Shudder Day: Tales from the Crypt- Demon Knight (1995)

 As long as I'm in the 1990s (mostly) this week, let me carry that over to this one.

I wasn't allowed to watch Tales from the Crypt as a kid and never really saw too much of it still as an adult.
Should I?

Regardless, I did watch the 1995 Film spun off from the Series...

The Cryptkeeper appears in the Intro- as he did on the Show- as a Director of a Horror Film, complete with a John Laroquette cameo.

He goes to his Trailer to show off his latest work, which is this Film.

A drifter- William Sadler- is on the run from a bad guy- Billy Zane.

Both survive a fiery wreck and the former hides out at a Hotel, which contains our Cast of dead meats.

Amongst the group is Thomas Haden Church, Jada Pinkett, CCH Pounder and Charles Fleischer, who run into in the weirdest Films.

Zane finds him and tries to get the Cops to hand over a strange, blood-filled cross that Sadler has.

When that fails, he kills the Sheriff and summons some Demons to kill those inside!

Now they are trapped inside, but at least the blood can create (temporary) seals to keep the creatures out...for now.

Naturally, none of these people get along, so the simple plan of 'Just wait for the Sun to come up' is not too easy.

Zane manages to tempt members of the group, which then allows them to transform into his demons.

The only way to stop them is to destroy the eyes, which must just be a common 'demon' lore.

I thought Brimstone made that up!

As the body count rises and the Sun inevitably nears rising, can our remaining Heroes resist temptation?

To be fair, he was the damn Phantom and is in the 4th Highest Grossing Film of all time!

Can Sadler get Pinkett (no Smith yet) to learn the ropes before it is too late.

You know that these can sometimes have 'unhappy' Endings, so who knows?

To find out, stream (for the first time or revisit) it now...

A fun Film, even if it doesn't really attempt to break new ground.

The Film is full of visuals and ideas that you are probably familiar with.

People trapped in a House.
Possession of a person combined with a transformation.
A snarky devil Character.
A stubble-sporting Hero with a secret.

The news stuff is how the demons look, with glowing green eyes and distorted features.
They look good, done with old school prosthetics and make-up work.

The big draw here is Billy Zane as the evil Devil/Demon guy.  When he finally shows his true nature and starts to tempt the people in the House, he's great.

Watch it for him if you like that kind of quirky, charismatic bad guy.

All in all, whether you know/love/hate Tales from the Crypt, this self-contained Film is good, old-school (yes, it is weird calling '90s stuff old-school) Horror fun.

A Film that works for those that love this kind of gritty, old-school stuff.  It doesn't connect to the Show, so don't worry about getting caught up.