Priest (2011 film)

Priest is a 2011 American action horror film directed by Scott Stewart and stars Paul Bettany as the title character.[2][3] It is loosely based on the Korean comic of the same name by Hyung Min-woo. In an alternate universe, humanity and vampires have warred for centuries. After the last Vampire War, a veteran Warrior Priest lives in obscurity until his niece (Lily Collins) is kidnapped by vampires.

Not to be confused with Priest (1994 film).
Priest
Theatrical release poster
Directed byScott Stewart
Produced byMichael DeLuca
Joshua Donen
Mitchell Peck
Written byCory Goodman
Based onPriest
by Min-Woo Hyung
StarringPaul Bettany
Karl Urban
Cam Gigandet
Maggie Q
Lily Collins
Stephen Moyer
Christopher Plummer
Music byChristopher Young
CinematographyDon Burgess
Edited byLisa Zeno Churgin
Production
company
Distributed byScreen Gems
Release date
  • May 13, 2011 (2011-05-13)
Running time
87 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$60 million
Box office$78.3 million[1]

The film was released on May 13, 2011. The film earned over $78 million at the box office against a $60 million production budget, but it was panned by critics, who praised the film's visual style and art direction while criticising the movie's use of genre clichés, writing, acting, editing and action scenes — although, some of its action scenes were praised.

Plot

The opening scene shows a group of elite vampire killers (known as priests) stalking vampires in some underground lair. At the moment the lead priest senses that it is a trap, vampires spring at them from all directions. The lead priest attempts to rescue a member of his team that is being dragged away by a vampire, but he is unable to save the man, who is then dragged away and lost to the rest of the team.

As the pre-credits are shown, a montage of animations are shown, as a narrator informs viewers of how the vampire-hunting priests came into existence. A centuries-long war between humans and vampires has devastated the planet's surface and led to a theocracy under an organization called The Church. They constructed giant walled cities to protect mankind and developed a group of elite warriors, the Priests, to turn the tide against the vampires. The majority of the vampires were killed, while the remainder were placed in reservations. With the war over, the Clergy disbanded the Priests. Outside the walled cities, some humans seek out a living, free from the totalitarian control of the Church.

Priest (Paul Bettany) is approached by Hicks (Cam Gigandet), the sheriff of Augustine, a free town. Priest learns that his brother and his wife, Shannon—Priest's girlfriend before he entered the priesthood—were mortally wounded in a vampire attack, and Priest's niece, Lucy (Lily Collins), was kidnapped. Hicks asks for Priest's help in rescuing Lucy. Priest asks the Clergy to reinstate his authority, but Church leader Monsignor Orelas (Christopher Plummer) does not believe the vampire story and refuses, not wanting to discourage the idea that the Church completely defeated the vampires for fear of compromising their authority over the city. Priest defiantly leaves the city and Orelas sends three Priests and a Priestess to bring him back.

Priest and Hicks arrive at Nightshade Reservation where humans called Familiars, people infected with a pathogen that makes them subservient to the vampires, live alongside a number of the surviving vampires. After a fierce battle, the pair discovers that most of the vampires have taken shelter in Sola Mira, a vampire hive where Priest lost several of his comrades during a major battle. Priestess (Maggie Q) joins them at Sola Mira, revealing a bond with Priest. The trio destroys a Hive Guardian vampire, then discover that the vampires have bred a new army and dug a tunnel out of the mountain towards a town called Jericho. The other three Priests have arrived at Jericho just as night falls and an armored train arrives, unleashing hundreds of vampires upon the population. The vampires are led by a powerful and mysterious human wearing a black hat (Karl Urban). When the three Priests reject Black Hat's offer to join him, he kills them all.

The next morning, Priest, Priestess and Hicks arrive in Jericho and discover the town empty and the three dead Priests crucified. Priest and Priestess share an intimate moment where she makes her move, hoping that now that Shannon has died, he would no longer feel bound to her. Priest, who is clearly not over Shannon, gently refuses. Priest realizes that the vampires have been using the trains to travel by day and attack the free towns by night, with the walled cities at the end of the train line. Hicks believes an attack on the cities would be unwise because of the sun, but Priest reveals that factories, producing massive clouds of smoke and ash, have permanently deprived the city of sunlight, so the vampire attack would be a slaughter.

Hicks threatens Priest, claiming he will shoot him unless he promises to let Lucy live whether she has been infected or not. (Priest had earlier revealed to Hicks, who is in love with Lucy, that if they discovered Lucy had been infected as a Familiar, he would kill her.) Hicks does not understand why Priest, who is basically a stranger to Lucy, cares so much about her. Priestess reveals that Lucy is actually Priest's daughter, and that his brother, Owen, stepped in as a husband and a father when Priest was taken by The Church.

While Priestess rushes ahead to plant a bomb on the railroad tracks, Priest and Hicks board the train to rescue Lucy. Battling vampires and Familiars, the two are finally overpowered by Black Hat just as they find Lucy. Black Hat is revealed as one of the Priests who was defeated in the final attack on Sola Mira and a close friend of Priest. After being captured, the vampire Queen gave him her blood, turning him into the first Vampire-Human hybrid who can survive the sun. As Priest fights Black Hat, Lucy discovers the truth about her parentage. Priestess battles several Familiars, finally placing the explosives on her motor bike and crashing it into the train engine. The explosion and subsequent derailment kills the vampires and engulfs Black Hat in fire, while Hicks, Priest, Priestess, and Lucy are able to escape.

Priest returns to the city and confronts Monsignor Orelas during Mass, telling him of the burnt train containing the vampires' bodies, but not the Queen's. He proves this by throwing a vampire head onto the floor and shocking everyone in the room. Orelas still refuses to believe him, declaring that the war is over, while Priest says that it is just beginning. Outside the city Priest meets Priestess, and she reveals that the other Priests have been notified and will meet them at a rendezvous point. Priest sets off into the sunset.

Cast

Production

The priests of our story are like Jedi knights. They have these supernatural abilities to fight vampires and they saved humanity before the movie even begins. Now, a generation later, society has moved on from war, and the priests are like pariahs. They're almost like Vietnam vets—they've been cast aside by society and they're now reviled and feared.

— Director Scott Stewart[3]

Priest is directed by Scott Stewart and written by Cory Goodman. The film is based on the supernatural horror and action Korean comics Priest by Min-Woo Hyung.

The project was first announced in March 2005 when the studio Screen Gems bought Goodman's spec script.[4] In January 2006, Andrew Douglas, who directed The Amityville Horror, was attached to direct Priest.[5] In June 2006, actor Gerard Butler entered negotiations to star as the title character, and filming was scheduled to start in Mexico on October 1, 2006.[6] Filming did not proceed and, by three years later, director Douglas had been replaced by Stewart,[7] while Butler had been replaced in the starring role by Paul Bettany.[8] Stewart and Bettany had previously worked together in the Screen Gems film Legion.

With a budget of $60 million,[9] filming began in August 2009 in Los Angeles, California,[10] and it concluded in November 2009.[11] The film was the most expensive production from Screen Gems, to that date,[9] and as of 2018 is still tied for third-most expensive, behind only Underworld: Awakening and Resident Evil: Retribution.

Tokyopop flew Min-Woo Hyung to where production was taking place so the comics' creator could visit the art department and discuss the film with Stewart. The film diverges from the comics in following a different timeline of events and adding elements of the sci-fi western, cyberpunk and post-apocalyptic science-fiction genres.[2][12] The director described Priest's vampires as not being human in origin, and humans bitten by vampires became familiars instead.[13] There are different forms of vampires, such as hive drones, guardians, and a queen. Since the vampires were intended to move quickly, they were fully computer-generated for the film. While vampires are harmed by sunlight in most lore, the film's vampires are instead photosensitive, being albino cave-dwellers. Stewart said, "They are the enemy we don't really understand, but we fought them for centuries. They are mysterious and alien, with their own culture. You sense that they think and communicate, but you don't really understand what they are saying." The director also called Priest a homage to The Searchers with the title character being similar to John Wayne's character and the vampires being similar to the Comanche.[14] The animated prologue for the film was created by American animator and director Genndy Tartakovsky.[15] The production team includes:[16]

Theatrical release

Priest was released in the United States and Canada on May 13, 2011.[1] The film's release date changed numerous times in 2010 and 2011.[17] It was originally scheduled for October 1, 2010,[11] but it moved earlier to August 27, 2010, to fill a weekend slot when another Screen Gems film, Resident Evil: Afterlife, was postponed.[18] When the filmmakers wanted to convert Priest from 2D to 3D, the film was newly scheduled for release on January 14, 2011.[19] It was delayed again to May 13, 2011, so the film could attract summertime audiences.[20] Priest was released outside the United States and Canada on May 6, 2011, in four markets. It grossed an estimated $5.6 million over the weekend, with "decent debuts" of $2.9 million in Russia and $1.8 million in Spain. It performed poorly in the United Kingdom with under $700,000.[21] The film was released in the United States and Canada on May 13, 2011, in 2,864 theaters with 2,006 having 3D screenings.[22] It grossed an estimated $14.5 million over the weekend, ranking fourth at the box office. Its performance was considered subpar compared to similar films in the Underworld series and Resident Evil series.[23] To date, Priest has grossed an estimated $76.5 million, of which $29.1 million was from North America.[1]

Critical reception

Priest was largely panned by critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 16% based on reviews from 92 critics and reports a rating average of 3.9 out of 10 with a consensus that "Priest is admittedly sleek and stylish, but those qualities are wasted on a dull, derivative blend of sci-fi, action, and horror clichés".[24] At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 41 based on 13 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[25] CinemaScore polls reported that the average grade audiences gave the film was a "C+" on an A+ to F scale.

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See also
  • Legion, a film also directed by Scott Stewart and starring Paul Bettany.
  • Vampire films, about vampires in cinema and other films featuring vampires.

References
  1. "Priest (2011)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved June 7, 2011.
  2. Solis, Jorge (Apr 22, 2011). "Previewing 'Priest': Exclusive Pics Plus Comments". FANGORIA. Archived from the original on June 14, 2012. Retrieved Oct 12, 2011.
  3. Marshall, Rick (August 24, 2010). "Why Post-Apocalyptic 'Priest' Won't Be Your Regular Vampire Story". MTV. Archived from the original on January 28, 2011.
  4. Laporte, Nicole (March 7, 2005). "Screen Gems stakes claim to 'Priest' pic". Variety. Archived from the original on January 25, 2011.
  5. "Douglas pulls 'Priest' horror". Variety. January 24, 2006. Archived from the original on January 25, 2011.
  6. Laporte, Nicole (June 25, 2006). "Screen Gems collars 'Priest'". Variety. Archived from the original on January 25, 2011.
  7. "'Psy-Ops' mission for 'Legion' director Scott Stewart". The Hollywood Reporter. October 14, 2009. Archived from the original on January 25, 2011.
  8. Kit, Borys (March 31, 2009). "Paul Bettany to battle vampires in 'Priest'". Reuters. Archived from the original on January 25, 2011.
  9. Kaufman, Amy (May 12, 2011). "Movie Projector: 'Priest' to flop, 'Bridesmaids' looks decent, but 'Thor' will pound both". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 12, 2011.
  10. "Two More Join Bettany's Priest". Empire. August 24, 2009. Archived from the original on January 25, 2011.
  11. "Priest Wraps Production in L.A." ShockTillYouDrop.com. November 23, 2009. Archived from the original on January 25, 2011.
  12. Gingold, Michael (May 13, 2011). "'Priest': Film Review". FANGORIA. Archived from the original on June 14, 2012. Retrieved Oct 12, 2011.
  13. Warmoth, Brian (January 28, 2010). "'Priest' Director Reveals His Vampires' Origins And Creator Min-Woo Hyung's Role In The Film". MTV. Archived from the original on January 25, 2011.
  14. Wax, Alyse (January 22, 2010). "Exclusive: Director Scott Stewart Talks 'Priest'". FEARnet. Archived from the original on January 28, 2011.
  15. Goellner, Caleb (March 7, 2011). "Genndy Tartakovsky's Animated 'Priest' Prologue Now Viewable on Mobile Phones". MTV.
  16. "Priest (2011)". IMDB. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
  17. Subers, Ray (April 23, 2010). "'Green Hornet' Adds 3D, Moves to 2011". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on January 28, 2011.
  18. Vejvoda, Jim (December 10, 2009). "Priest Takes RE4's Place". IGN. Archived from the original on January 28, 2011.
  19. Goellner, Caleb (February 5, 2010). "'Priest' Gets 3D Treatment, New Release Date". MTV. Archived from the original on January 28, 2011.
  20. Marnell, Blair (June 17, 2010). "'Priest' Pushed Back To Summer 2011". MTV. Archived from the original on January 28, 2011.
  21. Subers, Ray (May 10, 2011). "Around-the-World Roundup: 'Fast Five' Vanquishes 'Thor'". Box Office Mojo.
  22. Stewart, Andrew (May 13, 2011). "'Bridesmaids,' 'Priest' face tentpoles at B.O." Variety.
  23. Subers, Ray (May 15, 2011). "Weekend Report: 'Thor' Holds on to Throne, 'Bridesmaids' a Strong Second". Box Office Mojo.
  24. "Priest Movie Reviews". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved May 25, 2011.
  25. "Priest Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved May 25, 2011.
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