Underrated brilliance
I never understood why so many people hate this movie. Even Fangoria called it 'abysmal'. But I consider it a worthy follow-up to the delicious Demon Knight. It has brilliant acting: Dennis Miller is a treat as smartass private eye. Angie Everhart is not only the hottest female vampire in years, no, she even proves that she can actually act. Corey Feldman has one of his very few good roles. But who really chews the scenery is Chris Sarandon (Fright Night), one of the most underrated actors ever: His performance as a TV preacher alone makes this movie worth watching. Only Erika Eleniak is rather miscast. And watch out for Demon Knight veteran William Sadler (another underestimated actor) as mummy. The make-up F/X are not only unbelievably gory for an R-rated movie; they're so excellent they even surprise genre buffs who thought they've seen it all. The characters are wonderfully weird, and although there's loads of black humour in it, I'm glad Bordello of Blood never turns...
Billy Zane and Dennis Miller Together
This disk collects the two Tales From the Crypt movies on one side of a single disk. For some reason the menu has the second movie listed first.
In the first movie, Billy Zane is excellent as a demon looking for a final key so that the demons can retake the universe. This is the story of his battle with the current Demon Knight, the protector of the key. Wonderfully crafted and dark.
The second movie, Bordello of Blood, is a more tongue-in-cheek T&A-fest and lacks the dark seriousness of the first. Lilith, the queen of all vampires, has been awakened. She can be controlled by a key (the one from the first movie). She has set up a bordello to lure victims to her hunger. Dennis Miller is his wise-cracking self as he portrays a down-and-out private investigator looking for a missing person.
It is nice not to have to flip the disk over or insert a new disk but there is no room for real extras (we do get the original trailers). Seeing the two films...
Devilish Double Feature
An entertaining double creature--er, that is, double feature inspired by TV's TALES FROM THE CRYPT (which was itself inspired by the identically titled, delightfully decadent EC Comics of the 1950s).
First on the bill is DEMON KNIGHT (1995). On the surface, this one's a typical tale of good-versus-evil, with a noble agent of Heaven working to protect mankind from an evil Demon who, with the help of his minions, seeks to throw a veil of darkness over the universe and oppress mankind in the process. Trite, yes, but a good script, a talented cast (including Billy Zane as the wonderfully smarmy Demon), and high production values raise this one a notch or two above the average morality play. The weakest element of the film is the Crypt-Keeper wraparound, which has too much of the TV show's cheesy feel (though it does feature an uncredited cameo by John Larroquette, whom hardcore genre fans know to be the opening narrator for 1974's original TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE). The...
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