Knight of the Dead (2013) User Reviews

Some dead are better left dead...

[paul_haakonsen · 3/10 · 20 July 2013]

"Knight of the Dead" was bad, no doubt about it. And you have that sense of impending boredom and doom lurking about you right from the very start.

The storyline in the movie was next to non-existing, and it was weak at best. And the movie wasn't really helped much along by having one-dimensional characters that lacked personalities and any level of worth to make you care the least bit about them.

"Knight of the Dead" is filmed in very dull and earth-tone colors, which was kind of interesting enough, as it did help to paste the image of a bleak and gloomy world set in the middle ages where zombies roam around the countryside. However, it just got to much in overall, because you sit there and want to see more colors in the movie eventually.

One of the better things in the movie was the the costumes. They looked nice enough and had some fairly interesting and nice touches to them.

The acting in the movie was adequate. Mind you, it wasn't mind-boggling, award-winning or outstanding in any memorable way. But people did good enough with the jobs they were giving. They were just fighting an uphill battle against a storyline with virtually no proper plot or meaning whatsoever.

There is a little bit of gore throughout the movie, but hardly enough to satisfy gore-hounds and fans of the zombie genre. And it is most definitely not enough to make up for the ghastly lack of storyline.

You would think that zombies in the middle ages would make for a good setting, and you would be right about it, but not everything that glitters is gold, and this movie sure wasn't that! "Knight of the Dead" is boring and rather pointless. The movie never really got up in pace, but just trotted straight ahead in a dull pace, never working up any kind of excitement or scares.

Medieval Zombies

[shawnblackman · 4/10 · 12 November 2016]

A priest has to get The Holy Grail across a valley during the Black Plague. The plague is a horde of medieval zombies.

This thing had awesome locations, and a potentially cool idea, but then screwed it all up. The first annoying factor is the grey dull tinge they give to the picture. I know they want to create a mood but it just makes people think their TV is on the fritz.

The acting wasn't bad, the effects on the other hand were CGI crap. Another thing that ticked me off was they had to kill them by removing the head, or by damaging the brain. All through the film they show countless little gut stabs that finish off these zombies. So what gives? Maybe it was a time issue or continuity.

Not very good at all. You don't really care what happens after about half of an hour.

Failed attempt at a different Zombie movie

[ampbr · 3/10 · 6 July 2013]

I should start by saying I am a big fan of Zombie and Post-Apocaliptic movies, and when I heard about this one, it sparked my curiosity.

I read a review here saying it was a refreshing movie, different style than the million zombie titles made in the recent years.

It was a total disappointment...

Yes, the setting was different from what we usually see in zombie movies, but the story is quite weak, the acting is as good as the story and there is no explanation or a proper ending.

The cinematography is good enough and there is little CGI, which could be a good thing seeing the abuse of it in the new movies, but still, doesn't add up to being a good movie.

I wouldn't recommend it.

Another hour or so I'll never get back

[merlijn_tuttel · 1/10 · 4 July 2013]

There are many bad movies out there, but most have a disappointing, cliché setup to start with. This movie actually had the concept going for it. So cautious though I am with any title -of the dead, I did decide to give it a shot. Knights, the plague, zombies... works for computer games so why not a movie right?

Wrong... I should have known better, I really should have. The acting is bad and cliché at best, special effects are absent so basically zombies are recognizable by either white faces or bandages. The whole movie is shown in a nearly colorless scheme, which though it works for some movies here just added to the overall feel of "low budget". The plot plays out exactly as you expect including all possible obligatory story progression.

I write this 'review' just because I would have wanted a warning before I pressed play this morning, so there you are.

Worst film this year ARGHHH ORRGGH by a mile

[stevebrown39 · 1/10 · 7 July 2013]

What a load of rubbish - Worst film this year ARGHHH ORRGGH by a mile

My partner fell asleep after 2 minutes and woke up at the end. Did i miss anything she said ? - NO not really, in fact not at all.

Some movies are so bad they become good - this movie is so bad it will just go on getting worse for ever

Plot - (what do zombies say again ?) What plot ? Acting - ORRRR ARGGGGG ERRRRRR - lets all run, - what acting ? Budget - how on earth did they get one ? ORRRR ARGGGGG ERRRRRR Even the scenery didn't bother to turn up. Most films are in colour , some black and white , there's a very good reason why 50 shades are grey aren't popular :)

For those of you really interested here's the plot

Hello i've come to collect the Holy grail - oh all right here it is - please leave my pizza over there Thanks,- bye then - you can die now (even though you looked fine when we arrived) Must have been the anchovies ! and it just gets better and better ORRRR ARGGGGG ERRRRRR.

Maybe the original Welsh version was better LLLORRR LLLARGGG LLERRR.

If you asked a bunch of 5 year old kids to make a zombie movie - they'd do better - a lot better. I wouldn't even use this movie as a place to put my mug of coffee on !

Waste of time.

[DarlaNyx · 1/10 · 23 July 2013]

This was just so ridiculously dull. I couldn't even pay attention. The characters were boring, the plot was boring & the effects were awful. Even by low budget standards. I wouldn't recommend this.

I can't even think of anything to fill in the 10 line minimum. Thoroughly disappointing movie. Don't waste your time. The sex scene was even disappointing & that's a difficult feat to achieve.

Still not 10 lines. Well I can talk for England usually so the fact that I can't write a 10 line review says it all.

Boring, dull, time wasting crap.

1/10

Very Middle of the Road

[Freelancer490 · 5/10 · 31 December 2016]

I'm a big fan of Knight movies and a sucker for anything with zombies in it, so as soon as I saw this I had to check it out. Basically it involves a small group of knights who have to escort a monk carrying the Holy Grail through a valley infested with zombies created by the Black Plague. That idea sounds awesome, but the movie never really gets going. None of the characters really get much depth added to them. The one character I was cheering for, gets killed halfway through and from there I was wondering where this movie was going. Beside fending off zombies, the group is followed into the valley by another group intent on revenge for one their number getting killed earlier. But why the leader feels so compelled to follow the knights over one death is never explained and even then he only takes one other man with him, despite having several others with him. The action scenes were okay for the most part, but nothing that stands out. It's not great, but it's a short enough way to divert your time if you have a spare 90 minutes, but don't expect much. This concept has so much potential but if you're after a great medieval zombie movie this isn't it.

Seriously, why all the awful reviews?

[jcpierre96 · 5/10 · 25 June 2016]

I rarely write movie reviews, but I mostly do when I feel that a movie is either unnecessarily praised, or excessively denigrated. "Knight of the dead" is the latest. Seriously, this movie was rated worse than "Sharktopus" on IMDb?!?

This is your typical B-movie way of making movies. Low-budget, actors you never heard of, cheesy and cheap FX... But this movie is really positively surprising. Low-budget, that's for sure, but there is still a guaranteed minimum of gore (with mutilations, guts, blood, you know the drill). Also, the landscape is absolutely stunning. You never get bored watching this 1h18min movie, mostly filled with bandit raids or zombie attacks. And the zombie makeup is pretty well-made: not at all times, but it does the job.

Of course, there is some bad CGI from time to time (creating full hordes of zombies, or adding blood), but it's far from being REALLY annoying, and believe me, I HATE CGI. That is still a bit of a shame.

All in all, what can be said about KOFD? Cheap b-movie. Crazy concept. But still fast-paced, gory and fun. Recommended for anyone into zombie movies.

Zombie mayhem but without any scares or fun

[TheLittleSongbird · 2/10 · 28 July 2014]

With the exception of some lovely Snowdonia locations and a couple of decent costumes, while not the worst zombie movie out there(Vampegeddon, Zombie Night and Dead Men Walking for examples are far worse) Knight of the Dead is a disaster. The special effects are wisely sparsely used but that wasn't an excuse for them to be as cheap as they were- yes even for the budget the movie had, they looked hastily slapped together and made-at-last-minute quality. The gore and decapitations looked silly and felt excessive at times, and there is no better news about the photography and lighting, which takes bleak to extremes to the extent some of the action is not easy to see and there is the very odd effect of the zombies' heads looking like they were floating like balloons. Aside from a couple of the costumes(not all, others did look fancy-dress remains), there was very little sense of the medieval atmosphere or atmosphere in general. The script certainly sounds like a rough draft and has so much cheese it makes the eyes roll. Again it doesn't very little like how medieval speak, a lot of it is very bad modern talk that fails to make sense. The characters are basically archetypes lacking in any kind of personality and development, plus they annoy with how nonsensical a lot of their actions are, and the acting is very going-through-the-motions and mannequin-like from the whole cast with no spontaneity or enthusiasm whatsoever. The worst thing to me was the story, which is so thin it's barely there and it's made worse by a pace that begs for a steroid shot of a very large dosage, some slower-paced scenes barely even move. The scenes with the zombies are very under-populated, the horror is cheaply done and predictable that they are no scares, the movie is far too dull to be fun and it is difficult to be excited when everything just seems so half-hearted. To me as well, the medieval vibe and the use of zombies had a very two different movies feel which was really jarring. To conclude, not the worst zombie movie out there but apart from two halfway-decent things is a disaster. 2/10 Bethany Cox

As bad as it gets

[Leofwine_draca · 2/10 · 7 April 2022]

KNIGHT OF THE DEAD (2013) is another extremely cheap British zombie film with a twist: a medieval setting! Our protagonists are a group of knights who have their hands full transporting the mythical Holy Grail through a land ravaged by the black death when they find themselves set upon by a zombie horde. Although, given the lack of money here, it's more like a few shambling extras.

Shot in and around Snowdonia and a ruined castle, this outdoorsy adventure film is cheap through and through and suffers from the usual gamut of bad acting, non-existent scripting and poor pacing. There's more action than horror but the fight choreography is bad and the only time I was impressed was when one of the stars does a random back flip. Not much gore either, just a few severed heads rolling about and the usual bitings. If you want to see historical zombies done properly, I recommend the Korean show KINGDOM.

I Actually Liked It

[Rainey-Dawn · 8/10 · 6 September 2017]

This one took me for a surprise - I was expecting to laugh and roll my eyes throughout watching it but instead I became engrossed in the story and that was a pleasant surprise for me. I actually liked the film.

I do wish the "Z" zombies would have been a little less at times and a little better than they were BUT it didn't take away from the actual story-line - and I know it is a "B" film (not a lot of money to make it so the "Z" zombies were easily overlooked by me in favor of the tale).

I was routing for the Priest since the beginning... and he is the main/core character. The one guy who seemed very angry at the witch (the warrior) I thought would make it close or to the very end but that didn't happen. I wasn't sure about the other men in the group if some could make it out of there alive!! I'm not a big fan of zombies (only a small handful of zombie films I actually like) - but this zombie/knight film gave me another zombie flick I can actually enjoy watching. The dark gray, bleak atmosphere and a band of men with a goal did something for me - I enjoyed the watch.

8.5/10

A decent modern zombie horror

[last_cheese · 6/10 · 4 July 2013]

Modern zombie movies are so bland, there seems to be a new one every week, more bland and banal than the last. They tend to most be mostly a gimmick; running zombies, zombies that could shoot guns, or zombies set in a place we least expect it. And although this one falls into that last category, it does do a lot of good things.

The movie starts off with a narration about the plague, and we are given a backdrop on the time frame this takes place in. We are introduced to group of knights and a priest on the hunt for the holy grail. Another group of raiders are hunting after the knights, presumably to take the grail for themselves. They take refuge into a valley, where the come across a "witch" stealing from them. The decide to use this witch to their benefit, using her to lead their way. As they journey into the valley, they are confronted by zombies; the hordes growing bigger as they continue onward. A couple of the knights are killed off, and the rest hide in a cavern. They believe they are safe, but are attacked by one of the knights turned zombie. They continue moving on, until only the priest and "witch" remain. The two spend the night in a cave, and become... closer, to each other. But, yet again, they are not safe. The raiders from earlier have tracked them down, and tie them up. The leader stabs the priest and leaves him off to be eaten by zombies, but he escapes in time. The witch tells the raiders she knows of an easier escape route, but leads them to a zombie pit. The priest makes a bow, and hunts after them. He and the leader of the raiders have a sword fight, this does not go on long as the Witch shoots him with the bow. The two make their escape from the zombies, and she shows the priest the true passage out; over a mountain. She shows she has been bitten, and the priest reluctantly kills her, and sets out to cross the mountain. When he makes it over, he lays down, thinking he is dying, but a horse appears not too far away. He climbs on it and rides off.

Although not strong plot wise, this movie did have a lot of good in it. The acting wasn't flawless, but compared to a lot of the movies I watch it was Oscar material. The production is superb, well light and very crisp and clean look. The best part is the special effects, most notably the decapitations. The noises the zombies make are also very well done, they manage to be creepy and not the same "rawr" crap we're used to in these bad modern zombie flicks. Not a perfect movie by any stretch, but a worthwhile watch for any zombie fan.

Horribly bad......

[jeetu7184 · 2/10 · 25 July 2013]

As a fan of the Zombie film genre, I'd like to rate this film as one of the biggest disaster ever made. The movie starts with 5 knights and a priest setting off from God knows where, to going really God knows where. All you will see in the film is hills & mountains. Majority part of the movie you will be wondering who is the hero of the movie. I gave up when i actually found out. But i just watched it till the end, just to know if it made sense in the end at all. It didn't. Nothing was explained, there seemed no logic, and the movie didn't have colors either, it was kinda black & white and a few shades of grey, lol. Seriously don't waste your time on it. Even the illogical make out scene was not worth it.

Piercing

[sjaaksy · 1/10 · 9 July 2013]

I downloaded the movie: nearly 7 gigabyte of boring material. I went through some scenes which spoke for themselves: bad acting, unrealistic shoots. What bothered me too was at some point I see a guy and a woman making out and you can see a PIERCING through her left nipple!!! In that time period? I don't believe it was intentional. Didn't the makers of the movie have the time to let her take at least that thing out? The first thing though that bothered me was the lack of colors in the movie. That's why I started scrolling through the movie, to see if there were any colors later on. It turned from gray to dark! Then there was the hunt in a scenery full of rocks. It seemed to go on for ever and it was just a way to make the movie as cheap as possible. I'm not going to watch the full movie. I will delete it from my hard-drive and put the title of the list of movies never to be watched.

Bleak and poor

[t-rexx-568-196825 · 1/10 · 11 June 2014]

I agree 100% with Sjaak Schulteis' review. This movie's appalling, in spite of a promising pitch: the Holy Grail moving through a zombie-filled valley of the shadows of death in the hands of fearsome knights? The plot could have been a killer. Alas! What a disaster. The lack of color, terrible acting, poor shooting (not even giving justice to the beauty of the surrounding landscape...), poor assembling and editing, and this overall, lingering, "this is a (dead-)serious movie so us guys, actors, need to act tough and avoid any hint of humor" feeling just got me worked up in the end, struggling to watch the whole atrocity. I did, eventually, but there was no redeeming for this lazy movie. Actors behave like they are wondering why they're on the set. The storyline never makes it to cruise speed. There is no suspense or challenge of any kind that makes it worth watching it to the end. A total collapse.

Ultra low budget snore fest

[Hayden-86055 · 1/10 · 6 July 2022]

The monsters were terrible, the special effects were terrible, the characters were terrible and the plot was...terrible. One scene had a priest and a "Witch" they'd captured not twenty minutes previously have sex for absolutely no reason other than to fit in some expected nudity for the male teenage audience. Some of the action scenes were at the very best passable for a low budget flick but that's the most praise I'll give it.

1/10: Music, story and cinematography were all awful - one to miss.

I'M NOT DEAD YET

[nogodnomasters · 5/10 · 14 May 2019]

In 1349 during the Black Plague in Britain a group of knights lead by a priest (Feth Greenwood) are on a secret mission, which you already know is that they carry the Holy Grail which unfortunately is not an effective zombie weapon. They travel through the valley of the cursed, one that looks like it should have a wizard named "Tim" and a killer bunny with fangs, but it doesn't, just zombies.

Finally somebody got this Black Plague thing correct, it was zombies. I really was growing tired of that rat/flea/sanitation global warming nonsense. Eventually they encounter Badriyah (Vivien Vilela) a "witch" who knows some earth magic and more importantly how to deal with zombies. Oh yeah, there are some bad guys after them too.

The film is consumed with them traveling over desolate land. You can easily skip about the first 30 minutes. The movie shows "hordes" of zombies in the distant, but it was too low budget for them to hack up more than a half dozen or so at a time. For historical cheese "Vikingdom" is better. And for zombies, just pick one.

Great historical film. Should be on the "The History Channel" right after "Noah's Ark."

Sex and nudity (Vivien Vilela). Normally I don't comment on the sex scenes, but this one had an incredible amount of slurping kissing. It was funny to listen to.

The Best Movie Ever!!!!

[superweird7 · 10/10 · 3 October 2015]

This movie is amazing the acting, the effects, the story. Screw the shining screw nightmare on elm street, screw Shaun of the dead, screw the ring, screw paranormal activity, screw Friday the 13th and screw the evil dead. This movie makes these movies look like crap!!!!!! This movie made my day I bought it on DVD for a euro well worth it and went home watched it and I was amazed, it blew my mind. It scared me for life. If you love horror movies you will love this movie I watched it twice in one day and at least ten times in a week. Go watch this movie right now its so good you will thank me and you are welcome. Good luck and good night!

Honest B zombie movie, excellent soundtrack

[surround-guy · 7/10 · 18 September 2021]

I don't understand all the bad reviews, I actually liked this movie.

The FX are cheesy but it's a B movie.

The sword fighting scenes are well choreographed.

The bleak look of this film fits the story.

The camera work is above average.

And the soundtrack is amazing for a film on a proper surround setup, my ears were pleasantly surprised.

Death by a thousand cuts

[mjfearl · 10/10 · 15 November 2023]

Never before have I experienced a medieval film with this much cuts. The pear scene was a little juicy but if you can stomach that and the amazing plot. Pointless deaths and and an even more lost plot. I've had a tooth extraction which caused less nausea.

If youre down for a good time with cheap thrills this is for you if you can stomach the camera angles. I understand this is meant to be the dark ages but it felt theyd ran out of budget on colour.

It's the fellowship of the ring but more zombies, if the fellowship was a multitude of bald actors killing the undead up the side of a mountain.

Oh and there's a holy grail God knows what for but its there.

Zombies plenty of!

[balaamdebbie · 8/10 · 28 January 2022]

Pretty good. Never seen Zombies in middle ages film. Where they filmed really fitted the film. Costumes all really convincing. Didn't like ending. Never showed if artifact reached final place that's why only eight.

Henry and Kristl tried to bury Knight of the Dead

[meritcoba · 25 September 2013]

"Why don't we shave your head?" Kristl asked Henry while she made a shaving gesture with her hands.

"What?" Henry backed away from her.

"Bald man are hot these days!"

"You mean bald ugly men." Henry gave Kristl a look of revulsion.

"At least he got to do the girl in the cave." Kristl smiled. "What has gotten into you! You on too much testosterone pills these days or what?"

"Just saying..."

"Just say it someplace else. Or inaudible."

"Alright. Just you know.. I thought that you.., being a man.., would have liked to.."

"Do you think I stand a better chance when I am bald?" "And surrounded by flesh eating zombies (are there any other kind?)"

"Ah."

"And in a cave."

"Right."

"Cause that is what got them all hot and bothered in the movie."

"Right."

"After you see all your fellow knights being shredded by zombies or turn into them and you end up with the only woman in the story your thoughts automatically turn to sex the moment you are alone with her in a cave. Just the right aphrodisiac: zombies and caves."

"Enough! Let's get discuss the other parts of the movie. Like the cinematography. Did you like the way they shot it and the color scheme?"

"I liked the landscapes. There were some pretty great sights, but they bled the colors from the scenes too much if you ask me. Grey can be strong mood making color. But all the time? I would have added some colors just for diversity. Like sometimes a colorful plant in a grey landscape can have a strong surreal effect."

"Yeah.. I liked the sights too. Also I liked the companions of the main guy. like that axe wielding guy. He looks interesting. And the introductory part of the movie is captivating. What would you call it? An animation?" Henry said.

"It was more like stills, but that part made it interesting for me to."

"You know what is odd.. I didn't know it was about zombies. It had this moment of insight when I read the title: knight of the dead. I thought. 'of the dead', that is the way those zombie movies are called."

"I had not thought of it either. I thought it was more about plague victims being scary. Like the first girl they meet. She is a plague victim, I thought, and they had to put her down because she went crazy because of the illness."

"In hindsight. Would you have watched it if you had known?" Henry asked Kristl.

"I am not sure. There are too many zombie movies around. They get a bit lame. And a zombie movie set in the middle ages with knights could provide a new angle if properly handled, but to be honest, there is not much of anything special in this movie and as a zombie flick it lacks the horror and tension to keep it interesting. It is more like a group of knight wander aimlessly through a grey landscape for no apparent reason and get assaulted by very slow moving zombies and some guys that have a pick on them." Kristl said.

"Yeah."

"Which brings us to the story and those other people chasing the knights. I really had no idea what it was about or why they chased those knights. In fact, I got the feeling they did not even know themselves."

"What I found strange is that they kept on fighting each other after they were fully aware that they were being chased and surrounded by zombies. I do not know about you, but I would rather work together to get out than fight you." Henry said.

"It is a bit of a missed opportunity perhaps? They could have put together a group of unlikely people who have to get together to get out alive. Then the tension in the group between the people could be a factor. "

"Yeah.. but nothing of that."

"So, to wrap things up, what did we like about it?" Henry asked.

"I would say the landscapes and imagery. And some of the fighters looked cool. Even some of the fights were OK."

"And the bald guy had a nice smile." Kristl admitted.

"Oh. having cave feelings?"

"You mean, smiling in a cave?"

"Uhuh." Henry nodded his head, "Sounds like the title of song."

"Maybe one day.."

"See."

"When surrounded by zombies… then… who knows.. I can force myself to smile." Kristl smiled.

And Henry smiled to.

This review with pictures and the intro of the movie is located here: www.meritcoba.com