Let me take you on an adventure, to a fabled land of long ago where the miraculous used to happen; films were once played on tapes. Yes, children: tapes! I know, as incredible as it seems, there was once a time before streaming and downloads (just forget DVDs and Blu-rays; they're being retconned out here) and this technology was so marvellous and amazing that you used to have to sell your aunty's kidney in order to purchase what was called a VHS or (even-rarer) a Betamax player.
Anyway, during this sepia-tinted time of wonder, little A.S.Chamber's mummy used to have a job cleaning at a clothing store in a small market town and above this store was a shop that sold and rented out such tapes. (At this point everyone under sixteen is looking at each other and shrugging in a manner that says “What is the old guy on about here?”) So it was that, during the long, hot summers of my youth, I was deposited in front of the TV in the video store and given two things: a remote control (attached to the player by a cable, no less) and free run of the rental stock.
After a few false starts (My mother sort of did not approve of me watching Friday The Thirteenth or I Spit On Your Grave, I wonder why..?) I finally latched onto a little gem which I still carry in my heart to this very day: Hawk The Slayer.
So, the basic plot is: evil older brother stomps around a curious version of Middle Earth looking like a Tolkein version of Darth Vader whilst valiant younger brother rounds up a mythical Magnificent Seven to take him out, free the land and avenge the death of his beautiful wife.
Right, so not that imaginative, I agree. It was a blatant attempt to draw followers of Star Wars over to a more fantasy-based genre and, to be honest, it didn't really work for the masses. However, it has a core following which I could probably count on most of my body's digits, so that has to count for something. Surely that makes it a cult movie?
But all that aside, it had two things that just spoke to a young author in the making. First, the evil brother's last words were, “I'll wait for you at the gates of Helllllllllllllllll........” and, even better, it had a sword controlled by the mind of the younger brother, Hawk. I mean, this sword could FLY! I so wanted one then and I still yearn for one today. Admittedly, it was probably an idea conjured up by scriptwriters that would allow him to draw the sword from an unreachable scabbard across his back, but all the same, it was cool. So cool that, years later, I pinched the idea and utilised it in Fallen Angel a book due for release at some point in the future.
So, yes, if you haven't seen it yet, pick it up cheap as chips on Amazon, switch off the more cynical half of your brain and just enjoy Hawk The Slayer.
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If you fancy a bit of bedtime reading then please drop in on Amazon and purchase The Casebook of Sam Spallucci.
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