Tales from the Crypt Presents: Demon Knight is a 1995 American black horror comedy film[1] directed by Ernest Dickerson from a screenplay by Mark Bishop, Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris.

It stars Billy Zane, William Sadler, Jada Pinkett, Brenda Bakke, C. C. H. Pounder, Dick Miller, and Thomas Haden Church.

Local drunk Uncle Willy takes him to a decommissioned church converted into a boarding house, where he rents a room and observes the residents: owner Irene, prostitute Cordelia, postal clerk Wally, and a convict on work release named Jeryline.

A cook named Roach arrives and informs the group about a theft attempt on his employer's car, unaware it was Brayker, and a suspicious Irene calls the sheriff.

Driven outside by the key-like artifact Brayker possesses, The Collector draws his own blood on the sand and produces a team of demonic creatures.

The artifact that Brayker holds is the last key needed to reclaim power; to protect it, God had a thief named Sirach fill it with the blood of Jesus Christ.

In the church attic, Irene and Bob discover that Wally was planning to attack the post office with a trunk full of weapons.

When he offers her a place at his side and prepares to take her heart as a trophy when she silently refuses, Jeryline confronts The Collector and spits blood from the key in his face, causing him to revert to his actual demon form before being destroyed.

After exchanging a glance in passing, the new Collector begins following on foot, whistling the theme song to the Tales from the Crypt television series.

Holland hired an FX team to do preliminary sketches,[8] but he ultimately went on to direct the box-office bomb Fatal Beauty (1987).

Next, the script wound up in the hands of Pumpkinhead screenwriter Mark Carducci, who sat on it for several years before it was given to Pet Sematary director Mary Lambert.

Lambert had some radical ideas for the script, including casting an African American as Brayker to create a theme that the oppressed people of Earth were also its saviors.

[10] David Kronke of the Los Angeles Times called the film "a direct-to-video affair" that was given a theatrical release based on the strength of the franchise.

"[12] Walter V. Addiego of the San Francisco Examiner called it "a slime-and-gore fest that offers little but a few outrageous sick jokes and the chance to make a mental list of all the horror movies from which it borrows".

In a post-credits scene, the Crypt Keeper announces a sequel titled Dead Easy: also known as Fat Tuesday, it was intended to be a New Orleans zombie romp planned to open the following Halloween.