Chelsea Lupkin

With films like the iconic Revenge of the Nerds, dark dramas like Goat, or most recently the blockbuster comedy Neighbors, it’s easy to imagine the potentially dangerous and unethical things that happen within fraternity life. Joe’s Smith’s Traitor Knight is no exception, yet sets itself apart by offering a unique peak behind the curtain of greek life’s inner workings with a critique of collegiate brotherhood that will give you chills. Paying homage to 12 Angry Men, this chamber piece sticks you in a room with fraternity brothers as they decide whether to prioritize protecting their own, or their house. So crack open a can of cheap beer, and tuck in – this is going to get intense.

Traitor Knight seduces you into the drama. Stacked with talent, the film stars Charlie McDermott (ABC’s The Middle), Jordan Christian Hearn (Inherent Vice), Tim Fox (Westworld), and Octavius J. Johnson (Sleepless) all of whom bring a poignant voice to a heated debate. Faced with finding an adequate scapegoat for a pledge’s task during rush gone wrong, the film uses the contained drama format of 12 Angry Men, a play turned film that inspired how the narrative would play out. Each character with their motivations, prejudices, and sympathies brings forth the conflict between self-preservation and loyalty within the ironclad, yet shockingly weak fraternity system. With the fate of the house and their college careers at stake, brother will turn on brother. 

Obeying the maxim “write what you know”, Smith based his characters on real people he knew and attended college with. Coming from an all-boys Catholic school, he was romanced by the fraternity, its institution and traditions. Quick to defend the Greek system, he was oblivious to, or intentionally ignorant of its shortcomings, he admits. Once removed from that culture, he was inspired to pinpoint what it was that made frat culture so rotten. “It couldn’t simply be that all these young men — kids, almost — wanted to constantly endanger themselves and others,” Smith contemplated. The goal of Traitor Knight was thus to depict why fraternity brothers would behave the way they did, especially in a moment of crisis like that in the film.  

“We wanted to provide an alternative, nuanced depiction of “frat boy” culture that didn’t trivialize or sensationalize the real problems these institutions present,” Smith explains further. “It’s a system of trade offs between protecting one’s institution, one’s friends, and oneself from threats both internal and external.” As Smith points out, the male-dominated institutions that these “frat boys” would often graduate into from Wall Street and Hollywood to the Catholic Church and the US Congress, their world is inherently political, contributing to how these young men would ultimately conduct themselves later in life.

So whether you’re a fan of Greek life or not, Traitor Knight forces you to question and feel uncomfortable about the unethical frat culture depicted in the film. It’s the filmmaker’s hope that anyone involved in fraternity culture will stop being complicit and work to change it.

Joe Smith is currently writing for Lethal Weapon (TV) on FOX as he prepares his feature directorial debut, Down Ballot, a dark political satire that takes place in Joe’s home state of Delaware and is based on true events.