Dragonslayer opens with a delegation of villagers lead by the young Valerian (Caitlin Clarke) travelling from Urland to the ‘House of Ulrich’, a somewhat tatty looking castle where the Sorcerer Ulrich (Ralph Richardson) lives with his servant Hodge (Sydney Bromley) & a young apprentice named Galen Bradwater (Peter MacNicol). Valerian asks Ulrich to kill a Dragon that has been terrorising their homeland for years, oh & this Dragon seems to have a name too Vermithrax Pejorative. Their King, Casiodorus Rex (Peter Eyre) has made a pact with the Dragon in which a teenage virgin girl is given as sacrifice, an arrangement which the villagers aren’t particularly happy about. Ulrich agrees. As they are about to set off for Urland the King’s soldiers arrive, lead by bad guy Tyrian (John Hallman). Basically Ulrich ends up dead and it’s up to Galen to take responsibility & use the knowledge Ulrich has given him & a magical amulet to lead the villagers to Urland & defeat the Dragon, Vermithrax (that’s a great sounding word you know, just say it out loud a few times!) The Dragon lives in an underground cave & upon arrival Galen causes a land-side which blocks the entrance to the cave, hopefully trapping Vermithrax and killing it. Things don’t go as Galen had hoped, Vermithrax breaks free & attacks the village. The King decides to hold another lottery to choose a sacrificial virgin, which he soon regrets as his daughter Princess Elspeth (Chloe Salaman) is drawn. Armed with a magical spear made by Valerian’s Father, the local Blacksmith (Emrys James) Galen sets out for one final confrontation with Vermithrax to the death!

Co-written & directed by Matthew Robbins I thought Dragonslayer was a pretty good fantasy/horror/adventure film. The script by Robbins & Hal Barwood who also acted as producer, is well paced has decent characters & has a few plot twists & turns. One thing that confuses me a little about Dragonslayer though is who exactly is it meant to be aimed at? I would say it’s a little strong & perhaps a little bit scary for very young children & with all the melodramatics & slightly off beat ‘olden’ dialogue I’m not sure youngsters would be very interested in seeing it through to the end anyhow as it’s close to 2 hours long. As for adults it’s a little slow & doesn’t feature any real blood, gore or violence worth mentioning & a lack of any big action sequences mean I’m not sure the average adult would be totally satisfied either. I think maybe Robbins wanted to create a very serious & dark Medieval fantasy but perhaps Disney wanted something for children, thus ending up a little between the both. Having said that Dragonslayer still works very well as a film overall. The production & costume design are both fantastic, the widescreen cinematography by Derek Vanlint of the Scottish & Welsh filming locations with their lush, harsh greenery and jagged mountain peaks give Dragonslayer a really nice feel throughout. Technically the film is top-notch with some excellent special effects that bring the ferocious fire-breathing Vermithrax to life during the final 20 or so minutes. Although it’s screen time is quite limited until the end, Vermithrax as a creature just looks right, it’s bodily proportions and movement seem very natural. Some of the special effects obviously fall a little flat these days but for the most part they hold up extremely well.