10 Syfy Original Horror Movies That Actually Aren't Awful

Syfy Air Date: January 24, 2004

The title alone is enough to tell you that this film leans closer to sci-fi than it does toward horror, but Dragon Storm deserves its place on any list attempting to defend Syfy, being the most watched original movie in the channel’s history with 3 million viewers tuning in for the premiere broadcast. Much like Mammoth, the threat to humanity comes to earth hidden inside meteorites, though this time the visitors are capable of far more than impaling their victims.

Each fallen alien rock cocoons a dragon, and when they break free from their meteorites on earth they set about terrorizing the medieval countryside, forcing two rival monarchs into an uneasy alliance. King Fastrad travels to the court of King Wednesbury, hoping to first team up with his neighboring king and then, once the threat of the dragons is neutralized, overthrow him. It is no Game of Thrones, but it treads a similar path, one that suggests that danger doesn’t just lurk in the skies but also in the corridors of power.

Much of the praise levied at Dragon Storm was for the way the titular beasts were rendered in CGI, which was done to a surprisingly high standard for a film with a budget of just $1 million. Gimli himself John Rhys-Davies, who stars here as King Fastrad, was full of praise for the project, which he saw as a relative success in filmmaking:

“You understand we’re not comparing Dragon Storm with Lord of the Rings. Stephen directed this in god knows how many day – I think it was only like 21 days. It’s a low budget, rapidly made and a rather delightful little sci-fi squib.”