Short Attention Span Review - Knives Of The Avenger (1966) - With Knife Throwing Spoilers

Mario Bava made some pretty good movies. Black Sunday, Black Sabbath, The Girl Who Knew Too Much, Planet of the Vampires...these are all great films. They have compelling stories and show Bava's visual story-telling style to good effect.

And then, there are movies like Knives of the Avenger. It has wooden acting, boring visuals, terrible fight scenes and a story that is poorly developed and populated with unlikable, simplistic characters. While star Cameron Mitchell at least tries to bring some life to the proceedings, his character, a mass murderer and rapist turned "hero" is pretty repulsive.

Rurik (Mitchell) is a knife throwing warrior who shows up on the doorstep of Karin (Elissa Pichelli) and her son Moki (Luciano Pollentin). She is in hiding, the wife of the Viking King Arald (Giacomo Rossi-Stuart) who s off doing something or other. Unbeknownst to her, Rurik is the man who raped her, killed her father and who is probably the father of Moki. Of course, this makes her growing affection for him very creepy and his exploitation of that ignorance reprehensible. Hagen (Fausto Tozzi), a pretender to the throne and all-around douche clashes with Rurik. Arald returns, Rurik kills Hagen (and rescues Moki form his clutches) and then he rides off into the sunset. The End.

While that doesn't sound too bad as a synopsis, the film is just a mess. A dull mess. This movie should not be seen as a reason to avoid Bava; but it does show that not all of his movies are works of cinematic brilliance. Avoid.