Man, you all gave me a lot of great guesses what the stupidest movie of 1983 was! And while none of you were right (okay, maybe you two who guessed Superman III were) I’m going to go out on a limb and say that neither was I. But here’s the soundtrack to one of the stupidest movies of 1983
Krull Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
After doing a bit of research I’ll no longer claim that Krull was the stupidest movie of 1983. That was the year when both Amityville 3-D and Jaws 3-D were released, and they are both some of the most epically stupid films ever made.
But before I defend the movie I previously bashed, I should probably tell you all what its about, since I’m willing to bet that most of you have barely even heard of the flick.
Krull is a bizarre sci-fi/fantasy hybrid set on the semi-magical world of…Krull. A young princess and prince are about to wed, but on the day of their wedding an evil space alien referred to only as The Beast crashes the party and kidnaps the bride-to-be, hoping to make her his own. Now its up to the prince, with his awesome boomerang of death called the Glave, Â to rescue her! It’s just like Super Mario Bros. but with less magic mushrooms. On his quest to rescue her, the prince and his merry band of cannon fodder encounter one calamity after another, including surprise quicksand, shapeshiting demons and seemingly endless armies of evil cyborgs with lasers. In the end, the prince and the princess literally defeat The Beast with the power of love and live happily ever after.
No, that’s not a spoiler, did you really think he’d fail?
1983 saw a lot of sci-fi/fantasy combos, and Krull isn’t even the stupidest one of them. There was the atrocious rotoscroped monstrosity Fire And Ice; the straight-to-video scholckfest of Deathstalker; and  the notoriously bad prehistoric/sci-fi abomination Yor, the Hunter from the Future.
But why so many sci-fi/fantasy mashups? Just think about it.
It’s 1983, Star Wars is tearing up all box office records. What’s another big hit? Conan The Barbarian. The hacks of Hollywood (and Italy, in the case of Yor) must have collectively thought “Man, if Conan is big and Star Wars is huge then if we combine them we’ll be unstoppable!”
Of course, they all bombed epically, Krull included.
And yeah, Â Krull is big stupid bomb, but its a really fun big stupid bomb! While a lot of these flicks are obvious rush jobs designed to make a quick buck, you can at least say that a lot of heart went into Krull. The sets are gorgeous, the action not half-bad, and lot of the actors (including Liam Neeson and Robbie Coltrane -who is dubbed) make the most of the corny material.
More on topic, it also has a great score by James Horner! Its so great that he blatantly stole portions of it while doing the score to Aliens a few years later. Listen to the last few tracks, and you will totally hear the finale to Aliens. Aside from (or perhaps because of) that, it’s a pretty great score, very heroic.
Tonight I am sharing a rip of the vinyl soundtrack to Krull. This is not the complete score. That is only available on a two-disc CD set that costs a bloody fortune now. And, I’m sorry, while I love Krull, I don’t love it that much.
Enjoy it. Listen to it while mountain climbing or something.
Wow,those movies sound so bizarre!
Eeeeahhhh! Not Krull! Reading your post gave me the most awful flashback to a real stupid me back in ’83 sitting in a theatre with 8 hits of orange microdot blasting my brain case while watching that abomination! The horror of not being capable of moving while they rode back and forth across an admittedly lush landscape to do whatever the hell they were doing seemed to take an eternity. That experience is so imprinted on my psyche that now I get a little nauseous even thinking of the title. Weirdly enough I don’t remember the soundtrack at all — I was probably too busy trying to figure out how to get out of that damn theatre without screaming to pay it any attention… Weird, I get to live dangerously just by listening to a soundtrack. Yay!
Damn, I was hope to “Strut” to Staying Alive… or “Sky off the building” with Superman III. Well, I haven’t seen Krull yet but I did see Yor, The Hunter From The Future (now that’s a soundtrack).
Did I just download the Krull soundtrack? I think I did. What the hell was I thinking?
Actually, I recall being 12 or so and my Mom dropping me off at the theatre to see this movie on a dull Saturday. I watched it recently with my own kid on Netflix. Back in the day it was the uncanny cyclops that sorta freaked me out – now its the fact that Liam freakin’ Neeson is in the thing as a side character. Not even a main character.
Krull got a lyrical shout out from MF DOOM circa Vaudeville Villian, so it’s got that going for it.
The scream sound effect when the evil wizard doppelganger bites it still bugs me 27 years later.
Somehow I can’t help but like Krull. It was on cable way back when and for some reason they overplayed that movie like crazy (that and Beastmaster) so I must have watched it way too many times. It was totally shlocky in parts (ok, most parts) but was great fun to laugh at the effects. And the nifty star-shaped thrown weapon was pretty cool, propswise. So yes, downloaded and listened, and thank you!
yeah krull was pretty bad. ever see the wraith with charlie sheen? that was pretty bad too.
Own it. Own the soundtrack. Both are brilliant!