The Endless Flight into 70s and 80s Fantasy Films

[Rich H]

Yeah, post all the great (aka awful) fantasy films of the 70s and 80s here for some dude who will remain nameless who has never seen 'em before. Shocking I know!

Definitely can rate them and argue about which is best at being bad or... whatever.

*** *** ***

As Spaced brilliantly refered to this genre...

Bilbo Bagshot : I was like you once. Blond hair. Scraggly little beard. Childlike ears. Full of beans and spunk. I let my principles get in the way sometimes. I punched a bloke in the face once for saying "Hawk the Slayer" was rubbish.

Tim Bisley : Good for you.

Bilbo Bagshot : Yeah, thanks. But that's not the point, Tim. The point is I was defending the fantasy genre with terminal intensity, when what I should have said is "Dad, you're right, but let's give Krull a try and we'll discuss it later."

Source:





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Hawk the Slayer (1980) ⭐ 5.3 | Adventure, Fantasy

1h 30m | PG

m.imdb.com

The 'gunfight' between Crow and the human archer/grifter was my fave bit.

Plenty of others to suggest and I won't steel peoples' thunder by posting them all - just try and post one missing from those previously listed and then we can mop up at the end, yes?

 

[Endless Flight]

Great thread title!

 

[Gringnr]

 

[Gringnr]

 

[JAMUMU]

 

[Gringnr]

 

[Godfather Punk]

 

[Baulderstone]

View attachment 59390
View attachment 59391

That's a great gateway to the genre. I watched it a year ago, and it still held up. I first saw this shortly after picking up D&D, so this was exactly what I was looking for.

 

[Godfather Punk]

This one is really bad, like it's not a Fantasy but more some guys Rape Fantasy, despite how empowered the women in the trailer look.

 

[Godfather Punk]

This is late 90's but really captures that cheap and bad 80's vibe with crew in camera, bad acting, low budget effects...

 

[Skywalker]

There are so many in this genre worth mentioning. I will add Fire and Ice:

 

[Rich H]

Fire and Ice was brilliant. Love that film! Great call Skywalker.

 

[Skywalker]

Plus I had a massive crush on Teegra

 

[chuckdee]

Plus how can you go wrong with Frazetta?

 

[JAMUMU]

Recently one of my mates mentioned Marc Singer and another mate went, "Marc Singer, he was great! He must be like 70 now!" And another mate went " i bet his animals couldn't save him from us now!" and I was like "Singer was a lineage holding master of hung gar kung fu when he made Beastmaster, what do you think he's like as a 70 year old lineage-holding grandmaster of the hung?" and my mate was like "Aw ok we'll leave Marc Singer alone".

And this is why I've always love Marc Singer, Beastmaster, and all of his beasts. He could've knocked the fuck out of krull and rode Arnold into combat!

 

[Gringnr]

There was a 3rd Beastmaster movie, but I can't find a trailer.

 

[Gringnr]

There were 3 of the Deathstalker movies, I think.

 

[Gringnr]

 

[sharps54]

Nah, there are at least five Deathstalkers although they drop off rapidly after the first two. The second one is great as it is a spoof of the genre. Directed by the great Jim Wynorski of Chopping Mall fame.


edit to add I was wrong, only three sequels. The original is rapey but good as it has a lot more magic in it than many B movie sword & sorcery flicks.

 

[JAMUMU]

Man, watching all the Deathstalkers is like seeing all the hotwife porn beamed onto the back of your eyeballs, whether you want it or not!

 

[sharps54]

Wynorski had a rep for sleeping with, or trying to sleep with, his leading ladies. Famously Kelli Maroni (Chopping Mall) called him out on it. He went on to direct many other great exploitation films, B movies, soft core adult films (the Bare Wench Project films and Witches of Breastwick films are well known), direct to Sy Fy channel monster flicks, and some children’s movies like the Doggone series.

 

[JAMUMU]

Wynorski had a rep for sleeping with, or trying to sleep with, his leading ladies. Famously Kelli Maroni (Chopping Mall) called him out on it. He went on to direct many other great exploitation films, B movies, soft core adult films (the Bare Wench Project films and Witches of Breastwick films are well known), direct to Sy Fy channel monster flicks, and some children’s movies like the Doggone series.

Is ok. Jesus Franco is one of my personal film-directing heroes.

 

[sharps54]

Is ok. Jesus Franco is one of my personal film-directing heroes.

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Ha! A prominent and prolific film maker but an acquired taste. I haven’t seen all of Franco’s films but I hope to.

 

[JAMUMU]

Ha! A prominent and prolific film maker but an acquired taste. I haven’t seen all of Franco’s films but I hope to.

I remember when I used to work in a videotech boutique. This *incredibly* cute biker chick came in and asked for Vampyros Lesbos. Her girlfriend had asked for it. I told her it wasn't available in the UK, but if she came back the following week, just after closing, I'd see what I could do. She did come back, with maybe three rather hardcore looking female ladies, set to jump the rapist and pound him to death. I handed over the VHS pirate of Vampyros Lesbos to the chick from the week before, winked, and told them to enjoy.

 

[sharps54]

I remember when I used to work in a videotech boutique. This *incredibly* cute biker chick came in and asked for Vampyros Lesbos. Her girlfriend had asked for it. I told her it wasn't available in the UK, but if she came back the following week, just after closing, I'd see what I could do. She did come back, with maybe three rather hardcore looking female ladies, set to jump the rapist and pound him to death. I handed over the VHS pirate of Vampyros Lesbos to the chick from the week before, winked, and told them to enjoy.

What a great story!

 

[Kilted Rob]

Ironmaster


Yor:Hunter From the Future



Amazons


The WRrior and the Sorceress


Hundra

 

[Simon Hogwood]

"Internationally renowned bad boys of bodybuilding" cracks me up every time.

This is late 90's but really captures that cheap and bad 80's vibe with crew in camera, bad acting, low budget effects...

Occasionally I think about looking for this one - any redeeming features at all?

 

[chuckdee]

Recently one of my mates mentioned Marc Singer and another mate went, "Marc Singer, he was great! He must be like 70 now!" And another mate went " i bet his animals couldn't save him from us now!" and I was like "Singer was a lineage holding master of hung gar kung fu when he made Beastmaster, what do you think he's like as a 70 year old lineage-holding grandmaster of the hung?" and my mate was like "Aw ok we'll leave Marc Singer alone".

And this is why I've always love Marc Singer, Beastmaster, and all of his beasts. He could've knocked the fuck out of krull and rode Arnold into combat!

He was great in Highlander the TV series too... highly recommend that episode

Why haven't I seen Krull?

 

[Kilted Rob]

Gor


Outlaw of Gor

 

[Fenris-77]

I came to front The Barbarian Brothers, but I see my work has already been done. Excellent.

 

[Godfather Punk]

Occasionally I think about looking for this one - any redeeming features at all?

It's been over 15 years I saw this, but at the time I was glad the dvd set was only half a season so I didn't have to suffer it all.
I think the first episodes are on Youtube, so ...

 

[Nobohom]

Yor’s world?
He’s the man.

Not only have I seen the dubbed movie, I have also seen the original mini-series in Italian.
It was actually better!

 

[Rich H]

Why haven't I seen Krull?

Krull really could and should have been a lot better than what it actually ended up being. Had some nice little ideas in it and a great ensemble cast. If you genuinely haven't seen it (maybe your, "not seen Krull" was in reference to in not being mentioned yet on this thread though) then go watch it, I won't spoil anything for you here. It has a lot going for it and, done right, I really think we could have had another Star Wars* on our hands.

* I have typed that with a straight face, honest!

 

[Voros]

Honestly most of the S&S films of the 80s are terrible but as a lover of trash I still enjoy them. What I find drags a lot of them down is the poor pacing, a lot of them feel like watching bad softcore epics with all the sex removed.

Two that are definitely a cut above the rest are the aforementioned The Barbarians by Deodato, a surprisingly fun, well-paced romp. If more 80s S&S was as fun as this one, instead of tedious, then the 80s would have been as awesome as some claim it was.

Brescia's The Iron Warrior is another gem, a very low budget but inventive and dreamlike fantasy. As if Ed Wood decided to make Jodorwsky's Dune over the weekend on a budget that would be less than the catering budget of the Milius Conan film.

 

[chuckdee]

Krull really could and should have been a lot better than what it actually ended up being. Had some nice little ideas in it and a great ensemble cast. If you genuinely haven't seen it (maybe your, "not seen Krull" was in reference to in not being mentioned yet on this thread though) then go watch it, I won't spoil anything for you here. It has a lot going for it and, done right, I really think we could have had another Star Wars* on our hands.

* I have typed that with a straight face, honest!

I meant in this thread.

 

[Lofgeornost]

Does the inclusion of Ladyhawke mean we can mention good fantasy movies from the 1980s?

 

[chuckdee]

Does the inclusion of Ladyhawke mean we can mention good fantasy movies from the 1980s?

It says 70's and 80's fantasy movies in the title... not necessarily bad ones. And Fire and Ice was already mentioned, and that's a good one also.

EDIT: And going back to the top, I can see I didn't read the first post...

 

[Godfather Punk]

And here I was about to post the Dark Crystal.

 

[Rich H]

It says 70's and 80's fantasy movies in the title... not necessarily bad ones. And Fire and Ice was already mentioned, and that's a good one also.

EDIT: And going back to the top, I can see I didn't read the first post...

It genuinely doesn't matter - get 'em all posted, the Good Bad and Ugly! The more the merrier!

 

[Bunch]

Is this bad enough?