Iron Warrior

This is the third sequel to Ator The Fighting Eagle. Ator was a cheapo Italian barbarian movie that was bad that I did like. This flick is even cheaper, cheesier and more poorly acted. Ator( a different actor from the original film) must help the princess reclaim her kingdom from a evil witch that also has Ator's evil twin brother under her command. This is a clumsy film and is super cheesy, even by 80's standards. The fight sequences are mostly bad, the chemistry between Ator and The Princess is not there, making the love story really awkward. The editing and overall continuity of the movie is really bad. In the realm of cheapozid sword and sorcery flicks, Iron Warrior scrapes towards the bottom of the barrel of beefcake fantasy action. It's good for a laugh, but I would much rather watch Death stalker or any movie in that series over this.

"Iron Warrior" introduces a new style both for Ator (he has black hair now, in a ponytail, and barely utters more than fifty words in the entire movie) and for the series itself. Director Brescia drops the silliness and campiness of the two D'Amato-directed "Ator" flicks in favor of a pseudo-arty approach. He employs every trick in the book: slow-motion, fast-motion(!), wide-angle lenses, cheap editing tricks to make people "disappear", etc. But the result in nothing more than a ponderous, often incomprehensible film that you may have to struggle to get through. The Malta locations are admittedly very beautiful, though. (*)

My review was written in March 1987 after a screening at Manhattan's UA Twin.

"Iron Warrior" pretends to be a fantasy adventure, but it's really just an ad for the Malta tourist board, Beautiful locations filmed on the islands of Malta and Gozo provide the backdrop for incoherent filler, shot in 1985 under the title "Echoes of Wizardry" by producer Ovidio G. Assonitis, whose name is understandably missing from the credits crawl.

Miles O'Keeffe returns for the third time as Ator, mythical warrior given a new history here: his twin brother was kidnapped in childhood by evil witch Phoedra (Elizabeth Kaza in a red fright wig). Some 18 years later Ator is tapped by the nice sorceress Deeva (Iris Peynado) to protect Princess Janna (Savina Gersak) against evil, in the form of his brother who wears a silver skull mask, red bandana and breathes like Darth Vader.

Ator and Janna trek around the rugged Malta rock faces on various missions for Deeva with absolutely no continuity to the narrative and some of the worst editing ever used in a feature film. Every couple of minutes Ator gets involved in boring swordplay with baddies and, to pad the running time, footage of another actor (who doesn't resemble O'Keeffe at all) wearing a babushka over his mouth is inserted fighting men on horseback with his sword. A dragon-style monster is shown on the poster and ads but fails to show up during the film.

Italian potboiler director Alfonso Brescia ("you can call me Al Bradley") imitates numerous George Lucas films here, lifting equal amounts from both the "Star Wars" sagas and "Indiana Jones" films. Out-theme is a poor imitation of "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan" music.

O'Keeffe is embarrassing, posing instead of acting and, like the rest of the cast, stuck with a funny-looking punk-influenced hairdo. Deborah Raffin-lookalike heroine Savina Gersak at least wears see-through gowns throughout the picture, but the editor nastily deletes her several wet T-shirt scenes. Best thing in the pic is the exotic, blue-eyed black actress Iris Peynado, previously seen in Lamberto Bava's "Monster Shark".

Pic was obviously made for home video and undemanding foreign markets, but it's another insult from distrib TWE to Stateside theatrical B-picture fans. Oh for the days when Lippert and other second-feature labels gave us engrossing little films starring Dane Clark or Cesar Romero, with interesting storylines and talented supporting casts.

I recently watched the Italian fantasy film 🇮🇹 Iron Warrior (1987) on Tubi. The storyline follows a kingdom plagued by a witch who returns who they threw out before and is back for revenge. The princess of the kingdom escapes and seeks help from a man with a grudge against the witch. Can they overthrow her together?

Directed by Alfonso Brescia (The Conqueror of Atlantis), the film stars Miles O'Keeffe (The Blade Master), Elisabeth Kaza (Rosebud), Savina Gersak (The Lone Runner), and Iris Peynado (Warriors of the Wasteland).

Iron Warrior is undeniably low-budget, and it shows. The costumes, props, wigs, and sets all appear cheap, giving the film a made-for-television feel. It embodies the essence of the 80s with its characters and premise. The acting and dialogue leave much to be desired, and the random poses by characters come across as awkward. However, it's worth noting that the Italian damsels are gorgeous, and there is occasional splashes of nudity. The soundtrack, reminiscent of 80s arcade video game background music, and stands out as a positive aspect.

In conclusion, Iron Warrior is a mediocre addition to the fantasy genre that may only appeal to diehard fans. I would rate it 4/10.

I saw another Ator movie on MST3K under the title "Cave Dwellers". It was one of the worst-made movies I've ever seen. Unfortunately, I saw Iron Warrior without the benefit of the MST3K crew, and it was very hard to endure. The film concerns the quest of Ator to stop a witch, but most of the time he just wanders around with no apparent agenda. He occasionally fights his brother, now the silver skull-masked "Master of the Sword", and is featured in many, many slow-motion scenes which seem to exist solely to make the movie last longer. Painfully boring, but it's a little better than Cave Dwellers in that it has some blood and nudity.