Ator, the Fighting Eagle (1982)

Original title: Ator L'invicibile

Director: Joe D'Amato

Writer: Joe D'Amato

Composer: Carlo Maria Cordio

Starring: Miles O'Keeffe, Sabrina Siani, Ritza Brown, Dakar, Laura Gemser, Edmund PUrdom, Alessandra Vazzaler, Nello Pazzafini, Jean Lopez, Olivia Goods

More info: IMDb

Tagline: A magical power was destined to fight at his side.

Plot: The son of Torren learns of his heritage, goes to avenge the deaths of his fellow villagers, and rescue his sister/love interest from the evil Dakkar and his spider cult. Ator battles giant spiders, swordsmen cloaked in shadow, re-animated dead warriors, and horribly hideous witches.

My rating: 5/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

Released nearly a year after the game changing CONAN THE BARBARIAN (1982), this picture is one of the earliest CONAN ripoffs.  And when it's written and directed by Joe D'Amato, the man who directed almost 200 films in less than thirty years, there's an excellent chance it's going to be made fast, cheap and bad.  It is but it looks better than a lot of his films.  THe fight scenes are slow and clumsy but the exterior locations are nice.  There's that.  The music score feels bigger and better than the movie deserves.  I'd like to say it's so bad it's good but it's not.  It's got enough quality to it (thanks largely to the score) that it doesn't go that low but it's not without some unintentional laughs.  When Ator and his sister are in their late teens they want to marry but they can't because they're brother and sister.  Well, this is when their father tells them they can because Ator isn't her brother (although they've been raised as brother and sister since birth) and that he was dropped off by a stranger as a baby so it's all good.  The parents are thrilled that they want to marry!!!  It was a different time back then...barbarian times, not the 80s.  The tiny bear cub (looking like a fat ass skunk with a wide painted white stripe down its back) running after the heroes all through the movie was adorable.  Just when you think it was over, there's a pop song at the end that's heavily inspired by Sheena Easton's song from FOR YOUR EYES ONLY (1981), which is just what was missing from this flick.  Nope.  There was something else not right...I was shocked that there's not one instance of nudity.  Hell, I would've settled for some back sack.  Considering the subject and D'Amato's other picture, that's a crime.  D'Amato and O'Keeffe returned two years later for the sequel, THE BLADE MASTER (1984).  Oh, boy.  And it has a lower user rating than this one.  There'd better be boobs in it this time.