Priest

In a bleak alternate reality, humans and night bloodsuckers have clashed for generations. After a long struggle known as the Vampire War, a battle-scarred Warrior Priest hides away among the protected communities ringed by church walls. When a vampire brood seizes the Priest's young niece, he abandons the strict rules that once bound him to seek her captors. He is joined by the niece's boyfriend, a hardened lawman patrolling a desolate frontier, and by a fallen Warrior Priestess who remains loyal to the old order. The team heads into ruined zones outside the fortified city, where faith, vengeance, and hard choices collide in brutal confrontations.

Directed by Scott Stewart, Priest adapts the graphic novel Priest by Min-Woo Hyung with a screenplay by Cory Goodman. The 2011 action fantasy arrived in theaters under Screen Gems and Sony Pictures, delivering a dark pitched blend of horror and western vibes, anchored by Paul Bettany in the title role and Karl Urban, Lily Collins, Maggie Q in key parts.

Worldwide box office totaled 84,154,026, against a 60 million budget, signaling modest commercial success for a high concept action fantasy. The release performed best in the United States and some international markets, reflecting curious interest in genre blends. It helped solidify Sony's appetite for genre hybrids at the time.

Priest is often cited among early 2010s genre hybrids for mixing vampire mythos with a Western frontier mood. Its stark visuals, armored heroes, and lean monster design gave fans a dependable template for crossover thrillers, and it still shows up in conversations about adaptation style and on screen mythmaking in fantasy action cinema.

Reviews were mixed, with praise aimed at the movie's production values and Paul Bettany as the stoic lead, while critics often criticized pacing and too familiar plotting. The story wrestles with duty and faith, the cost of violence, and the tension between protecting a community and breaking the rules to save a loved one. The film's treatment of faith and authority remains a talking point among fans and critics when comparing it to other supernatural thrillers.