Superhero movies from Marvel and DC dominate the box office, but horror hasn’t had the same success building shared universes. While The Conjuring Universe and the Dark Universe tried to create ongoing storylines for scary movies, one film thirty years ago really paved the way. It’s interesting that even though this movie did get a sequel, it didn’t continue the story from the first film. With Halloween here, it’s a great time to revisit this classic and imagine what could have been if a full universe had been built around it.
Released in 1995, Tales From The Crypt: Demon Knight brought the iconic Crypt Keeper to the big screen with an unexpectedly epic story. The film follows demons who have been trying for centuries to unleash darkness by collecting seven keys. Having already found six, they need just one more to achieve their sinister goal. But a lone man and a mismatched group of hotel guests are determined to stop them.
The success of Demon Knight wasn’t just due to its impressive cast – featuring strong performances from Billy Zane, William Sadler, Jada Pinkett Smith, Thomas Haden Church, and C.C.H. Pounder – but also its ambitious, sprawling story. The film centers around a key originating from the time of Jesus’s crucifixion, which passes between different people as they try to protect humanity. The ending cleverly sets up a potential sequel, shifting the key’s possession from Brayker (Sadler) to Jeryline (Pinkett-Smith) after the Collector (Zane) is defeated. Despite appearing in later films, the specific storyline introduced in Demon Knight was ultimately never explored further.
Demon Knight’s Failure To Launch
The first Tales From The Crypt movie wasn’t a big success in theaters. Despite a $12 million budget, it only earned a little over $21 million. However, that didn’t stop the studio from making two more films starring the Crypt Keeper. Tales From The Crypt: Bordello of Blood and Tales From The Crypt: Ritual continued the story beyond the original TV show, with Bordello even bringing back a character from the first movie. Ritual, released in 2002, marked the last time the Crypt Keeper appeared in a film.
There are many ways a sequel or spin-off to Demon Knight could go, and that’s the beauty of the original film. As long as the key remains central to the story, the characters can appear in almost any setting and face any challenge. The Evil Dead franchise demonstrates this well – recent installments like Evil Dead: Rise and the upcoming Evil Dead: Burn tell new stories connected to the Necronomicon without needing Ash Williams. The key’s power and the fate of the universe it holds could fuel a great horror franchise in any format – movies, TV, or comics. However, rights issues surrounding the franchise may make continuing the story very difficult.
Rights From The Crypt
I’ve been trying to rewatch Tales From The Crypt lately, and it’s surprisingly tricky! You can find Demon Knight on Peacock, which is great, but the original series is a real headache. It’s all down to complicated licensing issues that have been a problem for years, which is why it’s not on HBO Max. Honestly, the only way I’ve found to watch the classic episodes is by digging up the old DVDs or searching around on YouTube. It makes me wonder just how messy the rights situation is for Demon Knight itself – whether it can even be separated from the original series for streaming on its own.
It doesn’t look like we’ll get another official sequel to Demon Knight anytime soon, which is a shame because the story has so much potential. Hopefully, the legal problems with the Tales from the Crypt franchise will be resolved, allowing the story to continue – maybe even permanently laid to rest, like the Crypt Keeper himself.
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2025-10-28 21:44