Hawk the Slayer

Voltan is a "bad man™" who has sold his soul to the dark forces in exchange for power. With Voltan having killed his father, the only one that may be able to stop him is his own brother – Hawk (aka "The Slayer"). The Dark Lord knows this and conspires to draw Hawk into a final battle and thus defeat him. To achieve this Voltan kidnaps a nun and demands a ransom – bringing Hawk out to her aid. On his way to his battle with Voltan, Hawk meets with a small, varied group of warriors to help him in his quest.

This film takes us back to a dark time, a time of evil and madness; a time where great changes were occurring as the 1970's turned into the 1980's. It is in this time of great evil that Hawk the Slayer was thrust upon cinema audiences who endured great suffering as a result. Or maybe they didn't – maybe audiences then were a lot less fussy and ate this up but somehow I doubt it. The plot is a simple quest with the usual stuff with a group of men being formed to fight the forces of evil. So far so dull and even those who love this sort of stuff will struggle to care about the very basic plot. Attempts to create relationships and character tensions fall flat at every turn and what should have driven the bigger story just doesn't work.

Of course it doesn't help that the delivery is so very tacky. The synthesised music doesn't help as disco isn't really the music one imagines hearing when watching a swords & sorcery film; it is funny rather than atmospheric. The costumes are OK but the sets are basic and the crew are always on hand with lots of dry ice to help make it look like the forest sets have been recently hosting a rock concert. The cats are rubbish and generally wooden, although my pick of the crap goes to Palance's cry of remorse at the death of his son – it is the least emotional cry I think I've ever heard. Of course John Terry is just as bad, with his wooden delivery and regular slow motion horse riding. Bresslaw, Charleson, O'Farrell are all just as poor and it is hard at times to see the actors for the trees. Marcel directs without an idea of what he is trying to achieve – at times he is making a serious epic, others a disco adventure and then others a TV serial. The limits of the budget are obvious but not even that excuses the use of party silly string as a weapon and various other poor effect choices.

Overall then this is best summed up by the old cliché "so bad it is good" although that actually isn't really true in this case for the majority of viewers. The plot is obvious and lacking much in the way of effort or imagination. The acting is wooden and the effects are cheap while director Marcel shows us why the majority of his career since has been in UK television rather than cinema.

I need the music sound track for this movie but I don't know where to look for it, Can anyone help?

The sets are awful, the acting abysmal.John Terry looks petulant. I still enjoyed it, though. It is a good movie to watch, wasted, with your friends yelling at the TV. I look at this film and I can't think what caused these actors to be in it, it can't have gotten them that much money but I suppose there was a sort of notoriety. The music is great, though, cheesy and inspirational. I need it for when I'm doing heroic deeds and complicated tasks. It would be good to have to play when I enter a room or come running up the street.

I like Voltan but he does strike me as phenomenally stupid. He is terminally dedicated to EVIL. He doesn't seem to want things of do anything that isn't in the cause of EVIL. I would of thought his character would like power or perhaps just to survive.

They all have a great way with words, either whispering lines or shouting them. I enjoyed the emotional characterisation from John Terry. He almost acted.

Mediaval romp about two brothers locked in deadly combat till the end of time . This is an atmospheric sliced chunk of swords , fights , sandals and witchery . It is set in a strange land of swirling fog , somewhere in the mists of time , there a misfit crew of rebels rides through orange-skied outdoors . There a good warrior , Hawk the Slayer (John Terry) , struggles against his malevolant brother (Jack Palance) , to possess a magic sword with incredible powers . After seeing both , his dad (Ferdy Mayne) and sweetheart (Catriona McColl) die at the hands of his ruthless sibling Voltan, then Hawk the Slayer sets out in pursuit him and the chance to live up to his title . As Hawk leads the battle against Voltan to free the land from the forces of evil and avenge his loved ones . The group is formed by an elf , a giant , a dwarf , an one-armed man with a machine-crossbow (Bernard Brasslaw) and a witch (Patricia Quinn) , who can turn an useful trick or to , all of them attempt to bring peace and order. These peculiar weird crew of reservists rides at the shoulder of the heroic warrior Hawk the Slayer . This valiant hero wielding a "mind-sword" has great opponents , the first : the big Brother , Jack Palance, along with his bunch of minions and guards under his stiff command. The object of the motley team , kill each other . As an Abbess (Annette Crosbie) is kidnapped and the brave outfit has to free her .

This is a comic-book fantasy with thrills , fierce fights , noisy action and necromancy .There is a vein of satire to all this and and references to legions of darkness . It is full of cardboard castles , painted backdrops , matte-painting , sorcery , and gauze-infested woods . It is all so incredibly tacky that it almost works . Here Palance makes a great villain , he steals the show , though giving overacting . A varied cast , it stars John Terry as Hawk the Slayer , tooling himself up with the magic sword and he sets out for vendetta , recruiting a motley band of warriors formed by an Elf interpreted by Ray Charleson , a dwarf played by Peter Farrell , a giant acted by Bernard Bresslaw , along with an Abbess perfomed by Annette Crosbie , and a nun performed by Cheryl Campbell , the wonder of it is that this cast can deliver their lines without cracking up , though packing unbelievably some anticlimatic , inappropriate and ridiculous scenes . And a notorious support cast formed by prestigious secondaries making brief appearances as Harry Andrews , Derrick O'Connor , Warren Clarke , Patrick McGee , Peter Benson , Roy Kinnear, Barry Stokes , Ferdy Mayne , Shane Briant and Graham Stark.

It delivers an unusual and inadequate musical score by synthesizer composed by Harry Robertson who also wrote and produced. Being well photographed in wonderful outdoors by Paul Beeson , Disney usual . Being shot on location in Buckinghamshire , Black Park , Mansfield , England and Pinewood Studios .The motion picture was original but regularly directed by Terry Marcel , a craftsman who has made some decent films such as : ¨Prisoner of the Lost Universe¨ , ¨Jane and the Lost City¨ , ¨The Last Seduction II¨ and several TV episodes of series as ¨Heartbeat¨ , ¨Trainer¨ ,¨Dark Night¨ , ¨Robin Hood¨ , among others .Rating 5.5/10 . Passable and acceptable in spite of some very silly scenes .

This is one of those rare early 80's movies that I love. Everything about it is terrible and yet something about it is great!

It has the feel of a Saturday "matinee" and is certainly an entertaining piece of work (although far from a masterpiece). Essentially, this movie is a guilty pleasure. If had to choose between it or "The Beastmaster", I would certainly take Hawk the Slayer.

I recommend this movie as a must see! Although I am not blind and can certainly see all of the faults, I still love this movie.

I even sampled sound bites from this movie and created a dance mix! (Not for commercial purposes... just for fun). If interested, check out the messages boards as I have posted a link to the sound file there.

Some would say this film is one of the poorest ever made. They would be correct. However it is also one of the most amusing. Such classic moments as 'a bit falls off the set really obviously' and 'the baddies lair is a skanky old tent', and of course the cheesy sound effect/soundtrack make this a great movie, especially when drunk. To assist this, the Hawk the Slayer Unofficial Drinking Game is as follows: Drink when: Anyone says 'Hawk'; Anyone says 'Voltan'; Every time they show a picture for the backdrop instead of a real set; Every time they use the ridiculous electronic sound effect (first used at the start with the sword); Every time someone dies (can be limited to 3 drinks for a fight scene as its hard to keep count); Every time the crazy disco soundtrack starts up; Every time there are poor special effects; Every time there is a cheesy flashback Every time the top of the set is visible.

Enjoy!