Knives of the Avenger

1966 Italian Viking movie

Rating: 10/20

Plot: Basically, it's Shane but with Vikings.

aka Bladestorm, aka Viking Massacre. I wonder if there's much in the well of the Viking genre. I really would have liked to see more pillaging and raping, not necessarily in that order. I don't want to stereotype Vikings or anything, especially since it seems they can hurl their infinite supply of knives hundreds of yards and never miss. This is the Mario Bava movie that came out right before Kill, Baby...Kill! Actually, they came out the same year, but they couldn't be more different. There are some really cheap-looking scenes that make you think, "Yeah, I guess this is the director of Kill, Baby...Kill! since it's got that cheap atmospheric thing and bad sound quality going for it." Ah, I just looked it up. Apparently, Bava was brought in to replace a director who had already started shooting. He got rid of everything, including the script, and rewrote and shot the thing in a week. That explains a lot. The result is that there isn't much to like about the story, especially a story that seems to rush to a resolution in the last fifteen minutes. And it also results in a film that really has no visual flare or much else of interest. The best thing about this movie is that the Vikings don't wear those silly horn hats. Despite not liking this much, it'll likely be the best Viking movie I see all year.