Hawk the Slayer

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
"I am no messenger, but I will give you a message. The message of death!"
—Drogo

Hawk the Slayer is a fine piece of nonsense set in the world of Dungeons and Dragons-inspired fantasy, a place where longswords, short bows and daggers are swiftly drawn, leather, chainmail and a kind of cloth notable only for its brown-ness remain fashionable and there's always an evil one roaming about. The evil one in this adventure is Voltan (Jack Palance), who's so very evil on account of him bearing a scar on his face that, as we're told by a mysterious figure who lives within a mountain, will not heal. Quite whether the scar came before the willingness to do evil isn't something that Hawk The Slayer makes clear but he is quickly doing all manner of terrible things, all of which seem to involve murder. Indeed, the film opens with Voltan murdering his own father as well as the woman intended to be the wife of his brother.

That brother is Hawk (John Terry), who arrives too late to save his father but in time to hear the prophecy that he had been guarding and which had seen him slain by his own son. As he dies, Hawk's father gives him a magical sword but it is one that Voltan had desired and the two are set on a path that will see them face one another in battle. When Voltan breaks into a convent and kidnaps the Mother Superior. A guy with an automatic crossbow seeks a hero. Finding none, he ends up finding Hawk. Hawk comes to the rescue of the Sisters of the Holy Word, promising not only that he will raise the two thousand pieces of gold but will defeat Voltan. Carrying his sword before him, Hawk sets out to gather a band of warriors...

They're making a sequel.[when?]

Tropes used in Hawk the Slayer include:

Voltan: "See how it glows!"

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