‘Tales From the Crypt: Demon Knight’: 10 Things You Didn’t Know
By Jeremy Dick
Image from Universal Pictures
6. Pet Sematary director Mary Lambert nearly made the movie.
When Tom Holland hopped off the Demon Knight train, Pumpkinhead scribe Mark Carducci got ahold of it to add his own ideas to the story. Unfortunately, he only wound up sitting on it for years, eventually letting it slip from his grasp and landing on the desk of Pet Sematary writer Mary Lambert.
As Lambert’s adaptation of the tragic Stephen King story was a huge hit with audiences, Lambert had a lot of sway on the story. She had some of her own ideas for the story, such as casting an African American actor as Brayker (the role played by William Sadler) as part of a plot where the those who are oppressed become the planet’s saviors.
For all intents and purposes, it seemed as if Lambert was going to move forward with Demon Knight based on her success with Pet Sematary. A twist came when she released the sequel Pet Sematary Two, which wound up bombing at the box office. She was no longer seen as an esteemed director, and was unable to get funding to do her version of the film, sending Demon Knight back in limbo.
Next: Things could have been much cheesier.