Is This a Dagger Which I See Before Me?

“His blade cuts the soul but not the body.”

The Soul Killer’s dagger is one of the most powerful and awesome weapons ever created.  It is a dense, highly concentrated weapon of pure psychic energy that was fabricated out of thin air from the intense anger and hatred from the Soul Killer’s mind.  Its blade disrupts the flow of energy in a living body, and ultimately kills them, leaving only microscopic evidence of its presence.  Those who are gifted can see evidence of its work in a person’s aura as blue blood.

In reality, however, the dagger had to be created using real materials.  Bob Canode went to Burbank-based SWORD & THE STONE, operated by a blacksmith named Tony Swatton.  The place is decorated with suits of armor, tunics, bracelets, and weapons of all kinds.  They have a real-life Sword of Omens from the Thundercats TV show, as well as a real-life sword from the 80’s Filmation series, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.

Most props in the film were off the shelf, but Canode commissioned Tony to customize a dagger for the film.  Tony brought out this big book of historical daggers and they discussed the look of the dagger as well as the time period it was from.  The Soul Killer has been around for around 200 years, so we wanted the dagger to be historically accurate.

The hilt of the dagger was actually lifted from one of Keira Knightley’s daggers in PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN, which Tony’s company had worked on.  Since the dagger has its roots in the lush, green country of Ireland, he included a single green emerald stone.

The dagger was hefty and the point of the dagger was seriously sharp.  He had to sand it down to avoid any actor getting impaled on set.  There was no money to create a “stunt” dagger.  In fact, they couldn’t afford to buy the dagger out right as money was needed for the production.  Instead, the dagger was rented for the few days the crew was shooting, and returned back to The Sword & Stone.  The dagger was apparently loaned out in a couple other movies and TV series since SOUL KILLER.

Christopher Holt, one of the actors who played the Soul Killer, recommended to director Bob Canode that the dagger appear at the end of the film in the Shopkeeper’s shop, nestled among all the other objects – as if it was just one souvenir in a number of adventures.  The dagger also helped visually integrate Natalie to the shop and the shopkeeper’s legacy.

A couple years later, Bob Canode’s wife bought the dagger from SWORD & THE STONE, and now it proudly sits in their house, a cherished relic of the film.