What the hell is a Krull?
Is it the name of the hero? Nope.
Is it the name of the villain? Nuh-uh.
Is it the name of something that everyone is after, like a magic sword or an amulet or some other horseshit like that? Negative.
Krull is the name of the world in which these characters live, fight, die and say things like “Would you follow a king to the black fortress?”. This movie is named after a place, like Casablanca or Manhattan. It’s a portrait of a setting and what’s unique about it—and one of the unique things about Krull is there’s an evil monster from space who rules over an army of metal-clad freakozaoids who ride horses and shoot people with laser guns.
This means war and the bad guys get the upper hand in a big way early in the story when they crash a royal wedding and slaughter everyone except for the newlywed princess, whom they kidnap, and the prince, who survives so that the rest of the movie can happen. This means a journey across treacherous land to save the princess and slay the monster. You know the drill. This movie has the same plot as an old Nintendo game and as is about as action-packed.
We’re talkin’ perfect 80s junk that pounds you silly with a big orchestral score (by James Horner) and hits every beat of The Hero’s Journey template with the same unsubtle precision as Star Wars. It’s big and it’s loud, but it’s also unpretentious. It wants to be liked and it works hard for it.
It’s one of the more imaginative looking fantasy films of the time. The sets and costumes are nearly as wild as Flash Gordon and Dune. All of the money that the producers saved on the cast of character-actors and young unknowns clearly went straight into the production. There’s that great smoggy, almost sepia-tone swamp. And who could forget the old crone’s mountain hideout covered in outrageous webs and where a giant Harryhausen-style stop-motion spider lurks? And how about the inside of the alien castle that suggests that it’s made out of a huge skeleton?
I guess I can see why they named this one Krull. The setting is the star.
Director Peter Yates had a strong background in acclaimed action and crime films and this was his first mega-budget effects flick. It was also his last mega-budget effects flick because it bombed in the summer of 1983. Today, it’s a film that’s followed the path of a lot of 80s cult items. It got no respect when it came out, but won over some people through cable and home video and now is one of those films that deep-diggers of the 80s discover and enjoy.
When did this fun collision of medieval fantasy and sci-fi, where swords and magic meet laser guns and aliens, go out of fashion in movies? And why?