The marketing team working on Entertainment One’s upcoming fantasy comedy Knights of Badassdom have a truly unenviable job to do. Barring the atrocious amount of delays that the film has faced, which have put it more than two years away from its first trailers, Knights of Badassdom‘s nerd-bait story heavily features LARPing (live-action role-playing), which might sound like an appealing concept for a feature-length comedy to a grand total of five people.
And so, the first official poster for the film, which you can check out below, focuses more on the film’s star-studded cast than its unconventional storyline. Unfortunately, it also features eye-gouging misuse of Photoshop, cheap-looking fire effects and a completely cringe-worthy tagline. If you feel like lamenting the declining quality of movie posters, take a look below:
“Oof” would be an appropriate reaction. Though Knights of Badassdom features some terrific actors, from Ryan Kwanten (True Blood) to Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones) to Danny Pudi (Community), the poster comes across as infuriatingly lazy. It says nothing of value about the film’s plot, includes some poorly conceived cut-outs of actors from the film and just isn’t much fun to look at.
The poster also fails to mention the film’s fast-approaching release date, for reasons unfathomable to me. Entertainment One appears to have given up on finding a sizable audience for the film after delays interrupted a slew of trailers more than two years ago, and now they’re aiming for a quick limited release in theaters on January 21st (via TUGG), then a February 11th VOD release.
The official plot synopsis reads:
KNIGHTS OF BADASSDOM follows three best friends (Peter Dinklage, Steve Zahn and Ryan Kwanten) and dedicated LARPers (Live Action Role Players) as they take to the woods to reenact a dungeons and dragons-like scenario fresh out of the mythical Middle Ages. Trouble arises after they unwittingly conjure up some serious evil in the form of a blood-lusting Succubus, from the pits of hell.
Fantasy and reality collide on the Fields of Evermore in an all-out epic battle of make-believe wizards, demons and assorted mythical creatures. Their courage and friendship is put to the test as they attempt to vanquish the evil they have summoned. Will the group prove to simply be foam sword-wielding LARPers, or true “Knights of Badassdom?
Knights of Badassdom was directed by Joe Lynch (Wrong Turn 2: Dead Turn) from a script by first-timers Matt Wall & Kevin Dreyfuss. The film co-stars Summer Glau and Margarita Levieva.
Are you excited for this unconventional horror/fantasy/comedy hybrid, or does Knights of Badassdom look too bizarre to succeed? Sound off in the comments section!