With the popularity of {*Dungeons and Dragons role-playing games in the '80s came a slew of films revolving around heroes with swords, saving damsels from dastardly dragons and evil wizards. While long a popular form for "B"-films, it wasn't until the sudden acceleration of special effects in the post-Star Wars world that the magic and monsters that make up the genre were rendered possible. The dragon quest, as exemplified in Dragonslayer and Dragonheart, is a common thread in these films, as well as the tales of medieval kings and courts, especially King Arthur's Camelot in Excalibur. Sword-and-sorcery films appeal to the desire -- in a morally and technologically complex world -- for the purity of action and codified virtues of the mythological middle ages.