Priest (2011)

A priest disobeys church law to track down the vampires who kidnapped his niece.

Director:

Scott Stewart

Writers:

Cory Goodman, Min-Woo Hyung (graphic novel series "Priest")

Stars:

Paul Bettany, Cam Gigandet, Maggie Q

4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Paul Bettany	...	Priest
Karl Urban	...	Black Hat
Cam Gigandet	...	Hicks
Maggie Q	...	Priestess
Lily Collins	...	Lucy Pace
Brad Dourif	...	Salesman
Stephen Moyer	...	Owen Pace
Christopher Plummer	...	Monsignor Orelas
Alan Dale	...	Monsignor Chamberlain
Mädchen Amick	...	Shannon Pace
Jacob Hopkins	...	Boy
Dave Florek	...	Crocker
Joel Polinsky	...	Dr. Tomlin
Josh Wingate	...	Familiar
Jon Braver	...	Familiar

Storyline

PRIEST, a post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller, is set in an alternate world -- one ravaged by centuries of war between man and vampires. The story revolves around a legendary Warrior Priest from the last Vampire War who now lives in obscurity among the other downtrodden human inhabitants in walled-in dystopian cities ruled by the Church. When his niece is abducted by a murderous pack of vampires, Priest breaks his sacred vows to venture out on a quest to find her before they turn her into one of them. He is joined on his crusade by his daughter's boyfriend, a trigger-fingered young wasteland sheriff, and a former Warrior Priestess who possesses otherworldly fighting skills.

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Plot Keywords:

vampire | priest | church | warrior | sheriff | 

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Taglines:

Vampire Killer

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Genres:

Action | Fantasy | Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Certificate:

14A

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

13 May 2011 (Canada)

Also Known As:

Priest - El vengador

Filming Locations:

433 S Spring St, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$60,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$14,953,664 (USA) (13 May 2011)

Gross:

$29,136,626 (USA) (17 June 2011)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Screen Gems, Michael De Luca Productions, Stars Road Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

87 min

Sound Mix:

SDDS DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Gerard Butler and Steven Strait were originally cast.

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Goofs

In many scenes, the cross on Priest's face, which is supposed to be a tattoo, is wiped off from the end of his nose and reappears as a full cross. One of the most noticeable moments in a short time span is at the Nightshade Reservation. Priest has one of the familiars pinned to the ground and when the camera focuses on his face, the end of the cross has been wiped off. Camera switches back to the familiar who points to the sky and when Priest turns to face the sun, the cross is fully drawn on again.

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Quotes

Black Hat: [With an evil smirk] After all, if you're not committing sin... you're not having fun.

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Connections

Featured in Bad Movie Beatdown: Review of 2011 (2012)

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Soundtracks

Mozart III Sequentia: Dies irae (Requiem in D minor K. 626)
Written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (as W. A. Mozart)
Performed by Berliner Philharmoniker - Conductor Herbert von Karajan, Organ: Rudolf Scholz, Choir: Wiener Singverein, Chorus Master: Helmuth Froschauer
Courtesy of Deutsche Grammophon

User Reviews

Awful Script Sinks Vampire Hunters

Unlike the film vampires you are familiar with who are articulate, handsome, and philosophical, the vampires in Priest are savage animals, almost like feral wolves. Based on a series of graphic novels, the title Priest refers to an elite squad of vampire hunters who, working directly for the Catholic Church, battle vampires. According to the back story, humans and vampires have been in direct and bloody conflict throughout history. Due to the priest's successes, the humans finally won the war but then walled themselves up in a towering city now under the thumb of a theocratic Catholic government. There are confessional booths along the street which resemble public toilets.

The successful priest warriors were disbanded after the vampire wars and told to integrate with society and becomes regular civilians, something they do not excel at very well. Suddenly, a frontier farmhouse is attacked and the family's daughter is kidnapped by an alleged resurgent vampire horde. Coincidentally, the family is related to the most dangerous and skilled priest, Paul Bettany. Disobeying his elders who do not believe in the return of vampires, Bettany takes off on a quest to rescue his niece and is joined along the way by a sheriff, Cam Gigandet, who thinks he has what it takes to fight vampires, and a former priest colleague, Maggie Q, who provides Bettany's priest with the expected sexual temptation to break his priestly vows of celibacy.

Unfortunately, the film makers did not make the decision to construct a serious, action/western, vampire film. The director, Scott Charles Stuart, is primarily a visual effects artist and previously directed Legion, a better film also starring Paul Bettany. The dialogue in Priest is a surefire nominee for worst screenplay of the year with atrocious dialogue and direct theft from very similar genre movies. There are pieces of the Mad Max wasteland, the Underworld issue of cross breeds, the walled city of Judge Dredd, and the vampires resemble the 'things' from Pandorum. The actors do their best to muddle through their mundane and predictable conversations; Bettany and Maggie Q come across very well as vampire hunters and stalled lovers, but Gigandet as the sheriff is saddled with a horrible role, the worst dialogue, and awkward poses. The supporting cast mostly comes from HBO shows including Stephen Moyer from True Blood and Brad Dourif from Deadwood. Christopher Plummer also pops up as the main authoritarian priest but it makes you wonder what Plummer is doing in a film like this.

Overall, the 3D is not bad, it's pretty crisp actually. The fight scenes; however, are not up to par. There are too many cuts and edits to logically follow any particular fight with fluidity. You lose track of where the good guys and bad guys are and it usually becomes a jumbled mess until you finally see one of the bodies fall to the ground. An awful script, choppy action sequences, and direct thieving from superior genre films all lead me to persuade you to stay away from Priest.