Crew
Director/Producer – Matthew Ninaber, Screenplay – Jeremy Ninaber & Matthew Ninaber, Photography – Brent Tremain, Music – Sean Croley, Visual Effects Supervisor – Prasanna Paul, Production Design – Ralph Ninaber. Production Company – Dread/High Rise Studio.
Cast
Jeremy Ninaber (Bhodie), Kirsten Kaster (Avalon), Matthew Ninaber (William/Invoker), Darcie Kaster (Priestess 1/Blood Demon), Robyn Thompson (Priestess 2), Shane Nicely (Keeper)
Plot
The knight Bhodie witnesses a mother and her daughter being burned at the stake. However, the daughter is not affected because of a prophecy about a red-haired woman. Bhodie pursues the daughter as she is taken by cultists, vowing to save her, only to see her sacrificed. His brother William stabs Bhodie, saying it is the only way that he will be able to follow the girl. Bhodie then finds himself in the realm of demons. He conducts a deal with a demon to release it in return for it giving Bhodie a talisman that will allow him to be endlessly resurrected after he is killed. In this other realm, he meets the red-haired woman Avalon. There they must attempt to gather three stones while fighting the witches and other demonic figures that guard them, all as Bhodie is tortured and constantly resurrected.
A Knight’s War comes from Canadian brothers Matthew and Jeremy Ninaber. Matthew has several parts as an actor, including playing the title role in P.G. (Psycho Goreman) (2020). Matthew has made three films previously as director/writer/producer with Election Day (2014), Transference: Escaper the Dark (2020) and Death Valley (2021). His younger brother Jeremy has appeared as an actor in all of these.
A Knight’s War starts out seeming like it is going to be one of a whole host of B-budgeted Epic Fantasy films that have been made since the 2000s. However, not long after the film starts in, there is quite a bit more to it than just another B-budget fantasy film. There is the whole premise where the knight (Jeremy Ninaber) must enter into a strange realm and undertake a quest that involves him being killed and resurrected multiple times. There are unusual scenes like Jeremy meeting with a demon figure who offers him a magic talisman that will allow him to be resurrected in return for him granting its release.
And the visuals are striking – figures in a bloody skin dragging Kirsten Kaster down into a bath of blood; the two witches who come wearing elaborate face masks. It is certainly a lot more visually captivating than the usual B-budget fantasy – almost as though Tarsem Singh had been unleashed on one of these B-budget fantasy films. The fight scenes are also quite a bit more bloody than you expect them to be for this type of film – at one point, we see Jeremy Ninaber suspended in mid-air as the skin on his back is peeled off.
I quite liked A Knight’s War. It has an original story and a strong dark character drive to it that makes it quite unlike anything else in the genre. To compare it to other Canadian fantasy films, this is what the disappointing Darken (2017) should have been.
Trailer here