King Knight

Writer-director Richard Bates Jr.'s latest indie is both his least interesting and most enjoyable. At just under eighty minutes with credits, King Knight is an unabashedly modest effort, but at just under eighty minutes with credits (déjà vu,) it is also a cute little movie about contemporary witches whose coven leader attends his high school reunion. Think The Craft meets Romy and Michele's High School Reunion with several seriously inspired moments of psychedelic cinematography... Also, Aubrey Plaza makes a cameo as a pine cone (just saying.)

Grade: B-

Sat through the whole thing waiting for the horror aspect to take place and next thing you know the credits started rolling. I get that this movie is more of a parody / tongue in cheek type of film but it wasn't entertaining in the slightest. It had a decent B list cast and the music and cinematography were pretty good. The over saturated blue light at the high school reunion was distracting and completely unecessary. Could've been so much better with the cast they had. Skip this movie if you are on the fence.

King Knight is a film that might have a very niche audience. Being (falsely) marketed as a horror film it is perhaps better described as a surreal & quirky indie flick - somewhere between rom-com, mumblecore and horror-comedy, while being neither of those things.

But there is no need to classify this into any genre, but those expecting this to be a horror film will be disappointed. It's more fantastical than anything, telling a coming of age story for adult wizards and witches.

A very low budget film that compensates it's shortcomings with a lot of heart and fun characters.

It's not surprising most people didn't get this movie. Because I'm pagan I loved it and thought it was excellent comedy. Anyone who has been around other pagans, either through a coven or a solitary like me that's just met lots of fellow pagans will recognize everyone in this coven. The humor is very specific, and for people outside paganism it's unlikely to land. I've met someone like every person in this coven. I've been at celebrations like the Beltane one. So many people will look at these practices in the movie thinking they're silly without being able to recognize that any religions practices look silly to outsiders. Iloved this, it was fresh, light, and it's awesome to see witches portrayed in a positive light for once!!

Right, well the 2021 movie "King Knight" is listed as a horror comedy. I beg to differ. "King Knight" is actually neither. It is a rather pointless and less than entertaining movie. But of which genre? Well, I suppose that comedy is actually what comes the closest to labeling the movie, but it is a rather devoid of humor type of comedy.

The storyline, as written by writer and director Richard Bates Jr. Was just a swing and a miss. The entire movie was trying too hard to be avantgarde whilst keeping a twist of humor and comedy to it. It failed, though, on all accounts. And yet, I managed to sit through this blasted ordeal of a movie, hoping the movie would eventually pick up its pace and produce some properly entertainment.

It just never happened.

I have to say that with the likes of Matthew Gray Gubler, Barbara Crampton and Ray Wise on the cast list, in bigger or smaller roles, then you would assume that there would be just an ounce of entertainment and enjoyment to be had from watching "King Knight". How wrong I was!

The acting performances in "King Knight" were lukewarm. So don't get your hopes up.

"King Knight" was a swing and a miss of a movie. It fell entirely short of entertaining me. And the whole avantgarde approach to the otherwise boring and rather mundane storyline didn't really spice up things, though it was in severe need of spicing.

My rating of "King Knight" lands on a generous two out of ten stars, and that is based on the production value mostly.