origins.

Unfortunately, the same can't be said of Bordello of Blood (1996), the second film in the planned trilogy (Tarantino's From Dusk 'til Dawn was supposed to complete the package but a deal couldn't be closed). The sole theatrical feature helmed by show producer Gilbert Adler, the pendulum swings to far back towards straight-comedy as a private detective (played with too casually by Dennis Miller) is hired to track down a missing person (Corey Feldman) last seen frequenting a secret brothel...one that we soon discover is owned and operated by Lilith (Angie Everhart), the mother of all vampires.

The boob and blood quotient is raised to new levels of entertaining ridiculousness but the casting is all wrong. Dennis Miller's jokes don't translate well to the screen, and Everhart is a snooze with her clothes on or off. Even some of the best gags - wiping out the vampire horde with super-soakers filled with holy water - are lifted from previous material (in this case The Lost Boys, which also found room for Feldman). Bordello of Blood might have made for a memorable 30-minute episode, but it slowly turns to dust stretched out as a feature.

Both films have a following, but Demon Knight has been in particularly high demand for a hi-def upgrade. So it's great to see Scream Factory rescue both titles at the same time with a pair of collector's editions (sold separately) that really bring out the supersaturated colors and fine details. Demon Knight comes with an audio commentary, panel discussion, still gallery, trailer and a nice 40-minute featurette that gathers everybody who matters (except Jada Pinkett Smith) for some rememberances and reflection. Bordello of Blood gets the same: commentary, stills, trailer, and Making Of featurette also minus its main star, Miller, but certainly not lacking because of it.