Some indie movies start with incredibly low production budgets but end up being surprisingly good films. Some of these films include Get Out, Clerks, The Blair Witch Project, and Paranormal Activity. What makes these films so good are their simple storylines, lack of complex effects, believable performances, brilliant cinematography, and reasonable budgets. However, budget is not always a guarantee of success. Waterworld, Ishtar, The Adventures of Pluto Nash, and Cutthroat Island, all with huge budgets, enjoyed the presence of well-known actors, had experienced crews, and for some reason bombed spectacularly.
There are also poorly built, poorly edited, and even worse-acted indie movies that serve as a stepping stone for future success. These poorly crafted projects usually make you want to beg the cast and crew to re-evaluate their career choices. The new independent fantasy film Devil’s Knight fits quite obviously into the latter category. This is quite literally what you would expect from a college cinema class rather than a team of professionals, from low-budget interiors to a confusing script to performances that would make Lee Strasberg switch to desktops for his career.
The studio summarizes it this way ‘In Veroka Kingdom, a monster known as Bone Devil poses a threat to Remény Kingdom. Therefore, Bone Devil has to be killed by an elite team of global monster hunters summoned by Samuel, the king.’ This story is about a bone devil that seems unkillable and there are heroes that try with no prevail. There are a ton of films and series that use the same plot, for instance, Tremors, Ghostbusters, Stranger Things, and even The Suicide Squad.
Devil’s Knight portrays them as The Lost Blades, a gang led by Sigurd (John Wells) who successfully start the film by killing a horrendous monster. However, they don’t stop there because they are actually sent to kill more. In an attempt to flat-out claim the title of the best monster slayer, they make it to the castle with their effort being celebrated by a John who witnesses her outed by PRINCESS SABINE (Sarah Nicklin) who dares challenge her to the duel of the first blood. When John (who was really Joan) stabs Princess Sabine, things become properly awkward and cringy. The entire ordeal is utterly grotesque and even after the blood is put there, the shiny dayglo splatter effect ‘campaigned for’ in post production remains bizarre and takes the cake for the oddest decision made in post production.
One detail I found oddly amusing was how during the duel you could hear clapping and cheering but not one character on camera was shown to be clapping or reacting to the fight.
The Lost Blades goons increase in number as they escape the dungeon just in time for their real objective, the Bone Demon. It is painfully obvious that the monster is just some actor in a costume that looks like it was pieced together from the Creature from the Lost Lagoon. The visual effects are so insipidly low budget, that it is just begging to be ripped by the Mystery Science Theater 3000 crew. For instance, the exterior long shots of the castle are, in my opinion, too cheesy to be used in a free video game. The graphics seem more like placeholders that were meant to have real effects inserted during the editing process.
The conversations are very cringeworthy they talk in what is supposed to be medieval French, but only one of the actors even attempts a French accent, the others speak in their own accents, some of which are more Brooklyn than Remény. Our protagonist Sigurd loses an eye to a monster attack, to which one other character comes to step over him and says, Are you okay? Picture an amateur theatre company trying to wrap around their new script and not bother to emote or act for voicing the lines.
Devil’s Knight is relatively easy to watch and has some famous character actors in small, barely visible roles. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s some buried treasure of a good tale somewhere deeper into this story, certainly it would make for a fun Dungeons & Dragons adventure and maybe that’s how it originated. Not every movie hits it big, but there seems to be a surprisingly big audience for mundane, low-budget make-believe, sci-fi, and even romance dramas in streaming services. If you can track down this movie and are in the mood for a wacky, disjointed piece, it might be worth it. At least until the corresponding drinking game you devise as a way to deal with it makes you drowsy.
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