- Directed by Adam Werth
- Written by Victor V Gelsomino, Adam Werth
- Stars Eric Roberts. Kervin Sorbo, Daniel Baldwin, Angie Everhart
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJis4skjVzY
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This had some good points with a good setting, bloody effects, and lots of good fight choreography. The problem was with an overly large cast, extra people there and throwing a line. That distracted from the main action in such a short movie. It was hit and miss, coming in on the side of miss.
Spoilery Synopsis
We are told about a war that disrupted the peace of Veroka. Monsters and beasts gained a foothold and threatened the people. Credits roll.
We cut to a band of robbers and thieves. A stranger named Sigurd comes into the group, and he wants to talk about “the bone devil” and a famous dagger. He tells a story, and we get a flashback…
A group of armored warriors go out into the woods to see what’s been terrorizing the countryside. The bone devil kills them all quickly except for one man who battles the demon one-on-one and loses pretty badly. Another man runs away in terror and reports to King Samuel, who throws him into the dungeon.
Mustafa brings up the topic of “The Lost Blades,” a rogue group of monster hunters that he could hire to rid the kingdom of their problem. He and Princess Sabine hate each other, and she doesn’t want to hire outsiders. We cut to them killing a minotaur and accepting their payment. They get into an elaborate bar fight before the King’s men find them.
On the way to see the king, they all stop to pray at the grave of one of the men’s children. We see that they’re a close-knit group.
In the castle, Matthias, Sigurd, and the others meet the king, along with Lord Suses and Captain Baldur. The king talks about killing the bone devil, who has been attacking local villagers.
We cut to Mustafa and Princess and Sabine as they harvest something from a captive monster.
The Lost Blades cut down a bunch of cultists who were planning on sacrificing a woman in the woods. Matthias berates his daughter, who jumped into a dangerous situation on her own. The victim that they rescued tears out one man’s heart and eats it before coming into camp; she’s clearly demon-possessed, and the men fight her. Sigurd eventually dispatches her.
The group meets up with the bone demo and there’s another fight; several more men die. They kill it far more easily than they expected and go back to the castle.
There’s a party at the castle, and Captain Baldur tells a story that everyone there finds really boring. Princess Sabine wants to duel with “John,” Mathias’s daughter, who pretends to be a man. They fight, and Joan/John wins. When Sabine tries to play dirty, she gets stabbed to death and dies. The king orders Baldur to throw them all into the dungeon.
In the dungeon, all the men complain that they had no idea that Joan was a girl, which was pretty obvious. A crowd assembles outside the jail, but Baldur talks them out of any vigilante stuff.
Meanwhile, Mustela works on his creature in his dungeon. The duchess comes in, and she blames him for getting the princess killed. He stabs her, but then the monster from his dungeon kills him. The horned Sleestak breaks out, kills the guards, and eats them.
Captain Baldur tells the king that there’s a monster loose in the castle. As the Lost Blades are released from jail, the bone demon, not dead, also makes an appearance. About a hundred characters die including the Mathias and the king. Princess Catriona is now Queen. Baldur and Catriona kill the dungeon beast together, but the bone devil escapes.
The remaining good guys track the bone demon out to the woods and finally manage to kill it, but Sigurd loses an eye. Nope- the monster gets back up and kills more of the hunters.
We cut back to Sigurd, telling the story around the campfire. He thinks the creature is probably dead, but he’s not sure. Sure enough, the creature jumps into the circle at that moment and kills most of the campers. Sigurd and the creature go one on one– end credits roll…
Brian’s Commentary
We almost skipped this one when we saw Kevin Sorbo getting top billing, but he’s really only got a small part here. We always like to see Eric Roberts, but his part is even smaller than Sorbo’s.
It’s clearly an homage to the sword and sorcery movies of the 80s, and it’s an ambitious attempt, but it’s hobbled by amateurish acting and direction. We’ve seen many films by Mahal Productions, and most of them are really good and entertaining, if maybe a bit on the low-budget side. Still, we found this one overloaded and tedious.
The cast here is far, far too large. There are scenes with dozens of characters, and it’s hard to know who’s actually important when there are so many people talking. Some of them are actors, and some are… I don’t even know. It’s a strange mix of well-known actors and people who may have visited a renaissance festival once.
Everyone seems to have a backstory and character profile, all of it melodramatic and drama-filled. It feels like a game of D & D played by junior high school students. This isn’t Game of Thrones, but I suspect the writer was trying to go for that level of complexity and depth.
The gargoyle-like bone devil and the minotaur look pretty cool, but the dungeon monster– not so much. The fight scenes are entertaining and nicely choreographed.
Overall, this was… kinda awful.
Kevin’s Commentary
The cast was large and cumbersome and really dragged everything down. There were some good points to it, but overall I didn’t enjoy this one too much.