Poster
Watch

Hawk the Slayer

Hawk the Slayer

  • Status: Released
  • 27-08-1980
  • Runtime: 93 min
  • Score: 4.8
  • Vote count: 60

Hawk the Slayer, after seeing both his father and bride die at the hands of his malevolent brother, Voltan, sets out for revenge and the chance to live up to his title. Tooling himself up with the "mind-sword" and recruiting a motley band of warriors: a giant, a dwarf, a one-armed man with a machine-crossbow and an elf with the fastest bow in the land; Hawk leads the battle against Voltan to free the land from the forces of evil and avenge his loved ones.

Jack Palance

Voltan

John Terry

Hawk

Bernard Bresslaw

Gort, the Giant

Ray Charleson

Crow

Peter O'Farrell

Baldin

William Morgan Sheppard

Ranulf

Patricia Quinn

Sorceress

Cheryl Campbell

Sister Monica

Annette Crosbie

Abbess

Catriona MacColl

Eliane

Shane Briant

Drogo

Harry Andrews

High Abbot

Roy Kinnear

Innkeeper

Patrick Magee

Priest

Ferdy Mayne

Old Man

Graham Stark

Sparrow

Christopher Benjamin

Fitzwalter

Derrick O'Connor

Ralf

Warren Clarke

Scar

Declan Mulholland

Sped

Peter Benson

Black Wizard

Maurice Colbourne

Axe Man 1

Barry Stokes

Axe Man 2

Anthony Milner

Ferret

John J. Carney

Soldier

Robert Putt

1st Rough in Tavern

Mark Cooper

2nd Rough in Tavern

Stephen Rayne

Brother Peter

Ken Parry

Thomas

Lindsey Brook

Little Nun

Eddie Stacey

Chak

Jo England

1st Nun

Frankie Cosgrave

2nd Nun

Melissa Wiltsie

3rd Nun

Michael Crane

Drago Man

Ron Tarr

Blacksmith

Robert Rietti

Narrator (uncredited)

CinemaSerf

There were an whole slew of these fantasy adventures made in the late 1970s but this one has to be the weakest, despite the presence of Jack Palance as the half decent baddie "Voltan". He's a nasty piece of work who has killed both his dad and his brother's girlfriend and so unsurprisingly, his sibling "Hawk" (John Terry) is out for blood. That's not going to be easy as he will be facing overwhelming odds and more than a bit of magic, but he manages to assemble a disparate band of fellow freedom fighters and armed with a fellow who can fire a crossbow as if it were a Gatling gun, sets about wreaking his revenge. Palance is ham personified here, lumbering around in his big black cape wielding his huge great sword with all the finesse of a rhino stuck in treacle, but he is way ahead of just about everyone else in this poorly cast adventure. Bernard Bresslaw has the stature for the giant and at times seems engagingly suitable for the part but the rest of the gang seem to be concentrating way too much on the choreography of the tumbling fight scenes and the cues for the visual effects paints to really look like they are enjoying any of this. Sadly, that lack of enthusiasm is contagious as the story just falls to ignite. When the nuns arrive and don't give us a rendition of "How Do You Solve a Problem..." I figured the game was up. I like the genre and was prepared to cut this quite a bit of slack, but in the end it's over-scripted and low-budget fayre that's simply disappointing.