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.

Similar to the reputation Showgirls has received in the "its so bad its good" category, upon repeated viewing of this film you can only just marvel on how crap this film is. The acting is diabolical, the story is terrible and the special effects were done by the local primary school.

It is because it suffers from almost every cinematic angel it becomes entertaining to watch.

Kids will love it and adults will laugh at the semi-serious attempt in making a fantasy film with elves, dwarfs, giants (or rather the very large man from the carry on films) and a witch whose special powers include fire balls that look remarkably like ping pong balls painted in luminous colours.

As you watch this film, you will more than likely sit back and say, "This is so silly." Remember this is an 80's film. I remember first watching this film as a teenager and saying it was so cool. Well many moons later, I can see the aweful special effects, and the obvious mistakes made. The interesting things about "B" movies is that if actors know they are in one; it comes through in their acting. With this film, they try to act as seriously as possible, which makes it more believable. For people with a poor budget, they did quite well. The score is still some of the coolest music ever. It sets the tone for the film, and encompasses Hawk's mysterious nature.

As a regular film, it is aweful. As a "B" film, it does quite well. Cult classic.

This movie is a rare exception. After reading a lot of the reviews, I would have to say I agree with most of them. Yes, it does have bad acting, bad special effects, and bad directing but there is something about it (I can't quite put my finger on it) that makes it great!

I watch this movie every time I know it is going to be on. I guess I like what it tried to do more than what it actually did. I would honestly like to see a sequel (although too late now) done to this. They hinted toward it at the end but I guess it never came to fruition.

In summary, I would recommend seeing this movie. A rare film that is both great and bad at the same time.

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.