Alternative Title Week: Ator the Invincible

Welcome to the tales of long ago.  In these realms lurks yet another alternative title for the week.  Now let us speak of days of high adventure!  Sorry it is really hard to break out of that speech pattern.  Ahem, grab your furry moon boots, sharpen your blade and mind. This is Ator, the Invincible a.k.a. Ator, the Fighting Eagle, Ator: The Fighting Eagle, Ator I’invincibile and Ator the Mighty.

 

Call dibs on the gold and jewel encrusted nut cup!

The Spoiler of Torren will bring about the dawning of a new age!

Director producer Joe D’Amato (Papaya: Love Goddess of the Cannibals, Anthropophagus, Erotic Delights and The Blade Master) is known for the following concepts: Over the top sci-fi fantasy with zero budget, Women In Prison Films and hard core pornography as I just found out the last.   Yes so you can already see the slippery slope that awaits us all.  The story of Ator unfolds with enough exposition that would have flabbergasted Tolkien.    Seriously that was incredibly long winded to the point of being worthy of a narration via Uwe Boll movie.  Only it was not continuous.  Our young lad Ator (Miles O’ Keefe of Tarzan, the Ape Man, The Legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Sins of the Night, Shoot, Marked Man and Silent Hunter) has grown into a family that is not of his own.  He has feelings for his adopted sister Sunya (Ritza Brown of Beyond Good and Evil, From Hell to Victory, Monsignor and Tuareg: The Desert Warrior) and asks his foster father for her hand in marriage.

Ye olde Keg Partay!!!

 Yay! Almost incest for the start of our heroic tale all of 5 minutes in and boy who wouldn’t want that.  Father comes clean about Ator’s heritage and is overjoyed at the weird impending nuptials.   Father then speaks of a man name of Griba (Edmund Purdom of Sword of Freedom, Herod the Great, Anthropophagus, and Zombies 5: Killing Birds) that is destined to be his teacher in combat and the ways of the warrior so he may one day fulfill his prophecy of defeating the ancient spider god and his cult, laying claim to his birthright and allowing peace throughout the land.  

Thank God it wasn’t a tall order for him right?  Note that quests are never something as easy as fetch hither yon goat milk for my breakfast cereal my son. For the morning meal truly is the most important of the day!!!

 No sooner is Ator and Sunya married that Dakkar (Dakar of Zombie, Zombie Holocaust, Pierino Strikes Again and Ator, The Fighting Eagle), priest of the spider god’s men ransack the village and slay just about everyone in the area, slap Ator silly and scoop up his sister/bride.   Yea I am still skived on that.  Sorry.    

AHH!!!! BLIND DEAD FLASHBACKS!!!!

Ahem, Ator trains with Griba to better his might and mind when he encounters a young amazon warrior Roon (Sabrina Siani of Blue Island, Daughter of the Jungle, Gunan, King of the Barbarians and Palla al centro) who had to be saved by a man.  Snort, snort!!   The two form an alliance to fight the dark knights of Dakkar, fend off the legions of the undead and do battle with the spider god (Squiggly)! 

No wait, that's poison oak.  Ah crap!

Um it is long winded, confusing plot, the story drags in places.  The swordfights are not badly choreographed and some of the effects are decent enough but all in all this film is cheesy and ain’t no Gouda.  This is a fair enough adventure but you will find yourself snickering quite a bit.  A great attempt with not nearly enough funds behind it or proper time to edit; I am giving this a C minus overall.

William Shatner Week: Incubus

Hello all and greetings to Day 3 of Shatner Week.  We shall look back in time to an era before Star Trek but to an Outer Limits based movie in what is a horror movie. What could a mere mortal do against the awesome powers of a creature that corrupts men and steals their life force?  Hold long could a man fend off a being that such seduction?  Grab a cold shower, think of baseball and don’t listen to that inner voice.  This is Incubus.

Randy old goat indeed.

Do spoilers like the sea?

In the fishing village of Nomen Tuum there is a miraculous well that heals the sick and makes people beautiful.  Because of the latter several individuals of a corrupt or base nature flock to this amazing well unbeknownst to them is a source of evil.  Throughout the village succubae flood this land in order to lay claim the myriad of tainted souls leading them to their deaths and stealing their souls for Hell itself.    Sounds bit like marriage, eh fellas?   Okay now that we got that sexist pig joke out of the way, on with the story.  A young soldier name of Marc (William Shatner of Judgment at Nuremberg, The Defenders, For the People, White Comanche, The Andersonville Trial, Go Ask Alice and The Horror at 37,000 Feet) who was injured gravely in the last war travels with his sister Arndis (Ann Atmar of Street-Fighter, A Cold Wind in August, Checkmate, The Third Man and Police Story) in the hopes she can help his wounds by the healing properties of the well.

Them sirens done lured another boat to the rocks!!!

Intrigued by the acts of selfless a young succubus named Kia (The Phantom Planet, A House Is Not a Home, Simon, King of the Witches and The Man in the Glass Booth) befriends the siblings and follows them in their journey. Her sister succubus Amael (Eloise Hardt of Song of Love, The Juggler, Save the Tiger, Bronk and The Kentucky Fried Movie) warns Kia the dangers of a pure soul and that the power of love is most dangerous to their kind.  So they outlawed Huey Lewis and the News music as well. 

Here are just a few tidbits about the movie overall.  The entire film has been recorded in Esperanto of which Shatner is fluent in but it also has English subtitles for those of us to follow. During the latter half of the 19^th century this was constituted as an international language and is still used to this very day.  

Help me, Spock!

The principal cinematography took about 18 days and most of the locations can be found around Big Sur Beach as well as near Fort Hunter Liggett in Monterey County.   I must warn female viewers that there is a depicted though not overtly visualized rape and murder sequence.  More of an implied rape scene really so nice to see a bit of taste went into their personification of evil.

Probably just a case of Romulan VD.

Long time writer/director Leslie Stevens (Stoney Burke, The Outer Limits, Kraft Suspense Theatre and The Name of the Game) was said explaining the use of Esperanto was to give the film an eerie and other world like feel.  You know in case the demons roaming around the village was not enough.  Curiously enough it is this film that gave Stevens helm to direct several Star Trek episodes later on.