I have developed a fascination for the film Dragonslayer (1981), which we’re going to delve into this week. First picture is the very awesome German movie poster. Second pic is a half-sheet poster for the US release. Neither of these images will show up in any of the derivative products, which is one of the many strange things about the movie and its marketing.

It’s a very strange movie as just a movie, dark, grimy, violent. The dragon, with the excellent dragon name Vermithrax Pejorative, remains the best and coolest to ever be committed to film (surprisingly little competition there, actually). A surprising number of princesses get eaten. The hero, in a weird inversion of the oh-so-popular Hero’s Journey, fails and is really more of a pack mule for the dead guy who does eventually kill the dragon. And it is a Disney movie, on top of everything else! OK, it is joint venture between Paramount and Disney (following Popeye with Robin Williams), but in my head it is a Disney flick. It also feels like an honest to goodness fantasy film, rather than a barbarian film, if that makes sense. Also interesting, though, it has a weird merchandising footprint, which you’ll glimpse the rest of this week. No toy line, though, which feels like a missed opportunity.

Speaking of, do you remember souvenir brochures for movies? I sure don’t, but they existed. I’ve included the Dragonslayer one here. It’s a cool little thing from the pre-internet world, a way to get stills and such from the movie, some info on the special effects and such. I’d buy these if they still made them.