Review of Knightriders (1981) by Stef B — 07 May 2009

By the end of the 1970s, George Romero had established himself as one of the preeminent directors of the horror genre, having made such groundbreaking films as Night of the Living Dead (1968), Martin (1977) and Dawn of the Dead (1978).

For his first film of the 1980s, Romero confounded expectations by delivering a lengthy, melancholic melodrama about a traveling group who stage Renaissance fairs in which they dress up as knights and joust on motorcycles.

It might be the best film on the subject of sixties countercultural idealism entering the Reagan era: the group is a living anachronism with a strong code of ethics modeled on King Arthur?s Camelot, and tensions spill over when a handful of the knights split from their king (Ed Harris) and ?sell out? to corporate show business.

Harris is superlative in his first leading role; the rest of the cast is made up of Romero?s stock troupe of players and they are all excellent, especially Tom Savini as the treacherous Morgan.