Gross movie moments - Sword and the Sorcerer

Most of us have seen or are familiar with the recent slew of fantasy films that have been tossed out since Lord of The Rings and Harry Potter hit big with mainstream audiences, but I want to take you back to a fantasy film that crosses over into horror.

Sword and the Sorcerer  from 1982, soon to have a long awaited sequel made by the original director Albert Pyun, was from an early eighties era when fantasy films did their best to add dark elements such as genocide (think Beastmaster), demons, and R-rated blood splattering.

In the opening of Sword and the Sorcerer, Titus Cromwell, a king bent upon total domination of every kingdom he can get his hands on, seeks the aid of a demon named Xusia. He and his men enter  Xusia's cave and use a witch to summon the demon from his sleep. What follows are old school gore effects.

"Get on with it, witch!" orders Cromwell. And she begins her spell to awaken Xusia. Screams are heard and Cromwell lowers his torch to see that the sculptured stone faces covering the resting place of Xusia have come alive--bloody and writhing in pain with intestinal ropes wormed around them. And yes, you can tell they're latex puppets if you look closely. It's still a terrific shot for 1982.

Xusia's tomb, where he sleeps, melts on top and glows bright red. It turns into a pool of blood and the creature sits up like Dracula from his coffin. Xusia is played by none other than Richard Moll of Night Court fame (Bull the bailiff). The demon raises his hand towards the witch and she immediately grovels and licks the blood off his hand. Even Cromwell makes a face of disgust at this brown nosing.

King Cromwell demands that Xusia help him defeat good King Richard. A nearby servant then questions whether the demon even has any power. The brown nosing witch is no longer safe and Xusia's fingers glow until he supernaturally rips her heart out of her chest and then throws it on the ground.

Good stuff, dammit!

Sword and the Sorcerer is a cult favorite. You can't take it too seriously because it is definitely cheezy, but earnest in its storyline.

There are other wonderfully gross moments in the film such as the dungeon master who loves to torture his prisoners.  When Cromwell's castle is invaded, one of our hero's men--a black guy with huge pecs and bad acting skills going by  the character title of "Captain Morgan"--takes the dungeon master by surprise when he's sharpening his weapon. The sharpening wheel made of stone keeps spinning while they struggle. Eventually Captain Morgan uses a headlock and slowly pushes the dungeon master's head into the grinding stone with blood shooting up at him.

Don't feel bad for the dungeon master though. Earlier in the movie he cut out the tongues of two prisoners, one of which committed suicide in front of everyone by pushing a knife into her stomach. The other prisoner died attacking our dungeon master and was also cut up.

Man, like I said that's good stuff. I'm in the mood to watch Sword and the Sorcerer right now...

BTW: The coming sequel will be called "Tales of an Ancient Empire." It was originally announced in the credits of the original 1982 film. I'm hoping that it will stay true to the original spirit of the first movie. It doesn't necessarily have to be cheezy, but it shouldn't mainstream itself to current standards of what's acceptable to do in a film. We want the gratuitous gore and plenty of dialogue that includes "wench," "king's sluts," and "gauntlet of steel."