If you're looking for post-apocalyptic warfare between vampires and super-strong priest in a dark world of walled cities and space trains, then we present to you Priest, the latest supernatural action spectacular from the director and star of Legion.


The movie is an adaptation of the Korean comic series by Hyung Min-woo. It's set in a dystopian future, the end result of centuries of war between humans and feral vampires. Humans retreated into walled cities and were on the verge of extinction before the creation of the Priests, superpowered warriors who could match the strength and speed of the vampires. The movie picks up after the Priests won the war for humanity and, in doing so, left themselves with no clear purpose in the world.

That all changes when former priest Ivan Isaacs (Paul Bettany) defies church law to hunt down a band of vampire outlaws under the command of a fallen priest known as the Black Hat (Karl Urban). To do so, he teams up with a priestess (Maggie Q) and a sheriff (Cam Gigandet) in the post-apocalyptic wasteland whose girlfriend was kidnapped by the vampires.


The film is directed by Scott Stewart, who previously made the similarly post-apocalyptic, supernatural action horror Legion. Although it's vampires this time instead of angels, the movie has a similar feel: desolate desert vistas, huge action set pieces, and tons of gore. The movie was originally shot in 2D, but Stewart is overseeing a six-month conversion process to 3D that he says won't look anything like some of the rushed conversion jobs we've seen before. What we saw of the footage looked pretty good, and honestly we were surprised to hear it wasn't originally shot in 3D.

One of the most exciting parts of the new movie is its prologue, a traditionally animated sequence done by Samurai Jack and Clone Wars creator Genndy Tartakovsky. The opening sequence tells the entire alternate history of the human-vampire war through time, from the Crusades until right before the movie begins. The animation is easily the most violent work Tartakovsky has ever been able do, and Scott Stewart said he always conceived it as an opportunity to give him a canvas on which to work where he wouldn't have any restrictions on what he can do. Coolest of all, Stewart explained that they would be converting this prologue to 3D along with the rest of the movie.