The concept for 'Dead of Knight' sounded really intriguing and had real potential to work, regardless of whether it was low budget or not and whether some of the ideas had the danger of being too daft or confused. Really admired and appreciated that 'Dead of Knight' tried to do something different other than being "just another typical slasher flick", mixing serial killing with medieval touches, that it could easily have been.
Despite such a neat and promising set-up, 'Dead of Knight' doesn't really deliver on its potential and what could have been very innovative is executed rather too ordinarily and has more silliness than tension in my view. Didn't hate it and there are far worse films and worse potential wastes about, didn't care for it either. Even when taking it for what it is (meaning not to be taken too seriously) and what it was trying to be, but it is not as if it didn't try.
A couple of performances don't fare too badly. Wayne Stevens is suitably stoic and while there is menace in his interpretation he doesn't make his character one with no redeeming qualities and instead a conflicted side.
Sara Gaston has some entertaining moments. There are far more amateurish blood effects in other films and ones that are more gratuitously used, these didn't fare too awfully.
However, Jerin Julia felt somewhat out of place, the way her character was written and how she portrays her would work better in a romantic comedy. For the concept, this was a character that should have had more steel. Kyle Greer has the comic relief character, but for my tastes he was more annoying than funny. There should have been a much better balance of "comic relief" moments and horror moments. There is too much of the former and personally didn't find either of them executed particularly well.
With the former being rather forced and not really fitting with the rest of the film, more groan worthy than remotely amusing. The horror didn't have much creativity to it and it lacked suspense, any shock value at times happening for the sake of it rather than having much point. The film takes too long to get going and is rather thinly plotted, if anybody is wondering as to whether it's a little more eventful than some plot summaries indicate there is not much luck on that front. Some good ideas here, but it feels on the muddled side.
Of the characters, Gasparray is the only one that the film tries to develop while the others are just genre cliches, Truman especially. The soundtrack is just bizarre and just didn't go stylistically or in placement with what was happened. On top of that, 'Dead of Knight' looks cheap and was indicative of the makers panicking to make it to the tight deadline it had. The direction lacks finesse and struggles to balance everything together.
Altogether, loved the concept but the execution was lacking. 3/10
