Priest, a futuristic and distopic view of an alternate world run by warrior monks, who have walled humanity inside of fortified cities, and who must suppress an invading horde of vampires, is long on visuals. The film is directed by Scott Stewart (Legion) and is based on the Korean comic of the same name, which informs the engaging animated sequence at the start of the movie. Fast-paced action sequences and a muted color palate easily set the tone for the battle to the death between good and evil embodied by Priest (Paul Bettany) and Black Hat (Karl Urban) respectively.
As the story goes, Priest, joined by local sheriff (Cam Gigandet), must rescue a kidnapped girl and resist the invitation to join the vampire wagon train of the apocalypse. This simple plot steadily drives Priest, the Church and Black Hat to their date from hell. Black Hat’s character could have been developed further to better explain his motives, but Urban’s actor chops keep his character rolling with the punches.