S3E7: The Real Demon Knight

The How NOT To Make A Movie Podcast

Next year, in January, horror movie fans will celebrate the 30^th ANIVERSARY of the movie TALES FROM THE CRYPT PRESENTS DEMON KNIGHT. The movie succeeded because it had a great script by CY VORIS and ETHAN REIFF (who also wrote KUNG FU PANDA). ERNEST DICKERSON brought both remarkable skills as a director and cinematographer, and a deep down love of horror movies. This podcast has focused on the second Crypt feature BORDELLO OF BLOOD. But there are a few UNTOLD STORIES about the first Crypt feature, DEMON KNIGHT, too!

Some pretty juicy ones! Like how Gil and Alan unceremoniously fired Cy and Ethan off the movie. Now, in our defense, part of our obligation was to “Cryptify” the script. We never really expected Cy and Ethan to do that. And we never expected them to understand why. But, a conversation would have smoothed a lot of ruffled feathers back then.

Those feathers might have remained ruffled, but they’d have had a fuller context in which to be ruffled.

So, yeah… we fired Cy and Ethan.

In S3E8, the next episode of this podcast, we’ll give Cy and Ethan the chance – finally – to tell us – to our faces – what that felt like and what they thought of it.

And us.

Gulp!

But, that’s next episode. In this one, we’ll hear Ernest’s side of this crazy story – as a prelude.

We’ll also talk to Ernest about the rest of his considerable oeuvre. Before he became a highly respected director of film and television, Ernest was a highly respected director of photography. He DP’d lots of Spike Lee’s early movies – like SHE’S GOTTA HAVE IT, DO THE RIGHT THING, JUNGLE FEVER and MALCOLM X.

While Bill Sadler (one of our favorite actors) plays the actual “Demon Knight” in making the movie, Ernest was, in many ways, the movie’s real Demon Knight – going to war to protect his vision like it was the blood inside Brayker’s artifact.

And, we’re so glad he was!