Barbarians at the Gates of Hollywood

Book excerpt: Journey into the realm of VHS tapes and midnight showings where brawny barbarians rescue nubile virgins from evil wizards, giant snakes, and armies of the undead! Although originating in the era of the pulp magazines, sword and sorcery fiction enjoyed a cinematic boom in the 1980s; a decade that gave us Conan the Barbarian and The Beastmaster as well as more low-budget offerings like the Roger Corman-produced Deathstalker series and the Italian entries like Conquest and the Ator saga. Some of these movies are fondly remembered as cult classics today but many were released directly to VHS and lurked on the shelves of video rental stores before vanishing into obscurity. While some have long since lost their lustre, there are plenty of diamonds in the rough to be found. This book takes a comprehensive look at over 40 sword and sorcery movies from the 1980s, from the towering titans to the bargain basement sleaze-fests, unearthing them from their tombs and dusting them off so that they may shine once more.