PopHorror Let's Get Scared
After the mixed reception of his last film, Tone Deaf, Richard Bates Jr. (read our interview with him here) has rebounded strong with King Knight, his own film of self acceptance and embracing the art that drives oneself, even if others are telling you not to. Richard Bates Jr. has always had an off kilter series of films that aren’t always accessible or approachable to everyone. In fact, they often go out of their way to try to distance from the norm, but they are clearly the stories he wants to tell. King Knight shows him hitting a stride in himself and his filmmaking.
Synopsis for King Knight
This film is an outsider’s outsider comedy starring Matthew Gray Gubler and Angela Sarafyan as Thorn and Willow, husband-and-wife high priest and priestess of a coven of witches in a small California community. When Willow unearths a secret from Thorn’s past, their lives are thrown into turmoil in this kooky, clever treat, decked with a wild cast that includes Nelson Franklin, Johnny Pemberton, Barbara Crampton, Ray Wise, Andy Milonakis, and the voices of Aubrey Plaza and AnnaLynne McCord.
True to form, Richard Bates Jr. explores a story about outsiders. The coven, while seemingly united, still faces persecution inside and out, and RBJ touches on that. There are the extremely religious, trying to violently threaten Willow (Angela Sarafyan: Westworld) and Thorn (Matthew Gray Gubler: Criminal Minds) where they live, as well as the dysfunctional relationship between Thorn and his mother, played by the wonderful Barbara Crampton. Where past films like Excision deal with that alienation of youth, RBJ decides to flip the script and look at how that happens in adulthood in King Knight.
Matthew Gray Gubler is the focal point of the story as Thorn, the leader and high priest of the story’s coven. All of the members seem to function fairly well in society outside of the group. However, together is where they can let their freak flags fly and truly be themselves. When a secret is brought to light about Thorn’s past, he runs the risk of permanent exile from the one place he truly feels himself…
At this point, RBJ, a director well-versed mainly in horror—but no stranger to comedy—decides to use the genre to explore the hypocrisy that all of us must face as we grow. Are we locked into our past? Should we just stay as we are and go with what everyone else says we should? Should we ignore both and just move forward? Or is real growth finding a way to reconcile them all so we can face the future?
If you like movies like The Hangover but want a little more depth and personal growth in the characters, I would highly recommend King Knight. Richard Bates Jr. has made a weird, funny, yet deeply relatable film bolstered by an absolutely loaded cast of his regulars (and a few new faces!).
