Hi, I am looking for an old film I saw on TV about 20-25 years ago and would really appreciate some help. I think it was on TV at Christmas in the UK, around 1990, but I've checked the TV listings for Christmas Day around that time and haven't found it. It's a fantasy movie, in English I think, and I remember the following scenes:

One of the bad guys has shapeshifted so that they look like one of the good guys - it is a scene in a forest and they reach through a tree and touch someone on the shoulder, who then dies because of their magic powers

There is a giant spider or similar creature and one of the characters has a limited amount of time to get across a pit or abyss before it catches him, I think that's because they were able to paralyse the spider temporarily

One of the characters is running through a swamp and throws a spear into another character, who turns into a small slug or a worm

I think it may have been called 'the beast' or something like that, but I have looked at several films which have that title and I haven't found it yet. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks for reading!

That sounds a lot like scenes from Krull: Krull (1983) - IMDb

Wow, thanks so much for your reply, Cat1864 - before your answer I had just trawled through more than fifty films on the imdb site and YouTube trailers searching for this one, and I have been looking for it on and off for years. I've just looked at Krull, and it definitely rings a bell, I am sure it's right - I can't wait to see it again. Thanks for answering so quickly too :-)

You're welcome. I'm glad I could help.