One of the pleasures of getting a driver’s license back in the day was the freedom of movement. No longer confined to a parent dropping me off, I could go at will to destinations of my choice. And that choice usually involved one of these three: fast food, movies, and the arcade.
This being the 1980s, at the confluence of the latter two was the video game adaptation of a movie which would pick key scenes from the film and gamify them, leading to some sort of climax before (again, ‘80s) replaying the exact same scenarios until your lives ran out. Of my two favorites, one was a groundbreaking epic of cyber science fiction whose set pieces translated well to the game format (Tron). The other was Krull.
Krull the video game was a lot like Krull the movie. They both had exciting points, boring points, good graphics (or special effects for the film), but in the end were derivative.
The movie appeared in 1983 in the middle of the sword and sorcery film boomlet. But instead of being a cheap exploitation film, Krull had a level of prestige. Major studio Columbia produced it, handing the director’s reigns to a major force of ‘60s and ‘70s action. While the leads were novices, the producers had high hopes for this film, giving it a mid-major budget.
The budget is important because part of the film’s uniqueness derives from its sets which feel truly otherworldly. The other part is its mixture of science fiction and fantasy, rarely done at this stage of the filmic genre.
Krull, as many great fantasy stories do, begins with a wedding. Here in a gleaming, high fantasy castle, Prince Colwyn (Ken Marshall) and Princess Lyssa (Lysette Anthony) are both tying the knot from love but also are uniting two kingdoms. This is necessary because an alien bad guy known only as The Beast (voiced by Trevor Martin) has landed his mountain-sized spaceship on the planet, threatening to take over and rule in a most monstrous way.
The Beast sends his soldiers, known as The Slayers, who dress in all plate and look similar to Battlestar Galactica’s Cylons, to break up the wedding and kidnap Lyssa, who The Beast, despite being a gigantic octopus-like creature, wants for his own bride. Colwyn sets out to save her, gathering together a group of thieves (led by character actor Alun Armstrong), a shapeshifting magician (David Battley), a gentle cyclops (Bernard Bresslaw), and a seer (Freddie Jones). Within the party, we also see young versions of Liam Neeson and Robbie Coltrane who always finds a way to make an audience laugh. Together, they must find a legendary weapon known as the Glaive, figure out how to get to the Black Fortress which moves daily, and save Lyssa before the monster has his way with her.
If this feels like you’ve heard this one before, well, plot is not Krull’s strength. However, the execution has some brilliant little touches.
Perhaps the most famous, as part of the movie and the game, is the Glaive. Arms bend off a smaller circular middle which end with blade ports where the knives spring out when needed. It’s thrown like a Frisbee and returns to its owner like a boomerang. It’s a highly original and wholly unforgettable weapon and probably the reason most even remember this film.
Despite having a career filled with tight action films like Bullitt and The Friends of Eddie Coyle, director Peter Yates is not at the top of his form here. Long portions of the film drag and the dialogue is repetitive. Yet set pieces like a web cave where an old witch lives and the Black Fortress itself make for great tension. Another highlight is the Fire Mares, extremely fast horses whose flaming hooves can make them fly. In real life, they used Clydesdales and their massive size adds to the wonder.
Still, watching this movie can be like playing the game. Go here, do that, repeat. The connective tissue isn’t as compelling as the muscle which makes it all feel disjointed.
The movie begins and ends with a prophecy: a king and queen will rule the world and their son will rule the galaxy. Like many films which promised sequels, Krull’s box office take wasn’t enough to justify it. But at least we got one glimpse of this world through two different media making for some legacy even if it’s just “cult film.”