The short version is this: the film involves a huge knight who is terrorizing people near or in a forest. The scene I recall is from the end where the hero defeats the knight. The chest of the armor opens up to reveal that the knight was actually a sort of medieval robot piloted by a small man or dwarf, who dies shortly after the fight.
I think many of the scenes take place in a dark forest. I’m pretty sure it is a medieval setting, but in a B movie sort of way. I don’t believe there’s any magic, and the main character wasn’t a barbarian (IE he wore full clothing)
I saw the movie in the late 80s or early 90s. I think we rented the VHS and I don’t think it was especially old at the time. Meaning I think it is from ’88–’92. 1995 is a hard stop (but ’88–’92 is probably more on target). I’d be very surprised if it was older than 1980.
I have another recollection of the main character riding his horse down a very very steep hill, leaning so far back that his hand is almost touching the ground behind the horse. I could be mixing up two movies but I’m pretty sure it is from the same one.
It is absolutely not Labyrinth. I’ve been reading summaries and looking at posters on wikipedia for hours now and I’ve ruled out most of the major and not-so major fantasy/sf/horror films. I think this was a limited release indie film we just happened to come across at the video store one time. At this point I’m wondering if I can find some kind of registry. I’m slowly working my way through all titles in IMDB in that time period.
I saw this movie once about 30 years ago and have thought about it occasionally all my life. I did an idle search recently and I found a guy who has been looking for the same movie for years! Now that there are two of us I really feel a duty to nail this thing down.
One more thing: he drew a short animation based on his recollection! And the animation is uncanny–he really captured the essence of the scene. Linked here: https://imgur.com/5wyQ2td
Star Knight?
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088870/?ref_=adv_li_tt
This would be a dragon that is a spaceship controllee by a humanoid. Maybe?
if you think of the box cover, what comes to mind? what would be a general plot of the film that might not refrence a giant knight? remember that foreign countries also exported english films they made, like italy and the phillipines for example, that were big in the video stores here.
Unfortunately, the only box cover I would have seen was a generic thick plastic opaque rental case.
The setting was definitely medieval but the plot may have been more like a slasher/monster movie or even a western-type plot. (I just mean the story type of course: it took place in a forest with swords and so on).
So it could be action, adventure, horror, SF, thriller, or fantasy? I realize this is all over the map but it is towards those type of movies. Other than being in an old-timey setting I don’t think it really counts as “fantasy” any more than say, Robin Hood Prince of Thieves.
I am continuing to search on my own and will definitely post back if I finally figure it out. I am slowly sifting through 4000+ IMDB English language titles and may not even be in the correct timeframe!
It’s not that, although that looks awesome. In another forum someone suggested Hearts and Armour which also isn’t it.
My dad likes indie movies and we often rented from the video store. I distinctly remember seeing many other movies he rented. For example, he and I watched Time Chasers (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0145529/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) some years after the movie I’m trying to find. David Giancola lives in Vermont and I believe Time Chasers was filmed there too. We lived in New Hampshire at the time, so I wonder if our video store had a locally produced section but that is just speculation–I have no idea where the movie was filmed.