Dragonslayer (1981) August 26th, 2024

There exists a finite number of great fantasy films made before CGI turned Hollywood into a green-screen-nightmare. These technological terrors constructed an ecosystem unable to sustain the talents and skills of practical effects craftsmen. Relegating their craft to the same obsolete fate of the film developer and VCR Mechanic.

Stop-motion animation, matte-painting composites, and even corn syrup blood aren’t completely missing from our modern world, but they’re not filling theaters across the Great Plains like the mechanical buffalos from Dances with Wolves used to. This scarcity makes finding a masterful practical-effects fantasy film feel like stumbling upon a flock of dodos. In order to appreciate their rarity, we must savor their delicious meat.

With a script reading like someone used a find-and-replace feature on Star Wars to swap ‘Space’ with ‘Magic’, Dragonslayer‘s story reflects the rest of the film as a powerful example of how much you can achieve by executing the basics to perfection. Dragonslayer‘s high quality sets, picturesque locations, and special effects are on par with contemporary fantasy films like Excalibur and Time Bandits, but the use of basic camera techniques set it apart. In a scene where a virgin is sacrificed to the monstrous dragon, the camera comes alive turning a predictable fantasy sequence into a tense masterclass in basics. Push, tilt, dolly, pan, truck, track, these simple camera moves turn predictable scenes we’ve all seen done to death into unforgettably tense moments.

There’s enough practical effects wizardry in Dragonslayer to write a capstone thesis, but I’ll save you the time and highlight my favorites. The dragon’s lair uses some sort of controlled gas release system to create a seamless ‘lake of fire’ effect giving the location a diagetic light source that justifies how we can see our characters without sunlight and contributes to the uneasy feeling of the cave. There are multiple shots where Peter MacNicol has premonitions while gazing into pools of water, reflected projections or otherwise superimposed images on the surface perfectly convey the information of the vision while maintaining the real-world feel of ripples disrupting his own reflection. The most amazing is a single shot showing the dragon Vermithrax Pejorative’s full body charging through the cave directly towards camera. The special features explain this shot was accomplished using a technique pairing stop motion animation and computer programed animatronics to achieve a more realistic motion blur unachievable in traditional stop motion.

Dragonslayer is both a phenomenally fun movie to watch and study with high rewatchability. It’s perfect if you’re in the mood for high fantasy, adventure, early 80s nostalgia, or high quality practical effects. There’s also a brief shot of boobs.