The Beastmaster (1982) ***

The Beastmaster (1982) is a solid entry in the sword and sorcery genre, which was booming in the early 1980s. Released just a few months after Conan The Barbarian (1982), Beastmaster bears many of the same qualities (and tropes), but was made on a quarter of the budget. And while that's apparent in the production values, Beastmaster never approaches Hawk The Slayer (1980) or Krull (1983) (my review here) levels of fantasy cheese (though I like both of those films quite a bit).

I hadn't seen The Beastmaster for at least fifteen years and I had forgotten a good deal of it. It's silly and there's a kind of rapey moment with our hero, which is unfortunate, but it's still a lot of fun and I still really appreciate some of the creature designs, the photography, the sets, and how much imagination Don Coscarelli could pack into an adventure flick.

You can find my Don Coscarelli Feature Films Ranked list here.

Comments