Dragonslayer

Dragonslayer (1981) is a dark fantasy adventure you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Matthew Robbins for a rare Disney–Paramount co-production.

A young sorcerer's apprentice named Galen inherits an impossible problem: the kingdom of Urland has been quietly paying off a dragon called Vermithrax Pejorative. Every few months, a girl is chosen by lottery and fed to the beast. When the lot falls on the king's own daughter and Galen's aging mentor Ulrich dies before completing his mission, Galen takes up a magic spear and heads for the mountain alone. Ralph Richardson plays Ulrich with a calm that borders on unsettling — the character knows far more than he lets on.

The film earned an Oscar nomination for its visual effects, and the dragon still holds up: enormous, reptilian, genuinely dangerous-feeling. For a studio fantasy made in 1981, it commits to a level of bleakness that catches most viewers off guard. Stream Dragonslayer online on iFILM.