Savages! Dinosaurs! Lasers! The early eighties is a golden period for aficionados of trashy sci-fi and fantasy movies. The brain boggles with how some of these ever got made. We have here a list of 8 Fantasy Films of the 80’s that you might have forgotten. Here goes….
1. “The Dungeonmaster” (1984)
The devious “Dungeonmaster” seizes a computer fellow and throws him into a cell to confront its trials. One of them is the metal band W.A.S.P. I can’t figure out why. The eighties were an extraordinary time. As awful a film as “The Dungeonmaster” is, it figured out how to leave its sign on pop culture with the quotation, “I reject your reality and substitute my own!”
2. “The Warrior and the Sorceress” (1984)
David Carradine, who got acclaimed by playing the warrior monk Cain on the hit TV show “Kung Fu”, essays the role of “Kain the Warrior” in this appalling Conan knock-off by John C. Broderick. Wikipedia states that it is “noted chiefly for containing extensive nudity and violence.”
3. “The Blade Master” (1984)
Bombs, cannibals, snake gods, a person named “Thong” … It is no big surprise that this film got treatment in the MST3K way.
4. “Yor: The Hunter from the Future” (1983)
Reb Brown is Yor, a primitive tribesman out to find his origins in a world populated by dinosaurs and androids. Sadly, our own world is populated by film critics, and none of them preferred “Yor”. There’s a scene in the film in which Yor murders a goliath bat and afterward utilizes it as a hang plane, so at any rate it has that letting it all out.
5. “Deathstalker” (1983)
Deathstalker the warrior sets out on a mission to recover a set of magical things in the ownership of an insidious wizard and his monstrous cohorts. “Deathstalker” isn’t too terrible; however it’s not great either. I don’t know why the person is named Deathstalker, either. As it is, he doesn’t chase death.
6. “Krull” (1983)
“Columbia Pictures presents a world apart from anything you’ve seen before!” Good. We should keep it that way, Columbia.
7. “The Sword and the Sorcerer” (1982)
Prince Talon and his three-bladed projectile sword fight the malevolent King Cromwell in this shockingly dull b-motion picture. Talon’s sword gave me geek anger as a child. It’s ungainly and ineffectively built for battling hand-to-hand. What’s more, a crossbow or even a simple bow and arrow would be a far superior choice for battling at a distance.
8. “Hawk the Slayer” (1980)
After his elder sibling, Voltan, kills their dad, Hawk swears retaliation. Taking up his magic sword, Hawk and his valiant buddies who comprise of a midget, elf, and a giant embarked to free the universe of Voltan’s maliciousness. “Hawk the Slayer” has turned out to be somewhat of a cult classic among some fantasy gamers: it’s the film you want to detest.
