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Movies Like Heretic?

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Over the years there have been a few threads regarding movies that have a Doom vibe to them but I've never seen any threads about movies that are like Heretic (or Strife or Chex Quest).

 

So, what movies would you say that are like Heretic - and I don't just mean your bog-standard fantasy flick which revolves rescuing the princess.  I mean something that really shares some of the essence of Heretic (or Strife or Chex Quest :P).

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Well you're gonna be hard pressed finding a movie like Chex Quest... the others, come to think of it I can't think of any movies with the same basic premise of those games. Really none come to mind. Games, sure, but movies? Drawing a blank.

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The closest thing I can come up with at the moment is Spawn. The plot has nothing to do with Heretic, but it does have an actual chaos serpent.

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2 hours ago, Piper Maru said:

Lord of The Rings?

 

More specifically, the story of Heretic does borrow a lot from The Silmarillion. 

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2 minutes ago, pnptcn said:

Pick any 80s grindhouse fantasy flick.

 

Here's a good one. I love this movie for all its cheesy awfulness. 

 

51V6cdRmV9L._SY450_.jpg

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Yeah Beastmaster is good fun. I like Sword and the Sorcerer a lot too.

 

Edit: I just notice that poster is for Deathstalker which is definitely not Beastmaster but still a lot of good fun, especially if you like a lot of nudity. The Deathstalker movies also have a lot of humor to go with all of the fantasy hacking and slashing and T and A. Totally a lot of fun if you are down for that sort of 80s silliness. But Beastmaster is good too, everyone needs to see Beastmaster.

 

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Edited by pnptcn

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I am not sure if 80s barbarian flicks really capture the atmosphere of Heretic...the setting needs to be more medieval, IMO, and involve elements such as the Spanish Inquisition, Knights Templars, witches, demons, golems etc.

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A "good" Heretic film must feature lackluster fight choreography (weapon feel) and an unconvincing plot device that only appears in ~75% of cinema screenings (firemace), thus rendering the remaining 25% completely incomprehensible to the audience. Action sequences must have casualties sent flying across the screen (monster mass). It must have daring and admirable ideas that are hinted at but not satisfactorily realized thanks to some shortcomings in direction (the inventory system; ghost monsters). It must make repeat use of a limited number of locations and sets (99 textures) so that the grandeur of setting that is suggested by the plot is conveyed unconvincingly. Its villain must die roughly two thirds of the way through the film. Most of the exposition must take place within bath houses.

 

Derivative and aggravatingly B-grade. A cult classic.

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If you count animated stuff, Fire & Ice and the Lady Death movie are the closest things that come to mind.  Not that either is that close, they're still leaning more towards the 'barbarian fantasy' sort of thing (so arguably more Hexeny than Hereticy), but they have a lot of sorcery and funky settings going on.

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It would have to be grim and depressing but not realistic like Game of Thrones. That is where Heretic really gets its atmosphere. Most fantasy movies are pretty bright and optimistic, even the gritty and realistic ones like Lord of the Rings.

 

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3 hours ago, DooM_RO said:

not realistic like Game of Thrones.

 

Giants, dragons, undead ice people, talking trees, becoming other people by cutting off their faces, transferring consciousness to giant wolves, crows, and other people, fire invulnerability, vagina demons, zombie guards

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26 minutes ago, Ralphis said:

Giants, dragons, undead ice people, talking trees, becoming other people by cutting off their faces, transferring consciousness to giant wolves, crows, and other people, fire invulnerability, vagina demons, zombie guards

 

Yeah yeah, I've heard this weak argument many times before. Just because it has those things doesn't mean they can't be presented in a way that makes the whole world feel real. Do you really think Tolkien and G.R.R Martin put so much care into the map, languages and cultures of their worlds for nothing? The best fantasy is the kind that convinces you that what you are witnessing is plausible within the context of that world.

 

 

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Well you won't find anything really close to Heretic. Heretic was made in the same spirit as Doom; It was heavily inspired by table top gaming and the stuff you found in underground 80s pop culture like comics, grindhouse movies, heavy metal music, punk music and pulp novels. Just like you won't find many movies that are actually like Doom, you can find elements of Doom in tons of stuff from the 80s and early 90s. Same goes with Heretic (and Hexen), you can feel the same sort of gnarly energy going into these things. You won't find a film specifically like Hexen but you will find elements of Hexen all over the pop culture landscape from the time these games were made. 

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Now that I think about it Heretic is like Barry Windsor-Smith and Hexen is more John Buscema. Makes sense to me anyway.

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21 hours ago, Ajora said:

 

Here's a good one. I love this movie for all its cheesy awfulness. 

 

51V6cdRmV9L._SY450_.jpg

Oh shit that movie was on Best of the Worst

 

 

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The Deathstalker series reminds me more of Witchaven than Heretic/Hexen, complete with the 'cheap and cheesy yet still somehow enjoyable' vibe that they give me.

 

As I recall they were apparently so fond of the scene with the pig-man puzzling over a roast boar's head at the feast that they recycled it in nearly all of them, heh.

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I don't think of any medieval movie where undead led by giant iron heads kill an entire world's population then all lose to a single elf.

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The third act of army of darkness does reminds me of heretic and heXen (excluding the comedy of course)

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Conan the barbarian had a snake cult...

 

90s Beowulf with Christopher Lambert was a good mix of dark medieval and weird shit / magic...

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