Knight of the Dead

With the exception of some lovely Snowdonia locations and a couple of decent costumes, while not the worst zombie movie out there(Vampegeddon, Zombie Night and Dead Men Walking for examples are far worse) Knight of the Dead is a disaster. The special effects are wisely sparsely used but that wasn't an excuse for them to be as cheap as they were- yes even for the budget the movie had, they looked hastily slapped together and made-at-last-minute quality. The gore and decapitations looked silly and felt excessive at times, and there is no better news about the photography and lighting, which takes bleak to extremes to the extent some of the action is not easy to see and there is the very odd effect of the zombies' heads looking like they were floating like balloons. Aside from a couple of the costumes(not all, others did look fancy-dress remains), there was very little sense of the medieval atmosphere or atmosphere in general. The script certainly sounds like a rough draft and has so much cheese it makes the eyes roll. Again it doesn't very little like how medieval speak, a lot of it is very bad modern talk that fails to make sense. The characters are basically archetypes lacking in any kind of personality and development, plus they annoy with how nonsensical a lot of their actions are, and the acting is very going-through-the-motions and mannequin-like from the whole cast with no spontaneity or enthusiasm whatsoever. The worst thing to me was the story, which is so thin it's barely there and it's made worse by a pace that begs for a steroid shot of a very large dosage, some slower-paced scenes barely even move. The scenes with the zombies are very under-populated, the horror is cheaply done and predictable that they are no scares, the movie is far too dull to be fun and it is difficult to be excited when everything just seems so half-hearted. To me as well, the medieval vibe and the use of zombies had a very two different movies feel which was really jarring. To conclude, not the worst zombie movie out there but apart from two halfway-decent things is a disaster. 2/10 Bethany Cox

Some blurays in my collection I am not proud of. Occasionally you have to make three for a quid at the charity shop, so you add one that otherwise you'd never have gone for. "Knight of the Dead" is one such film, a woefully cheap British historical horror that is unbelievably dull.

A group of crusading Knights, led by a monk, attempt to return home with the Holy Grail, though are tracked and hunted by those formally in its possession. As they attempt to cross a fenland area, they are attacked by Zombies taken by the Black Death, or something - I dunno. It was incredibly boring.

Look. I'm going to show a reasonable level of restraint here because, whilst the film is not good, I also don't imagine there was much budget to utilise. So, whilst the actors are generally quite poor, they are mostly stunt performers, or bit part actors, who were able to be in Snowdonia on the day in question. Should I really be attacking the film for that? There's a haphazard regard for continuity, cinematography or sound design - but again, those things cost time and money so it's understandable that they were sacrificed.

I'm less willing to be forgiving of some of the writing issues though, as decent characterisation doesn't necessarily cost more, nor does a compelling story and this has neither of those either. There are occasionally half decent CGI moments, but most of the fighting is terrible and the practical effects are again hampered by those budgetary issues.

Maybe it's that the practicalities couldn't match the ambition, maybe it's that they were making it up as they went along with whatever was available to them. Either way, I can't begin to argue that it's not rubbish - but it's real crime is how dull it makes it what should be schlocky fun.

KNIGHT OF THE DEAD (2013) is another extremely cheap British zombie film with a twist: a medieval setting! Our protagonists are a group of knights who have their hands full transporting the mythical Holy Grail through a land ravaged by the black death when they find themselves set upon by a zombie horde. Although, given the lack of money here, it's more like a few shambling extras.

Shot in and around Snowdonia and a ruined castle, this outdoorsy adventure film is cheap through and through and suffers from the usual gamut of bad acting, non-existent scripting and poor pacing. There's more action than horror but the fight choreography is bad and the only time I was impressed was when one of the stars does a random back flip. Not much gore either, just a few severed heads rolling about and the usual bitings. If you want to see historical zombies done properly, I recommend the Korean show KINGDOM.

"Knight of the Dead" was bad, no doubt about it. And you have that sense of impending boredom and doom lurking about you right from the very start.

The storyline in the movie was next to non-existing, and it was weak at best. And the movie wasn't really helped much along by having one-dimensional characters that lacked personalities and any level of worth to make you care the least bit about them.

"Knight of the Dead" is filmed in very dull and earth-tone colors, which was kind of interesting enough, as it did help to paste the image of a bleak and gloomy world set in the middle ages where zombies roam around the countryside. However, it just got to much in overall, because you sit there and want to see more colors in the movie eventually.

One of the better things in the movie was the the costumes. They looked nice enough and had some fairly interesting and nice touches to them.

The acting in the movie was adequate. Mind you, it wasn't mind-boggling, award-winning or outstanding in any memorable way. But people did good enough with the jobs they were giving. They were just fighting an uphill battle against a storyline with virtually no proper plot or meaning whatsoever.

There is a little bit of gore throughout the movie, but hardly enough to satisfy gore-hounds and fans of the zombie genre. And it is most definitely not enough to make up for the ghastly lack of storyline.

You would think that zombies in the middle ages would make for a good setting, and you would be right about it, but not everything that glitters is gold, and this movie sure wasn't that! "Knight of the Dead" is boring and rather pointless. The movie never really got up in pace, but just trotted straight ahead in a dull pace, never working up any kind of excitement or scares.

I should start by saying I am a big fan of Zombie and Post-Apocaliptic movies, and when I heard about this one, it sparked my curiosity.

I read a review here saying it was a refreshing movie, different style than the million zombie titles made in the recent years.

It was a total disappointment...

Yes, the setting was different from what we usually see in zombie movies, but the story is quite weak, the acting is as good as the story and there is no explanation or a proper ending.

The cinematography is good enough and there is little CGI, which could be a good thing seeing the abuse of it in the new movies, but still, doesn't add up to being a good movie.

I wouldn't recommend it.