Review of Knightriders (1981) by Lord Brion Bearclaw Of Gryphon Woods — 25 Jun 2008

There is a Society for Creative Anachronism legend about this movie that Romero was driving up I-79 through Pennsylvania in the New Castle/Butler area in August, and he happened to look over and see the SCA's annual Pennsic War, which can be seen from I-79.

Intrigued, he got off at the exit and made his way to the site at Cooper's Lake where he spent some time talking to the SCAdians and watching the battles taking place. Afterwards he headed home, with the visions of a medieval community in the modern world spinning in his head, and he quickly formulated a basic outline and brought Richard P.

Rubinstein (of Tales from the Darkside fame) and Stephen King onboard. He originally wanted to use horses, but the insurances to cover the animals was much higher than he could afford, so the idea to do the jousts on motorcycles was brought up.

Now understand that if this is true, that Romero obviously didn't research SCA armor that well, given that the characters (esp. King Billy) wear no neck protection i.e. gorgets at all, much less any type of armor to their legs and vulnerable kneecaps.