''Royal Kill'' (also released under the title ''Ninja's Creed'') is a 2009 American psychological action thriller film directed by Babar Ahmed and starring

Eric Roberts Eric Anthony Roberts (born April 18, 1956) is an American actor. He has amassed more than 700 film and television credits since his debut in 1978, making him one of the most prolific English-speaking screen actors of all time. Roberts' career ...

and

Pat Morita Noriyuki "Pat" Morita (June 28, 1932 – November 24, 2005) was an American actor and comedian. He began his career as a stand-up comedian, before becoming known to television audiences for his recurring role as diner owner Matsuo "Arnold" Takah ...

, along with

Lalaine Lalaine Vergara-Paras (born June 3, 1987) is an American actress, singer-songwriter, and bassist. She is best known for her roles as Miranda Sanchez in ''Lizzie McGuire'', Abby Ramirez in '' You Wish!'', and Kate in the 1999 remake of '' Annie''. ...

and

professional wrestler Professional wrestling, often shortened to either pro wrestling or wrestling,The term "wrestling" is most often widely used to specifically refer to modern scripted professional wrestling, though it is also used to refer to real-life wrest ...

Gail Kim Gail Kim-Irvine (born February 20, 1977) is a Canadian-American retired professional wrestler. She is best known for her tenures in TNA Wrestling and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). In TNA, she was the inaugural and record setting seven-tim ...

. The film was released April 10, 2009 in theaters. The DVD release went by the name ''Ninja's Creed'' and went on sale July 20, 2010.

Plot

Jan (

) is a teenage girl living in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

Unbeknownst to her, the Skanji regime murdered the Kingdom of Samarza's royal family, therefore making her the remaining heir to the throne. A Samarzan warrior journeys to D.C. to bring Jan back to lead the Samarzan people and protect her from the Skanji assassin sent to eliminate her.

Cast

as Dad *

as Nadia *

as Jan *Alexander Wraith as Adam Arthavan *Jeannie Crist as Royal Maid *Nicole Brown as Andrea *Darren Kendrick as Neighbor *

James Yun James Carson Yun (born May 13, 1981) is an American professional wrestler and actor. He is best known for his tenures in World Championship Wrestling and World Wrestling Federation/World Wrestling Entertainment from 1999 to 2010, under the rin ...

as Cop #2 *Darren Paul Kendrick as Chess Buddy *Bobby Routh *

as Exhibition Manager

Notes

*This is

's last recorded role; he died in 2005 shortly after the completion of the film. *Professional wrestlers Gail Kim and James Yun, who both worked for

World Wrestling Entertainment World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is an American professional wrestling promotion. It is owned and operated by TKO Group Holdings, a majority-owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. A global integrated media and entertainment company, ...

at the time, made their movie debuts with this film.

Production

The film was shot in Washington, D.C. in 2005.

Viral video

On April 7, 2009, the producers of ''Royal Kill'' held an informal press conference with the film's director, lead actress, and composer. In addition, two supposed "experts" were present to discuss the

Nepalese royal massacre The Nepalese royal massacre occurred on the night of 1 June 2001, at the Narayanhiti Palace in Kathmandu, the residence of the House of Shah, the Shah dynasty, royal family of Nepal. During a private gathering of the royal family, Crown Princ ...

as the basis for the story. When the topic was brought up, a woman in the audience started to berate one of the experts before approaching her and slamming her head into a table. A brief fight ensued before the attacker was pulled away. She then hopped into a waiting car. Video of the incident was posted to

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and other internet video sites, eventually being viewed millions of times. Some suspected that it was staged. In fact, both women involved were professional wrestlers hired to do a stunt in hopes of attracting attention to the low-budget film. The attacker was noted wrestler

Shelly Martinez Shelly Leonor Martinez (born February 9, 1980) is an American model, actress, retired professional wrestler and valet. She is known for her work with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) on its ECW brand under the ring name Ariel and for Total ...

. A video later appeared showing the participants rehearsing and discussing the incident.

Release

''Royal Kill'' had a limited release in some

AMC Theatres AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. (doing business as AMC Theatres, originally an abbreviation for American Multi-Cinema; often referred to simply as AMC) is an American movie theater chain founded in Kansas City, Missouri, and now headquartered ...

in Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C. on April 10, 2009. It was one of the lowest-budgeted movies ever to play at AMC. After a successful first week in theaters, ''Royal Kills theatrical run was extended to a second and then a third week.

Reception

The film received primarily poor reviews. James Lasome of Horror Freak News called the movie "Fun, imaginative, and complex". However, most critics were not so enamored. Dan Zak, writing for ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'', called the film "essentially storyless" with "deliriously bad filmmaking" and wrote that the special effects "look like they were created in

Microsoft Paint Microsoft Paint (commonly known as MS Paint or simply Paint) is a simple raster graphics editor that has been included with all versions of Microsoft Windows. The program opens, modifies and saves image files in Windows bitmap (BMP), JPEG, GI ...

References

An in-depth look at Royal Kill

External links

* * *{{mojo title, id=royalkill, title=Royal Kill 2009 films 2009 action films Films shot in Washington (state) Ninja films 2000s English-language films American psychological thriller films American action thriller films 2000s American films Films scored by Kenneth Lampl English-language action films