History Film / Priest

[[redirect:Film/{{Priest2011}}]]

[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/priest2011_2013.jpg]]

A 2011 action film, [[InNameOnly very loosely based on]] the ''{{manhwa}}'' of the same name.

For most of recorded history, mankind was at war with a race of nocturnal predators known as vampires. While humanity possessed the advantage of technology, the vampires were faster, stronger, and at least as numerous as their human prey, and over centuries of conflict, humanity slowly lost ground against its ancient enemy. In order to avoid extinction, humanity retreated to heavily-fortified cities, living under the protection and guidance of the Church; meanwhile, the war against the vampires continued without end, eventually reducing much of the world to a blighted, radioactive wasteland. However, all this changed when the Church discovered a new weapon in their fight against the darkness: exceptional men and women with the physical prowess to defeat vampires in personal combat. Known only as "priests," these heroes allowed humanity to finally win the war against their blood-sucking foes.

In the years following the end of the war, the remaining vampires have been herded onto guarded reservations, while the priests have disappeared into obscurity, attempting to re-integrate into a society that really has no place for them. However, rumors still persist that the vampire menace has not been completely eradicated, despite the Church's attempts to quash them. And when one retired priest hears word that his niece has been kidnapped in a vampire raid, he will do whatever it takes to get her back, even if it means defying the will of the all-powerful Church....
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!!This film provides examples of:

* AfterTheEnd: As mentioned above, the world outside Cathedral City is a blasted wasteland, where {{Determined Homesteader}}s try to scratch out a meager living from the ruined earth. The occasional raids by rabid packs of vampires don't help, and neither do the Church's attempts to deny that such things even happen anymore.
* AlternateHistory
* AndShowItToYou: After one of the priests does a whole lot of fancy moves, Black Hat just rips his heart out with one move.
* AwesomenessByAnalysis: Part of what makes Priests so good against vampires is their intimate knowledge of vampire physiology, allowing them to predict where the vampires will move.
* BaddieFlattery: Black Hat complements Lucy's innate skill as she fruitlessly tries to stab him.
* BarehandedBladeBlock: Black Hat does this when Lucy attacks him with a kitchen knife. He's super-strong and it probably isn't that sharp, so it's better than most examples.
* BringIt: Black Hat to the other two Priests after [[AndShowItToYou he rips the heart out]] of their comrade.
* CelibateHero: All priests are required to take a vow of celibacy. This weighs particularly heavily on our hero the Priest (who was forced to leave behind the love of this life and his newborn daughter) and our heroine the Priestess (who clearly has feelings for the Priest).
* ChristianityIsCatholic
* CombatStilettos: The Priestess fights in boots with a solid three-inch heel on them.
* ConfusionFu: Vampires bounce around in a bizarre and unpredictable manner when they move, making it difficult for anyone without specialized training to get a solid hit on one.
* CoolTrain: Black Hat and his army of vampires ride around on one. Its design may be a ShoutOut to the cover of Diamond Head's [[http://revolverrecords.com/images/artist_images/covers/Diamond_Head_-_Am_I_Evil_-_WKFMXD92_%28alternative%29_%28600x600%29.jpg Am I Evil]].
* CorruptChurch: "To go against the church is to go against God." And that barely scratches the surface.
* CrapsackWorld: Pick your poison. You can live outside the cities, barely scratching out a living with little to no protection from bandits, not to mention possible vampire attacks. Or you can live in the cities, where massive clouds of soot have blocked out the sun, belief in God is mandatory, and disobedience is synonymous with heresy.
* CurbStompBattle: In the final duel between the Priest and Black Hat, the Priest is ''clearly'' outmatched. The only times he manages to get in anything even ''resembling'' a solid hit is when he catches Black Hat by surprise, and this provides at most a brief respite before the pummeling resumes.
** This basically happens to anyone that fights Black Hat, due to him being part priest and part vampire, combining the speed and strength of a vampire with the combat training of a priest.
** Also implied to have happened throughout the majority of the war between humans and vampires, as despite their technological advances the humans are continually outmatched by the vampires. The opening narration even says that even though humanity can move during the day and the vampires can't, it wasn't enough. The priests are the only things that save humanity from extinction.
* DecapitationPresentation: At the end of the movie, the Priest tosses a vampire head at the foot of the Monsignor. He is not pleased.
* {{Dhampyr}}: Black Hat, as a result of drinking the Queen's blood now has all the vampire's strengths and lacks the vulnerability to the sun.
* DissonantSerenity / SoundtrackDissonance: Black Hat 'conducts' the music playing on a gramaphone record while vampires tear apart the people of Jericho.
* DoesntLikeGuns: Priests eschew firearms in their fight against the vampires, preferring various forms of bladed weaponry instead (both melee and thrown). Why this is the case is never really made clear in the film, considering the Priest demonstrates in one scene that he's [[ImprobableAimingSkills a fantastic shot]]. It probably has something to do with how the priests' ill-defined vampire-slaying powers work.
* DoingInTheWizard: Religious trappings aside, the movie ''Priest'' contains no overtly supernatural occurrences of any kind; even the priests' various physics-defying stunts can be rationalized as low-level telekinesis or something similarly pseudoscientific. Conversely, in the original ''manhwa'', {{God}}'s existence is a given and the plot revolves around hunting down {{Fallen Angel}}s.
* DoomTroops: The soldiers in the cities wear this sort of armor. Not that it does any good against the Priest.
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: The Priest and the Priestess.
* EyelessFace: All the full blooded vampires lack eyes.
-->'''Black Hat''': The church teaches us that the eyes are the {{windows to the soul}}. And that since vampire evolved without eyes, it is a [[TheSoulless soulless creature]], to be eradicated. And I have seen the soul of the vampire, and let me tell you that it is far more pure than that of any man.
* FaceHeelTurn: The priest who would eventually become Black Hat.
* FacialMarkings: All priests are marked by a cross branded/tattooed in the center of their face.
* FanService: The way-too-brief shot of a shirtless Creator/PaulBettany.
* FantasticNatureReserve: For some reason, rather than wipe out the vampires, the Church built reservations for them to live in with only a few guards and low walls stopping them getting out.
* FollowTheLeader: A scene between Black Hat and Lucy is lifted directly from the first ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' movie.
* GaiasLament: The land outside the cities is made of desolate desert and the cities themselves are choked with pollution spewing out of factories.
* GiantMook: The vampire hive guardian.
* GreaterScopeVillain: While Black Hat is the one orchestrating the vampires' plan, he is still subservient to the Vampire Queen, who is never faced directly by the priests and is still alive and on the loose after Black Hat's apparent death.
* HeroicSacrifice: It ''looks'' like the Priestess is going to do this to destroy the vampire train. Turns out that she has the bike on auto-pilot and jumps off at the last second.
* InNameOnly: Apparently, the reason the adaptation was so loose was because director Scott Stewart was afraid people would accuse him of ripping off his previous film, ''Film/{{Legion}}'', which is also religious in nature, features sci-fi battles involving angels, and stars Paul Bettany.
* InTheHood: The standard priest outfit is a BadassLongcoat with a medieval monk-style hood. It makes for quite an imposing silhouette with the hood up.
* JumpPhysics: Priests are capable of leaping incredible distances, ''dropping'' incredible distances without being hurt, and ''boosting off thrown rocks in midair'' to get more height on a jump.
* JumpScare: The infamous "Don't Scream" scene at the end of almost every single commercial.
* KidSidekick: Sheriff Hicks. He's a bit older than most examples, but still significantly younger than the Priest.
* LudicrousGibs: Bloody chunks rain down on the Priestess as she stands in a post-asskicking stance after slicing up a biker in mid-air.
* LukeIAmYourFather: As it turns out, the Priest isn't Lucy's uncle after all. He fathered her with Shannon before being collected by the Church, and asked his brother Owen to play the part so that she'd have a father growing up.
* AManIsNotAVirgin: Played both ways as most priests get their powers at a young age and thus are taken in and raised by the Church, but some are late bloomers power-wise. All priests take a vow of celibacy, so the question is how old was said priest when he/she was found.
* MediumBlending: The backstory explaining the war is told in a drawn format, animated by GenndyTartakovsky, no less!
* NiceHat: Black Hat takes his sobriquet from the snazzy black cowboy hat he wears. [[spoiler:It's [[NeverFoundTheBody implied]] to be all that's left of him following the train explosion at the climax of the movie.]]
* NoNameGiven: None of the priests seem to have real names anymore; our hero and heroine are listed simply as Priest and Priestess in the credits, for example. Our main villain doesn't seem to have a name, either, and is listed simply as Black Hat. Of course, Black Hat ''is'' a former priest.
* OminousLatinChanting: Makes up most of the soundtrack.
* OhCrap: The Priest throws his shuriken-crosses at the Hive Guardian...and it doesn't die. Also the expression on the two other priests after Black Hat takes down the first priest in Jericho.
* OurVampiresAreDifferent: They're pale, slimy, eyeless humanoids that look like a cross between a naked mole rat and a Licker from ''Franchise/ResidentEvil''. Their social structure also resembles that of naked mole rats or bees.
** Also, they're a totally separate species from humans, with their bites only turning humans into the ghoul-like Familiars. Unless, like Black Hat, you're fed a queen's blood, in which case you become a hybrid "[[HalfHumanHybrid human vampire]]".
* PapaWolf: Invoked. Black Hat kidnapped Lucy so her father, the Priest, would come after her. [[BatmanGambit He was counting on the Priest's desire to protect her being so strong that he would forsake his vows to do it. In turn, the other Priests would be dispatched to apprehend him, leaving the city defenseless.]]
* PersonWithTheClothing: Black Hat.
* PunkPunk: Cathedral City is a CyberPunk {{dystopia}}, while the wastelands have a distinct DesertPunk aesthetic, invoking the WildWest setting of the original ''manhwa''.
* RewardedAsATraitorDeserves: Black Hat drains the SnakeOilSalesman and turns him into a Familiar as his 'compensation'.
* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: The Priest forsakes his vows to rescue Lucy, and the Priestess likewise had no apparent intention of arresting him as ordered. At the end, she mentions that the remaining Priests will join the fight no matter what the Church says.
* SequelHook: At the end of the film, the Priest points out to the assembled congregation that the ruined train contains the bodies of hundreds of vampires -- ''and that their queen isn't among them''. Later, the Priestess more or less states outright that the surviving priests will be gathering to continue the war, with or without the Church's help.
* SexyPriest: What did you expect with hot actors like Paul Bettany and Maggie Q?
* ShellShockedVeteran: Both the Priest and the Priestess exhibit signs of this, and it's implied to be a common problem among the surviving priests.
* ShootTheDog: The Priest knows fully well that Lucy may have been turned into a familiar by the vampires, and is prepared to end her suffering if that's the case. Hicks seems to have some trouble wrapping his head around this concept.
* ShoutOut / {{Expy}}: The vampires are nocturnal, gaunt, eyeless, wall-crawling feral beasts that build enormous hives, infect humans and have a queen... totally not a xenomorph knockoff.
** One could replace the opening cinematic with that of ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'' and not notice. Repeat after me, the Priests are ''[[BlatantLies not]]'' Grey Wardens...
* SnakeOilSalesman: An obvious nod to this trope is the man trying to sell holy water to ward off vampires even though there is no hint that it would do anything against them...until the sheriff shoots the bottle out of his hand.
* SteppingStonesInTheSky: When the Priest is fighting the hive guardian, the Priestess throws some rocks that he jumps on while they are still in the air to get close enough to slash its underside.
* SupernaturalGoldEyes : Black Hat has a lovely pair.
* SwordLimbo: The Priestess limbos under the blade of one bikers while grabbing a dropped blade.
* SycophanticServant: Familiars are ordinary humans who have been tainted by a vampire's bite. All the ones we see seem possessed of this mindset, though whether it's a side-effect of the conversion process or whether they've always been like that isn't made clear.
* TheTapeKnewYouWouldSayThat: Albeit a very simplistic one. In the confession booth scene, the monsignor's replies are vaguely relevant (vague enough to literally respond to any situation with the same few phrases) to the Priest's inquiries, presumably using a Turing program.
* TheTheocracy: Humanity lives under the authority of the Church though their control seems to be weaker outside of the cities.
* TraintopBattle: Between the Priest and Black Hat.
* TheUnfought: The vampire queen--or ''a'' vampire queen--is briefly glimpsed in Black Hat's flashback, but is still around and a major threat by the end.
* UngratefulBastard: Pretty much all of human society towards the Priests following the end of the war. The Priestess mentions that she had trouble finding a job after the war was over and eventually was working as a garbage collector.
* VampireHunter: The priests are written as such.
* VowOfCelibacy: The titular priests (who are more like warriors than priests as commonly understood, but are still associated with the Church) are required to be celibate. The main character left his lover and newborn daughter behind when he joined.
* WarriorMonk: Every priest.
* WeCanRuleTogether: During the climatic fight, Black Hat tries to convince the Priest to join him in serving the Queen. The Priest refuses.
* WeUsedToBeFriends: Black Hat used to be a priest that fought alongside the Priest before they were ambushed and he was dragged into the vampire hive.
* WrittenByTheWinners: Or in this case, Written By The Ones In Charge. If vampires have been defeated by the church, and they're a bunch of unclean blood-sucking abominations, why are they given places to stay and servants to keep them fed? And why does the Church use massive, pollution-spewing factories that blot out the sun even though they have hyper-efficient solar power generators? I mean, it's like the CorruptChurch is literally setting up an all-you-can-drain mortal buffet while keeping their followers completely unaware of what's going to--[[FridgeBrilliance wait a minute]]...
* TheWorfEffect: Priests are superhuman warriors specially trained to kill vampires. Black Hat demonstrates his personal prowess by taking down ''three'' of them by himself ([[OffscreenMomentOfAwesome two of them offscreen]]).
-->'''Hicks''': Killing three priests? What kind of vampire could do something like that?
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* InNameOnly: Apparently, the reason the adaptation was so loose was because director Scott Stewart was afraid people would accuse him of ripping off his previous film, ''{{Legion}}'', which is also religious in nature, features sci-fi battles involving angels, and stars Paul Bettany.

* WeUsedToBeFriends: Black Hat used to be a priest that fought alongside the Priest's before they were ambushed and he was dragged into the vampire hive.

* HeroKiller: Black Hat.

* BigBad: Black Hat is the one orchestrating the vampires' plan...

* GreaterScopeVillain: Black Hat is still subservient to the Vampire Queen, who is never faced directly by the priests and is still alive and on the loose after Black Hat's apparent death.

* FantasticNatureReserve: For some reason, rather than wipe out the vampires, the Church built reservations for them to live in with only a few walls and guard stopping them getting out.

* AnimationBump: The backstory explaining the war is told in a drawn format, animated by GenndyTartakovsky, no less!

* BringIt: Black Hat to the other two Priests after he rips the heart out of their comrade.

* SteppingStonesInTheSky: When the Priest is fighting hive guardian, the Priestess throws some rocks that he jumps on while they are still in the air to get close enough to slash its underside.

* SnakeOilSalesman: An obvious nod to this trope is the man trying to sell holy water to ward off vampires...until the sheriff shoots the bottle out of his hand.

* SnakeOilSalesman: An obvious nod to this trope is the man trying to sell a potion that will ward off vampires...until the sheriff shoots the bottle out of his hand.

* BiggerBad: Black Hat is still subservient to the Vampire Queen, who is never faced directly by the priests and is still alive and on the loose after Black Hat's apparent death.

** BiggerBad: ...but he's still subservient to the Vampire Queen, who is never faced directly by the priests and is still alive and on the loose after Black Hat's apparent death.

* PapaWolf: Invoked. Black Hat kidnapped Lucy so her father, the Priest, would come after her. He was counting on the Priest's desire to protect her being so strong that he would forsake his vows to do it. In turn, the other Priests would be dispatched to apprehend him, leaving the city defenseless.

* FacialMarkings: All priests are marked by a crucifix branded/tattooed in the center of their face.

* HeyItsThatGuy: The Priestess is [[{{Series/Nikita}} Nikita]], the Priest is [[TheDaVinciCode Silas]], Black Hat is [[TheLordOfTheRings Eomer]], the Salesman is [[TheLordOfTheRings Wormtongue]], and Monseignor Orelas is [[Film/StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry General Chang]].
** Alternately, Priest is [[{{Legion}} Michael]], Black Hat is [[Film/StarTrek Dr. [=McCoy=]]], the Salesman is [[Film/ChildsPlay Chucky]], and the Priestess is [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1268987/ High Priestess]].
*** Also, Owen and Hicks both have their own experiences with vampires. Owen is Bill from True Blood and Hicks is James from Twilight.