Wizards of the Demon Sword

Don't let the title fool you, it's much more attractive than the movie actually is! Still, the film wasn't bad. The acting was odd, the effects were from the Stone Age, but the humor, the adventure, and some fantasy elements make the movie worth watching...on a boring afternoon when you have nothing else to do. I paid 1 buck for it so I don't feel like it was a waste of time and money!

A few years ago, I was shown a high school movie shot with a group of friends, a VHS camcorder, and no money. Same genre. This movie is on par with that. I'm actually impressed that every "actor" in this movie could deliver the ridiculously flourished lines from the script with straight faces. That's not to say that they had any talent either. I was either laughing or banging my head against the wall throughout. I particularly enjoyed watching the villain who reminded me more of a TV evangelist than a wizard. I half expected him to deliver a sermon before unleashing the ultimate evil upon the world. Of course, having past experience with Fred Olen Ray, I knew what to expect. So I can't really say I was disappointed. It's funny to see the exact same "Planet of Dinosaurs" stock footage that he used in a prior movie, "Phantom Empire".

This movie scrapes the bottom of the sword and sorcery barrel, but manages to be hilarious in it's ineptitude. Recommended for MiSTies.

My review was written in May 1991 after a Cannes Film Festival Market screening.

Sword and sorcery was never cheaper looking than in "Wizards of the Demon Sword", a poverty budget special by genre-meister Fred Olen Ray. Troma pickup is strictly a video title.

Filmed on trerrain familiar from B westerns and Hollywood serials of yore. "Sword" is actually about the knife of Aktar, supposedly able to unlock evil forces. Russ Tamblyn and his beautiful daughter Heidi Paine have been entrusted with its safekeeping. Evil Lyle Waggoner has captured Tamblyn, but Paine is on the loose.

Macho warrior Blake Bahner accidentally teams up with Paine and film limnsl their misadventures trying to spring Tamblyn. Slapstick and bad pusn are attempted repeatedly without success (a wise man who helps out the duo is named Seer of Roebuck).

Hambone acting, especially by heavily made-up Waggoner and his chief enforcer, Amazonian warrior Dawn Wildsmith, is fun, but the swordplay here is unimpressive. Cheap sets, stock footage and silly insert sequences of crudely done stop-motion animation of dinosaurs are serious drawbacks.

Dan Speaker, who devised the swordfighrts, is personable in tne buddy role opposite Bahner.

While this movie would work for riffing, it doesn't work in any other way. You know you're in trouble from the get-go when the first action sequence is filmed in a desert landscape filled with ATV tracks. It's supposed to be the Middle Ages, of course. It's hard to tell if the script or the acting is worse, and the endless modern slang is a mistake. Perhaps it's both acting and script at fault, but whatever the explanation, it's all quite cringe-worthy.

Cave Dwellers and Deathstalker are great movies compared to this.. and trust me when I say they are not great.

There are one or two moments in here that don't make you wish you were somewhere else, doing anything else, but I don't recommend watching to find them

Wizard ofthe Demon sword is a must see for all the "sword and sorcery" fans. It is one of the best movies from the great movie maker Fred Olen Ray (also Bikini Drive-inn, Evill Toons, Cyberzone and a lot more). Great movie, produced by Troma.