Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight - Ernest R. Dickerson - 1995

★★★★- Darkness dweller night for the Nightmare on Film Street 31 Days of Halloween Horror Challenge. Went with this old favorite. 

Billy Zane and his lower-level demons go after William Sadler, an immortal demon warrior, I guess, to steal a key that contains the blood of Christ. All the stars literally aline and he goes to a shit hotel to find his replacement. The tack on the crypt keeper stuff at the beginning and the end. Forgot how much I loved the show back in the day. 

Really cool mythology in the flick. This is definitely one of those movies that critics hated but us amateur folk love. Really appreciate the run Ernest Dickerson had in the 90s. Was Spike Lee’s cinematographer from Malcolm X (among others) before directing Juice, Surviving the Game, this movie, and Bulletproof. 

Really solid cast. Zane and Sadler. Jada Pinkett Smith. CCH Pounder. Dick Miller. Thomas Haden Church. He’s pretty funny, too, because he is so dumb. The Who Framed Roger Rabbit guy. 

Like that he plays the “good guy with the gun” who is actually a perv gun-nut who was planning a mass-shooting. He’s a disgruntled postal worker which was “funny” in the 90s for some reason. 

Child actor is super terrible. The way he utters, “he got my parents,” is maybe the worst delivery in any movie I’ve seen. Explodes at the end of the movie though. 

Bought a lot of Billy Zane stock in 1995 after seeing this for the first time. Super funny. Cool. Charismatic. Punches through people’s heads. 

Just noticed that when Billy Zane offers the old woman her arm back, it’s the wrong arm. There’s also a scene where he’s obviously dragging around a manikin that is supposed to be a Jada Pinkett Smith.

Surviving the Game is the great movie of all time

Surviving the Game. "I like my meat RARE!" "Try well-done, Bitch!"

Directed by Ernest R. Dickerson in 1994, this insane flick was a staple in my household through junior high. Dickerson’s second after Juice. His next two were Demon Knight and Bulletproof. What a four-film run. He was also the cinematographer for Def By Temptation. 

One of several "The Most Dangerous Game" ripoffs where rich dudes hunt people with an all-star “that guy” lineup. 

Stars Ice-T, Rutger Hauer, Charles S. Dutton, John C. McGinley, Gary Busey (whom I share a birthday with), and F. Murray Abraham. 

Like I said, I feel like it was on all the time when I was younger and I watched it every time I saw it come on. I watched it probably 10 times then. 

As an adult, it holds up! But it is ridiculous. Not that it wasn't then either. Still love it. 

Def by Temptation is the okayest movie of all time

Def by Temptation. "Honey, I've given you something there's no cure for." I'm on a real string of shit movies. However, this was fun. Won a pair of tickets to a screening of this at 10pm at a bar on a school night. If I had seen it was a Troma movie, I would've stayed home. 

Gist of this blaxploitation movie is a vampirous succubus preys on black men in New York City. However, it is this southern kid Joel who is on his way to becoming a "world-famous minister" whom she really wants. She has aspirations of taking him down like she maybe did his father, played by the Samuel L. Jackson who is in the movie for roughly two minutes but is on most of the posters, and whiping out his whole bloodline. Not exactly sure what is going on there. Anyway, this Joel kid comes up from North Carolina to visit his friend K, played by Kadeem Hardison from A Different World. His is the best performance in the movie. Cynthia Bond plays the succubus. I've only seen her in this. Also, there is a cop who specializes in supernatural cases played by Bill Nunn whom you may recognize from the Dennis Leahry show The Job or as the guy who takes a bullet up his bunghole in Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead. Ouch. He's pretty solid as well. This 1990 flick stars James Bond III as Joel. He also wrote and directed it. He is pretty terrible and is incapable of carrying this movie, though the talent around him is solid. 

There is a scene extremely early in the movie where the succubus chases a naked, terrified man covered in blood around her apartment. This scene features some full-frontal wang doodle, telling you right off the bat what type of movie you are in for. 

While it was sort of fun with a cast that was mostly solid, a good movie it was not, although it is pretty bonkers in an enjoyable, Troma sort of way. It looks good enough that I looked up the cinematographer. Was suprised to see it was shot by one Ernest R. Dickerson. Dickerson mostly directs television now, with some impressive credits to his name. But I remember him for a few of my favorites from my junior high years, including Juice, Surviving the Game, Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight, and Bulletproof. That's an incredible four film run. All movies my brother and I watched repeatedly. 

Some of my other faults are that the succubus randomly and inexplicably gives one guy AIDS, there is some explicit homophobia, and the plot goes off the rails a couple of times. Felt it could have been tightened up, for sure. Plus, the ending is dumb and too easy. Things I enjoyed are that it was beautifully shot. The soundtrack was solid. Some surprisingly awesome special effects, like when a character is eaten by his image on his television. And I love that it is super early 1990s New York.