Hawk the Slayer: Watch For Me In the Night

This is a sequel to a British fantasy movie that came out over 40 years ago that I’ve never seen.  Why did I pick it up?  Because it’s written by Garth Ennis and features art from 2000 A.D. stalwart Henry Flint, which suggests a certain standard of quality.  The two are even courteous enough to start things off with an 8-page recap of the events of the film.  It saw the title character embroiled in a blood feud with his brother over the right to wield a magical blade known as the Elfin Mindsword.  Their conflict tore the country apart but saw Hawk triumphant over his brother Voltan in the end.

Ennis bemoans the strip-mining of franchises, “Star Wars” and “Alien” in particular, in his afterword, noting that the relatively unexplored territory of “Hawk the Slayer” is part of what drew him to this project.  This is interesting because the writer doesn’t actually do anything new with the characters and their world in “Watch For Me In the Night.”  I know that I only have the summary they’ve provided here to go off of, but what we get feels like a rehash of the film’s story with Hawk and Voltan at it again, only the latter is now more… maggoty.  We do see new characters mixed in with the old, and there’s a bit of mythology added, yet it doesn’t feel like we’re getting anything fresh here.

Flint’s art is quite nice, however.  He’s got a detailed style that comes off as quite expressive and vibrant throughout.  It’s easy to imagine this story having a dark and beyond gritty look to it, but Flint chooses to go in a different direction and it works.  Much better than the writing at any rate.  If anything, “Watch For Me In the Night” does make me curious to check out the original movie as it sounds like a good dose of 80’s-era B-movie fantasy fun.  Which is something that its sequel fails to conjure up on its own.