Remember Krull? The sci-fi/fantasy movie, which came out 25 years ago this summer, is probably in nobody’s pantheon of great genre films, yet people remember it vividly. Despite its ho-hum kidnapped-princess plot and its wispy leading man (Ken Marshall, who also starred in a mini-series around the same time about Marco Polo), Krull had visual imagination to spare, including its sequences of flame-hoofed horses and a particularly scary pre-LOTR segment with a giant spider. If you’re of a certain age (as I am), you probably have fond memories of whiling away many a weekend afternoon watching genre cheese like this on HBO.
Over at The House Next Door, the group bloggers (including my friend and former EW.commer Justine Elias) have been having a tremendously entertaining discussion about Krull, in all its glories and shortcomings, complete with illustrative YouTube clips. Check it out and savor it; after all, as one blogger notes, Krull is the kind of sci-fi/fantasy film that Hollywood simply wouldn’t make today, mainly because it’s not based on a pre-sold property like a bestselling novel or a videogame. Oh, and enjoy the Krull trailer below, and please share with your fellow PopWatchers your own memories of Krull (or movies like it) that you watched during your geeky, misspent youth.
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I remember Krull, but not the movie – rather this exact trailer. It was playing incessantly as I recall back in the early 80’s (way in advance of the movie’s actual premiere). That leads to an interesting question – which movies do you remember more due to their trailers than the movie itself? The other option for me would be, in this same period, My Favorite Year. Never saw it, but I swore I saw the trailer a good 20-30 times.
I remember the weapon he used.
Not knowing any better, I actually went to see KRULL in the theater that summer when I was 16 years-old. Even then, I thought it was lame. Today, it’s hard to believe that this sci-fi dud came from director Peter Yates, who also directed BULLITT, THE DEEP, BREAKING AWAY and THE DRESSER. I guess even the most talented directors are entitled to at least one f*ck-up in their lives.
JJ, you should see MY FAVORITE YEAR (1982). Very funny movie.
I thought Krull was a great B movie.
Wouldn’t be surprised if it gets remade (like everything else is these days) after all this was BCGI
I thought I was the only one who remebered this movie. Gary I remember watching this on HBO about 2 dozen times when I was a kid. Even then I remember thinking “this movie isn’t that great, yet I can’t look away”(kinda like I-Robot repeats on FX). Thanks for the reminder.
I remember this movie. The only thing remotely cool was the Glaive the Hero used, and it seemed like it didn’t work until the end of movie. Oh and I cried when the cyclops got crushed holding the door for the heroes. I was 6–back off!
I loooove Krull! I had the comic book version (and read it countless times) before I FINALLY saw the movie a few yrs ago. I love it (I’ve got the special edition DVD with extras)
My lil’ sis and her fiance wrote their wedding invitations as they watched Krull, and my future brother in-law said he respected me more because I had the Krull comic book. A TRUE CLASSIC!
Wow completley forgot about this movie! I remember staying home from school, sick on the couch when I was about 5 years old, and my dad rented this. We have an awesome video store in Halifax, Nova Scotia called Video Difference where they have thousands of films on archive. Anyway, he went through the archives and brought this one home for me, I totally remember this because of the cyclops haha
I would hope that’s the kind of movie Hollywood wouldn’t make anymore because it looks like crrrraaaaaap.
Yeah, I remember this movie. And I remember it freaked me the hell out when I was a kid. Especially the creepy old man and the giant spider – very disturbing to childhood me. Aaaand after watching the trailer… still creepy. And very cheesy. Thank goodness they don’t make movies like these anymore.
my sister and I were about7 when this came out and we loved this movie! It was good cheesy fun, we still have it on VHS and do watch it occassionally just for kicks. I agree the leading man was kind of a wuss, but the monster was cool and the Cyclops dude was cool. And the guy that turned himself into a puppy for that little boy was kinda sweet!
You all are on crack…Krull rules!!! I woke up at 5AM one morning completely hung over and Sci-Fi was playing Krull. I got in right at the beginning. Hadn’t seen it in at least 15 years and it was as good as I remembered! 5 words: Liam Neeson plays a Cyclops. If that doesn’t get your motor running, I’m not sure what will. People: do not be dissuaded from these negative posters! Rent Krull and you will not be disappointed!
Um, yeah, you must have been pretty hung over because Liam Neeson is NOT the Cyclops in this movie. He is in it though (looking very young and fine as always).
Jeez, my kids would watch this movie EVERY day
LOVE Krull! Fave memory – meeting Ken Marshall while he was working in a recurring role on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and being totally fannish toward him about Krull. He was very kind to my babbling self.
Okay, first, “Krull” sucks. Like really sucks. That’s why my friends and I just watched it at our weekly bad movie night double feature (it was that and the Ewok Adventure). That is a painful 3-4 hours of movie watching, let me tell you. But despite its obvious awfulness, we still loved it. It’s just so crazy and outrageous (The stoic cyclops, for example) that you can’t help but think its awesome. I mean its still a horrible movie, but that’s kinda why we love it, you know?
I remember Krull, went to see it. My friends and I went to see anything like this. I always thought the hero could have done more with his weapon. And did anyone else but me think the cyclops was Roger Ebert in disguise?
I LOVE this awful movie! My brothers and I were awed by it as children. In fact, I have such fond memories of it that I eBayed a VHS copy for my 5-year old son last year. I’m crushed that he wasn’t as mesmerized by it as I was. Bad movie night with Krull and The Ewok Adventure?!?! That’s hilarious. I forgot all about the latter flick. Now it looks like I’ll be hitting eBay again!
I loved Krull! I watched it every time it came on HBO when I was a kid. It was really my first introductin into fantasy stuff. I just ate up the hero’s journey aspects of it – I loved good vs. evil stories. It is also amazing to recognize all those British actors in the move – Liam Neeson and Robbie Coltrane in particular.
BEST. 80′S. FILM. EVER. I looooove this movie! I just recently received it on Netflix. That monster was scary!
Great flick. I was a kid when I saw it, so naturally the comic-relief shape shifter guy was my fave. The cyclops also turned out to be a pretty awesome character.
I had a crush on the princess as a youngster. Mmmm, red hair! Also, who else remembers the Krull video game? I spent many a quarter on it arcades.
Oh, and I don’t know the actor’s name, but the leader of the bandits has had a fairly successful post-Krull career as a character actor.
I was a genre cheese eater to the max! I loved Yor, Cyborg, that movie with the guy who was a half tank type cyborg, All the crappy Connery sci fi movies of the 80’s, Saturn 3, Battle Beyond the Stars, Starcrash, Barbarella, Condorman (remember him? He had a sports car that came out of a jalopy looking truck), and the never forgotten Ice Pirates.
Krull was one of the better sci fi cheesefests I got into. The cyclops and the killer boomerang were unforgetable, even if the movie was a bit subpar. I also dug how several members of the party were killed and replaced by dopplegangers. Kind of a cool and (at the time) underused concept.
But to weed out all the real geeks in here, let’s bring this up. Who else spent much of their youth playing D&D or some other Role Playing Game?
loooved it! I also remember wiling away the summers with stupid movies like Swamp Thing, The Last Starfighter, and Beastmaster. They must have showed those movies, and many others, every 2 hours for 10 years. I can practically quote them in my sleep. God, I’m old.
I played a little D&D in college, but I never got into it. It was just something that a couple of guys from the school paper taught me. I prefered Final Fantasy.
I remember watching Krull on cable in teh 80s! Totally loved filling the summers in junior high with cheesy scifi movies! This one was right up there with watching Marc Singer in the Beastmaster! Wow!! Hadn’t thought about either one of those in awhile. And, Liam Neeson is in the gang of thieves (he is the one with a wife in every town) and ends up dying while they are in the dark fortress trying to save the princess.
I used to have the “Krull” video game for the Atari 2600 back in the day. I didn’t even know it was based on anything back then. You had to stave off the stormtroopers at your wedding until they kidnapped your princess, struggle through the spider’s web to find the location of the fortress, then use your glaive to chip away at the beast’s fortress, Super Breakout-style, to save the princess. Then in started all over again.
It was several years later when I saw the movie for the first and last time. It bored me then, and I imagine it would bore me now.
Stop the madness! Do you have any idea of how you took me back just now? My mom took me to the movies to see Krull and I was never the same after that. Between the Cyclops dude and the monster thing that held the princess hostage and that guy’s crazy boomerang of death frisbee thing…LOVE that movie, even though it kind of freaked me out as a kid. Don’t even get me started on the quicksand scene…to this day any quicksand scene (not counting the never ending story) in any movie remind me of Krull. Don’t ask me why.