By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 5 seconds ago

Every now and then, you get a movie description that sounds a bit like the setup to a bad joke. For example, let’s say someone tells you the following: “Jason Stackhouse, Frank Heffley, and Tyrion Lannister must team up with River Tam in order to save a bunch of cosplayers from a sexy lady.” You’re waiting for a punchline, right? There’s no punchline, though, because there’s no joke. There’s just Knights of Badassdom, arguably the weirdest and most underrated character actor collaboration of modern film.

This is a movie whose core cast includes Ryan Kwanten (Jason Stackhouse from True Blood), Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister from Game of Thrones), and Summer Glau (River Tam from Firefly), making Knights of Badassdom the rare collision of fantasy, sci-fi, and gothic horror. The resulting film is a strange brew that gets a bit better with each sip you take. Where else can you find demons, magic, and cosplay? If you just reflexively answered “in my porn search history,” you’re the perfect audience for this naughty, nerdy film now streaming for free on Tubi!

Roll For Initiative

The premise of Knights of Badassdom is that after an aspiring musician gets dumped by his girlfriend, his friends try to cheer him up by dragging him to a LARPing event. This is meant to be a lighthearted weekend of them dressing like medieval warriors and beating the crap out of other people using foam swords. However, when someone reads the wrong incantation, they accidentally cast a spell that summons a real-life succubus. Unless they can stop her, this deadly demon is going to have her own revenge on the nerds, one bloody kill at a time.

If the plot didn’t give you a clue, Knights of Badassdom is not a film that takes itself very seriously. That’s a good thing. By keeping everything light, director Joe Lynch (who would later direct the pitch-perfect horror movie, Mayhem) invites audiences to bask in the surreal spectacle of live-action role players. Everything is undeniably silly, but the LARPers are so unbearably earnest that it’s impossible not to love their increasingly stupid hijinks. Plus, real talk? If you’ve ever LARPed or simply attended a cosplaying event, every cringe character moment will seem far too familiar. Worry not, though, as Lynch’s movie is (almost) always laughing with you and not at you.

Looking For Group

The strongest aspect of Knights of Badassdom is its cast, which is surprisingly stacked for a low-budget, lo-fi horror flick. Ryan Kwanten is our lead actor, and he’s really just doing a variation on his character from True Blood: all heart and no brains. Fortunately, he has breezy, grinning affability that helps him win you over from his very first appearance. Speaking of not playing against type, Steve Zahn leans fully into the familiar role of air-headed chaos agent. However, Peter Dinklage is the film’s real secret weapon. The most popular Game of Thrones actor in a movie filled with swords and sorcery? Talk about a perfect combination!

Dinklage deserves special praise for fully embracing the zaniness of this wacky plot. From the outside looking in, it seemed like the Game of Thrones actor was really slumming it by being in this film. But instead of phoning in his performance, Dinklage brought the full weight of his considerable charisma to every scene. In the hands of lesser actors, Knights of Badassdom would descend into full farce. Dinklage fully commits to the chaos, though, and that helps lend the silly script the earnestness needed for us to really care about these characters.

Bringing The Summer Heat

With that being said, it’s arguably Summer Glau who really holds this movie together. While initially presented as an archetypal prize (the insanely hot super-dork), her character is refreshingly given plenty of agency and constantly steals scenes even better than Dinklage. Filmed about eight years after she dazzled in Firefly and Serenity, Glau was still fully in her niche as the geek next door to genre fans around the world. She’s so good in every scene, and it’s fair to say she is given more to do (as both actor and character) here than she was ever given in the sci-fi show that made her famous.

Knights of Badassdom is a movie that only does a few things, but it does them very well. For example, the cast is small, but that just gives each of our principal performers that much more time to shine. The movie is more intimate than epic, but that helps it achieve a perfectly cozy vibe (i.e., a movie to watch with buddies and beers). The special effects are modest, but that’s okay. The emphasis on practical effects elevates both the humor and the horror, and when we do get fancy effects, they’re usually worth the wait. 

For all of its killer casting and awesome ambition, Knights of Badassdom never really landed on most nerds’ radar. That’s a shame because this outwardly goofy movie is doing something very profound: it’s using the actors and tropes of genre storytelling to deconstruct that genre altogether. In a film whose heroes blend the mundane with the magical, this movie challenges audiences to find the call to adventure lurking within every corner of our shopworn, everyday lives. It’s obviously hard to deconstruct nerd culture without offending your target audience, so Knights of Badassdom was always destined to be a roll of the die. Fortunately, this cult classic landed a critical hit.

Care to roll the dice for your evening entertainment? You could do far worse than Knights of Badassdom, a movie featuring the people you see at nerd conventions doing the same thing you do at nerd conventions: dress like a weirdo and geek out with your fellow freaks. The movie is a celebration of its subject matter, and you will never find a more passionate (like, the sloppiest of sloppy kissing passionate) love letter to the entire genre. It’s streaming for free on Tubi, so you’re just one click away from watching an unforgettable fantasy adventure about bros, brotherhood, and battle.

KNIGHTS OF BADASSDOM SCORE

Or, you know, just one click away from staring at Summer Glau for an hour and a half. Either way, it’s the perfect way to spend your evening!