Priest
The movie opens on a group of Priests entering into a vampire hive, in black robes and crucifixes Tattooed on their foreheads and the bridges of their nose they enter in silently. They get to a central area in the hive and one Priest says "this is a trap" one of their order is sucked into the floor. As they race out one is grabbed by his eyeless fanged enemy, his compatriot tries to pull him free but the Vampire horde is too strong. The priest is dragged back into the hive as his friend screams in agony at his loss. But it seems when reinforcements are brought in the hive is cleaned out. The Priests are an effective weapon against the vampire, they turn the tide in the favor of humanity and the remaining vampires are rounded up and put onto reservations.
For their diligent work, the order of priests is disbanded their work done they are sent to acclimate back into society. But it is not easy, they have seen and done many horrific things in service of the church. The scene moves to a dusty wasteland, a man is digging into the earth taking readings. He and his wife speak as they head in side for dinner, the sky darkens and a young girl enters. Her and the older male(presumably her father) exchange words about her hanging out so late(and with whom, though she didn't mention his name) but the mother calls them to table for grace and the argument is ended as they hold hands.
The young girl begins the prayer "thank you oh heavenly father for what we are about to receive..." and there is a rumbling outside almost like an earthquake. The Man tells his wife to put his daughter downstairs and grabs a huge gun with which to fight off whatever is about to come knocking at his door. After lowering the young girl into this "safe room" she gives her one last loving look and says "No matter what you hear DON'T SCREAM". Next thing you hear is shots fired, bloodcurdling screams, him screaming the mothers name, him screaming in agony as more furniture and items break around him and then....
Silence
Heavy footfalls approach the trap door that hides the young girl from the vampire hordes that have just slaughtered her parents(or so you think) and opens the trap door, as a shadow passes over her, she screams in terror.
We are transported back to the city, a cloaked figure walks the streets and appears to be given berth by the crowd, a bell tolls in the distance it seems it is time to go to confession. The hooded figure waits his turn and steps into the metal box "Bless me father for I have sinned, it has been x days since my last confession". With his hood pulled back you see it is one of the Priests, after recounting a dream about his fallen brother the clergyman on the screen dismisses him with a few Hail Mary's and Our fathers and sends him home, dismissing this warrior who has fought so well for the church and it's causes. As he rides an elevator a small child curiously tries to talk to him, so innocent but the mother is terrified and tells him "We don't talk to priests". He approaches his door and presses a key into his lock, and immediately turns around and grabs a man by his throat and slams him against the wall
"who are you" he demands the look in the mans eye tells you he realizes how tenuously his life hangs in the balance and speaks "I'm the sheriff out in the wastelands, there has been a vampire attack, your brother told me where to find you", the priest drops him and in a blink is in his room. The sheriff recounts the story of the gruesome scene and says he is going after the young girl and with the skills just shown he would love to have the priest by his side. The Priest declines due to the decree of the church, but the next day he goes to see the clergy and recount the tale of the vampire attack in hopes of have his authority reinstated, the Monsignor seems unmoved by his story. Seemingly the beauty of the power of his office and the perfection of the bureaucracy has blinded him. He repeats the decree, it was no attack just strays the wastelands are a godless country, yadda yadda. The Priest leaves the presence of the clergy and meets a member of the hierarchy for a drink. This clergyman implores him not to do anything rash, the Priest explains to the clergy member that he plans to go after the young girl to which troops walk in with guns trained on him. The priest puts his hands behind his back gripping his rosary almost as if restraining himself by gods grace from doing anything rash, the clergy member implores him again to remain calm. The rosaries snap and beats down the poor soldiers like they are standing still, he returns to his home and prays for forgiveness for the sins he is about to commit while gather together his supplies. He arrives at his brothers home in the waste lands and looks around for clues of what transpired days before, behind him a gun cocks as a figure speaks of vandalizing a home so soon after the crime, upon seeing the priest he takes him to see his dieing brother. A quest is about to be undertaken and many will die
Priest is a different take on the vampire flick because in the beginning vampires are completely separate creatures there are humans and there are vampires. While vampires are strong like their more European versions, and have the weakness to sunlight they are eyeless creatures, who run on all fours, and seem to be feral in nature. The movie is set in what seems to be some sort of alternate realities apocalyptic future so there really aren't any "land mark" similarities to the current world, I mean there is a big clock in the center of town but it isn't like Big Ben it seems like it's part of a huge cathedral at the center of town.Supposedly priest is based on a manga/graphic novel which explains the frenzied action, scrunched in city and vast wasteland. The fighting is mostly fantasy martial arts, as the priests tend to have faster then human reflexes, there are a few "bullet time" effects, as well as lots of big explosions. Now I have YET to read the manga/graphic novel(but now I want to look it up even though I have never been a big manga reader that's Kitsune) so I may be giving it a whole lot of props when someone else might gig it for things taken out, this is not remotely a child safe movie. There is a lot of blood spilled, lots of gore, and some foul mouths(but not by the priests), these Warriors have no names as the main character is called Priest throughout the movie(and in the credits Maggie Q's character was called Priestess) so it seems the sacrifices given are an extreme of the vows taken by normal Catholic Priests. Paul Bettany plays the main priest this is another short cropped biblical style role for him after Legion so he is no virgin to the wire work required for the type of action in this movie.Karl Urban plays Black Hat, an interesting twist in the story and one that will give Priest and his order fits. Though I will warn you if you are looking for sound tracks in this movie forget it, it's basically a few Gothic style tunes and that's it.
Your landscape is basically the city, a few semi wild west styled towns, the prison like reservation, and the hive which is just what it sounds like a place where the vampires congregated to hide from the sunlight. Their vehicles and weapons(for the non priests) had a sort of steam punk quality to them, the priests all seemed to use martial arts weapons:Crosses that turn into throwin stars, a cross on the end of a whip, a cross that turned into a dagger the Sheriff mentioned the priests not using guns nothing was brought up about why(and as the Priest seemed to give him Vamp shooting lessons it seemed that projectile weapons weren't foreign to him) and while not in depth the story lightly delves into the nature of the order, Priests are selected by the church due to certain physical traits that they exhibit, they seem to be born with these abilities though they don't all manifest at the same age. I was drawn in by the trailer and not disappointed, it was a wild ride and well worth my 8 bucks
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