Genre Character of the week: Prince Colwyn

For my birthday this year my friend Ron got me one of my favourite genre films from my childhood - Krull.  Directed by Peter Yates and featuring music by James Horner, I would have first seen this film on our local subscription movie channel - Superchannel, when I was about nine-years-old.  Although I can look back at it now as an intriguing mix of the Science Fiction and Fantasy genres, at the time I was mostly drawn to the main character (and this week's genre character) Prince Colwyn, played by Ken Marshall.

The film begins at this wedding, and would you know it (mild thirty-year-old spoiler here), things go horribly wrong, aliens attack, Colwyn's family is killed and his bride is kidnapped.

The rest of the movie focuses on his attempt to find and rescue her.

At age nine, I was impressed by his single-minded need to find his love, his amazing magical weapon, and the many friends he gathers, including thieves, wizards, shape shifters and cyclops(es?), to aid him in his quest.  Basically this was one of my first experiences with the heroic quest on film.

Of course I had already seen Star Wars, and although Willow would end up having a bigger effect on me throughout my life, Krull has always sat proudly as one of my favourite early experiences with Science Fantasy.

If you've never given it a try, it is definitely worth a viewing, and I promise if you find it isn't your cup of tea I will forgive you (eventually).

Bookmonkey's Top Five Overlooked Genre Films

Everyone has them, four or five movies from their childhood that are simply perfect, that represent some of the most creative genre stuff you've ever seen, and that have never been heard of by any of your friends. Of course they have flaws, but for whatever reason, you love 'em and you'd fight anyone who called them down.

So here we go, my top five overlooked genre films:

5. Beastmaster

First off, yes this film is an obvious knock off of Conan the Barbarian. The '80s seemed to be filled with sword and sorcery titles that ranged from clever ones like this to weaker ones like the Deathstalker films (although as a 13-year-old boy, there is a LOT to love in Deathstalker II). Beastmaster was actually popular enough to spawn multiple sequals and even a TV show (which yes, was an obvious knock off of Hercules and Xena). Basically you have a barbarian who can talk with the animals. Bad guys destroy his village and then he fights back. The premise is simple, the cheese factor is high, but the movie is definitely a classic.

4. Rockula

I'll be honest, a big part of why this film is on the list is my wife - she totally loves this movie and is completely frustrated by the fact that it's not available on DVD. The only version we have available is on a Betamax Cassette. Basically this film pairs up vampire films with rock 'n roll musicals, and the result is pretty great. The movie takes a pretty standard story - Guy (Ralph) meets girl, guy turns out to be vampire/rock 'n roll star, both guy and girl are part of a curse that involves a pirate and a murder with a ham bone - and then takes the story in a new direction. The music is pretty great and there is a stand-out performance by Toni Basil as the Vampire's mother.

3. The Monster Squad

This movie simply rocks. Take a group of small-town kids and pit them against some of the scariest monsters from Universal pictures - Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, The Mummy, The Wolf Man, and even The Creature from the Black Lagoon (who was sadly lacking from Van Helsing). The kids are all late Elementary / early Junior High (Middle School) age, and as their town begins to fall under the control of these monsters, they fight back in a number of very clever way - rather than going for the cute but over-the-top, Home Alone approach, these kids came across as realistic and relatable. Plus, I do owe my favourite movie line from the '80s to this film - Wolf Mans got Nards!?!

2. Dreamscape

Imagine psychics who can enter your dreams and kill you there - kind of like Freddy Krueger, but with government funding behind them. The film focuses on Alex, played by Dennis Quaid, who is forced to join a university project which is working on giving people the ability to enter the dreams of others. Alex is gifted at this, and eventually finds out that the funding behind the project comes from an agency who wants the subjects to become assassins. The dream imagery for this film is fantastic, and the action is pretty darn great.

1. Krull

Seriously, if you haven't seen Krull - I don't even know what to say. It's great, it is one of the best examples of Science Fantasy I've ever seen on film. I want to talk more about it, but if you haven't seen it, I'll just have to wait. Go. See it. NOW!