Grey Knight [DVD] [1980] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

Few films have managed to so completely urinate away a great premise as George Hickenlooper's Grey Knight aka Ghost Brigade aka The Killing Box. Adrian Pasdar's Union officer teams up with his onetime friend and now Confederate prisoner of war Corbin Bernsen to track down a band of renegades from both sides who are wreaking indiscriminate havoc on the countryside, committing atrocities and leaving bodies crucified upside down in their wake. But they're not the usual renegades: when slave traders brought their human cargo with them from the West Indies a hundred years earlier, they unwittingly took something else as well - an evil spirit raising the dead to form an army of its own and leaving their mismatched human hunters with the problem of killing soldiers who are already dead...

With some similarities to S.P. Somtow's brilliant epic novel 'Darker Angels' cross-pollinated with Peckinpah's 'Major Dundee,' this should have been so very much better than it is. Having seen both the studio and the director's versions of the film (also known as Ghost Brigade and The Killing Box), I'm afraid that much of the blame for the fact that an intriguing script has been turned into such a frustratingly below-average movie can be laid firmly at George Hickenlooper's door. Sadly, his direction is barely a step up from Ed Wood, unable to use his limited budget to his best advantage - in addition to his terror of long shots (most of the film is played in flat two-shots or medium close-up), in the early medic sequence the camera is all too obviously just moving around in a circle to make both set and the handful of extras look more substantial (he fails miserably). Worse, he can't handle action or, to any great effect, actors.

Judging from his audio commentary on his cut on Laser Disc, his awe at Coppola's achievements with 'Apocalypse Now' has led him to slavishly imitate rather than innovate. Every other comment on the disc is about how this shot or that cast member or that piece of make-up was inspired by 'Apocalypse.' The trouble is that where Coppola had tens of millions of dollars, this looks like it's been funded by a whipround in a local bar. Hickenlooper, of course, made the brilliant documentary 'Hearts of Darkness': obviously, he's still travelling down that river long after Coppola packed his bags and went home...

A truly gifted documentary-maker, he just seems clueless about how to compose a dramatic shot or propel action: he seems to be at the mercy of events rather than controlling them. Hopefully someone will be able to salvage the remake rights and do the premise justice, but in the meantime Hickenlooper should return to what he does best - making great documentaries rather than bad fictional features.

The opening screen credits and the introduction promise a more serious effort than we get. The vintage photographs set the scene by showing mutilated and dead soldiers. (The researchers had to dig for some of them.)
The screen credits over carefully selected photographs are, I thought, effective and compelling. Of course, I have spent hundreds of hours going through the period photography so I could appreciate what I saw.

The opening premise is that an important battle was fought with Blue and Gray side by side. As we get into the zombie portion of the story and develop it a bit, there is a back story told by another reviewer. In the Zombie tradition this follows the African voodoo model rather than the mutagenic virus. The level of Zombie "science" seems appropriate to the tome of the film.

The uniforms, equipment, and tactics seem to work for the period. In fact, better than earlier Hollywood epics. This aspect of the film is gritty and works well.

The combination of Civil War realism and grade B horror flick as goals may be too much to ask for. I really don't care that much for the general horror chomp and rip flick, but I have to give this one some credit for
a good effort toward the period atmosphere.

Give the thing its low budget and watch it. You may find it ok as a zombie flick and the Civil War setting helps add to the living vs. living dead theme.

Let's be honest up front here-- this isn't a "good" movie. It's strange, it has weird plot turns, it's a solid B- or C-lister for sure. But that's why, in my opinion, it is awesome. The concept is pretty cool-- a zombie civil war army-- and hopefully someday it will be redone and given the actual credence this cool concept deserves. However, for now, we have this hopelessly bad move that is yet somehow fun. My vote goes to watch it around the Halloween season. So, it's no blockbuster, but if you are in the probably small demographic that is interested by the subject matter and enjoys a good bad movie every now and then, you might just like it. If you are a film snob, I highly recommend you stay away. Unless you are a bad film snob. Then just maybe you will like it.

I remember when I was little I saw this flick real late at night and absolutely loved it (although I saw it under the title, "Killing Box"). Not too long ago I found Grey Knight at the ol' Blockbuster and was sooo excited I rented it (good thing I talked myself out of buying it). While ripe with cameos, (i.e. Billy Bob Thorton, David Arquette, Martin Sheen, etc) this movie was just plain bad. I must have been really easy to please in my youth. Grey Knight, I do have to say, has a great idea for a film but the directors handled it very poorly. With a touch more of plot development, budget, effects, as well as a change of director this could have been an excellent movie. I'd love to see someone remake it because it does really have an interesting story. Overall, I'd watch it again if it was on TV but I wouldn't recommend spending money to rent it.

Evidently there are several versions of this film. The one I own is entitled "Grey Knight, Director's Cut." I read the end credits and it appears that even a new musical score was written for the directors cut. Anyway, on to the movie. I liked it a lot the first time I saw it and I loved it the second time I watched it. This movie has a lot going for it and even some of the things that might often be construed as a negative were a positive in this case. For example, the producers could not afford expensive production values, but the weaker production values, which are not bad mind you, add to the gritty authenticity of the film. I love the Vampire/Zombie, Blue vs Grey, Insanity vs Sanity, aspect. There is some great philosophizing between the vampire/zombies and the soldiers on what is the nature of good and evil and looking into oneself and recognizing ones own depravity, great stuff! The attention to detail that was obviously made regarding the civil war period and the authentic photos used throughout the movie. The spooky ambient score used at least in the director's cut was very good. The way the movie looked at the blurred lines between blue and grey. There is a scene where the Confederate soldier asks the Union soldiers do they believe in what Lincoln is saying about slavery being wrong? and they all say, "yes", but then he ask the Union soldiers if they believe former slaves should be allowed to vote and they all say, "no." It brings up some interesting questions about the times and again the depravity of man, not to mention how far we come, although not far enough. Great film that is worthy of a second chance to anyone who may have dismissed it the first time they saw it. It is a beautiful film in many ways and while it definitely does have a strong horror element, it is more of a thinking man's or woman's movie instead of an all out scare fest. Great movie!

"All Hail The Lion of Judah......and Live!"