Plot: Dar, an ancient warrior with the ability to communicate telepathically with animal allies, sets out to stop the crazed plans of an evil high priest named Maax and save his friends.

KBZ’s Take: The Beastmaster was one of the many subgenres films of the 1980’s that had ideas and ambition much larger than its budget. However, what the film lacks in budget it more than makes up for with a fun and campy adventure involving an evil Rip Torn, barely clothed Tanya Roberts and staff-wielding John Amos. Oh, and there’s a muscle-bound Marc Singer who (while not explained entirely) can use telepathic powers to communicate with a panther, hawk and two ferrets.

While the film does have an underlying humorous tone, it’s also one of few films of the subgenre with horror elements. Many of these darker elements are courtesy of horror director Don Coscarelli who rose to fame in the late 1970’s with Phantasm (1979). The film is not as scary as Phantasm, but there are some unsettling scenes in the film such as the Jun horde and the bird-men – sequences in the film you likely won’t ever forget.

Additional Lists: Top Sword & Sorcery Films You Haven’t Seen #7

Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon

Plot: A mercenary with a three-bladed sword rediscovers his royal heritage when he is recruited to help a princess foil a brutal tyrant and a powerful sorcerer’s plans to conquer the land.

KBZ’s Take: The Sword and the Sorcerer was #1 on our Top Sword & Sorcery Films You Haven’t Seen and it made the top of that list for a few reasons.

First, it’s a fun film that never takes itself seriously. All the actors know they’re in a cheesy fantasy film and ham it up throughout.

Second, it’s dark and rated R. From the opening scene of the sorcerer and the witch’s “now expelled from her chest cavity” heart, you know this film is not going to shy away from blood and gore.

Third, it has the three-bladed sword that any 80’s youth will tell you was the #1 Christmas gift they wanted from Santa (even though it didn’t exist and was very impractical as a weapon).

This is not an academy award type film by any means, but it is one of the defining films of the entire Sword & Sorcery subgenre.

Additional Lists: Top Sword & Sorcery Films You Haven’t Seen #1

Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon

Plot: To win the right to marry his love, the beautiful princess Andromeda, and fulfil his destiny, Perseus must complete various tasks including taming Pegasus, capturing Medusa’s head, and battling the Kraken monster.

KBZ’s Take: Still the best film about Greek mythological hero Perseus that holds up well today. While the remake, Clash of the Titans (2010), has some better visual elements, it still can’t compete with the original film’s simple action and adventure narrative. The 1981 film’s sequence with Medusa is still one of the most suspenseful moments in any film of the subgenre.

Ray Harryhausen’s stop-motion effects in this film might make it seem dated, but they just add to the charm of the film. If there’s one film to introduce Greek mythology to your youngsters, this is it.

Additional Lists: Top Films Based on Mythology You Haven’t Seen #1

Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon

Plot: A charming thief and a band of unlikely adventurers embark on an epic quest to retrieve a long lost relic, but their charming adventure goes dangerously awry when they run afoul of the wrong people.

KBZ’s Take: Many fans of Dungeons & Dragons have been continually disappointed with movie-based incarnations of their favorite board game. There was the horrible Dungeons & Dragons (2000) film starring Jeremy Irons sleepwalking through his role to the more recent Dungeons & Dragons: The Book of Vile Darkness (2012) which, while an improvement on the 2000 films, suffered from a host of problems including a subpar script, questionable acting and varied special effects (from good to really bad).

So, it was to the surprise and delight of D&D fans everywhere that Honor Among Thieves actually felt like a true D&D experience. The film has the perfect balance of adventure and humor and absolutely nails the general feel of how a typical D&D game would translate to screen. It’s an action-packed film that is not only one of the best recent films of the subgenre but is a rare Sword & Sorcery film with mass appeal.

Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon

Plot: Siblings Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter step through a magical wardrobe and find the land of Narnia. There, they discover a charming, once peaceful kingdom that has been plunged into eternal winter by the evil White Witch, Jadis. Aided by the wise and magnificent lion, Aslan, the children lead Narnia into a spectacular, climactic battle to be free of the Witch’s glacial powers forever.

KBZ’s Take: C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia was a popular series of fantasy-themed novels that, like most fantasy literature, was considered unfilmable. That changed in 2005 with the release of The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe. The film adaption captured the sense of fantasy and adventure that many readers of the novels had pictured in their childhood imaginations. And though the film is targeted towards a younger audience, it has surprising cross appeal to adults (even if they’re not familiar with the source material).

The initial film was followed by The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008) & The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010) and though these films are a step down from the initial film, they still make up one of the better franchises of the subgenre.

Where to Stream / Buy: Disney+

Plot: The evil Queen Bavmorda hunts the newborn princess Elora Danan, a child prophesied to bring about her downfall. When the royal infant is found by Willow, a timid farmer and aspiring sorcerer, he’s entrusted with delivering her from evil.

KBZ’s Take: Ron Howard’s entry into the subgenre came at the tail-end of the wave of Sword & Sorcery films in the 1980’s, but the film helped prove that it’s often not about being first but being best. And Willow is considered not only one of the best films of the decade but also of the entire subgenre.

Many themes of the subgenre had been told and rehashed repeatedly throughout the 1980’s so that by 1988 it was surprising that a film like Willow could have an impact on the subgenre that it did. But that’s a credit to multiple factors including Howard’s direction, Bob Dolman’s adventure-packed script (based on George Lucas’s story) and great performances from Warwick Davis, Val Kilmer and Joanne Whalley-Kilmer among others.

There aren’t many live action subgenre films that are family-focused but also appeal to any age group and Willow is one of those films, if not the best.

Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon

Plot: When the mystical Russell Nash (Christopher Lambert) kills a man in a sword fight in a New York City parking lot, he leaves a sliver of an ancient weapon lodged in a car in the process. After brilliant forensics specialist Brenda Wyatt (Roxanne Hart) recovers evidence of the mysterious weapon, she and her partner, Lt. Frank Moran (Alan North), embark on an investigation Of Nash that will land them in the middle of a dangerous, centuries-old feud between powerful immortals.

KBZ’s Take: Highlander isn’t a typical Sword & Sorcery film as it doesn’t feature many of the settings or elements most often attributed to the subgenre. However, upon its release in 1986, Highlander quickly cemented its place within the subgenre with its tales of immortal warriors battling over centuries.

Though the film has sequences that take place in the Medieval Era, most of the film is set in a contemporary setting with the last of the immortal warriors fighting for ‘the prize’. This is the film that put Christopher Lambert on the map (and a fixture in Sci-Fi and Fantasy B-movies for the following two decades). And while the film does also feature an extended (and fun) cameo appearance by Sean Connery, it’s the breakout performance by Clancy Brown (as the evil Kurgan) that made the film memorable.

Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon

Plot: A surreal adaptation of Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte’d Arthur, chronicling Arthur Pendragon’s conception, his rise to the throne, the search by his Knights of the Round Table for the Holy Grail, and ultimately his death.

KBZ’s Take: 40+ years later, John Boorman’s Sword and Sorcery fantasy is still the best film adaptation of the Arthurian legend. There’s no disputing that. But what the film gets accurate is its depiction of raw, brutal and exhausting melee combat between knights in full armor. You can see this portrayal of combat Excalibur defined that was expanded upon and enhanced in later films such as Ironclad (2011) and The Last Duel (2021).

Even though the film is lighter on fantasy elements compared to Conan the Barbarian (1982) and other early 80’s subgenre films, it helped paved the way for these films and ushered in a golden age of fantasy in the decade.

Additional Lists: Best Medieval Warfare Films #5

Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon

Plot: Orphaned boy Conan (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is enslaved after his village is destroyed by the forces of vicious necromancer Thulsa Doom (James Earl Jones) and is compelled to push “The Wheel of Pain” for many years. Once he reaches adulthood, Conan sets off across the prehistoric landscape of the Hyborian Age in search of the man who killed his family and stole his father’s sword. With beautiful warrior Valeria (Sandahl Bergman) and archer Subotai (Gerry Lopez), he faces a supernatural evil.

KBZ’s Take: While Excalibur (1981) and Clash of the Titans (1981) were the main films of the early 80’s to open the door for fantasy’s entrance in the decade, there’s no dispute that Conan the Barbarian is the subgenre film that blew the door off its hinges. Based on Robert E. Howard’s popular fictional character, the film adaptation was adult-themed and targeted towards previous generations that had grown up reading Conan’s infamous adventures.

The film featured the breakout performance of Arnold Schwarzenegger who would rise to A-list status across numerous action, sci-fi and fantasy films. And though the film spawned a subpar sequel in Conan the Destroyer (1984) and even worse reboot in 2011, its impact on the entire subgenre can’t be stated enough.

Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon

Plot: Young hobbit Frodo Baggins, after inheriting a mysterious ring from his uncle Bilbo, must leave his home in order to keep it from falling into the hands of its evil creator. Along the way, a fellowship is formed to protect the ringbearer and make sure that the ring arrives at its final destination: Mt. Doom, the only place where it can be destroyed.

KBZ’s Take: It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy is the best series of films of the entire Sword & Sorcery fantasy subgenre – and it’s not particularly close. These are the defining films of the subgenre that finally gave fans a live-action adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s famous novel.

Up until 2001, most Tolkien fans had to rely on the disjointed animated efforts of The Lord of the Rings (1978) and Return of the King (1980) for any visual interpretation of Tolkien’s immense fantasy world – Middle Earth. But it’s Jackson who helped define how we now see The Shire and Mordor and the characters of Frodo, Sam, Gandalf and Aragon.

While we have the first film featured here (based on our criteria above), it’s hard to argue against The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003) being the crown jewel of the entire trilogy and best Sword & Sorcery film of all time.

Where to Stream / Buy: Amazon