Thursday, April 2, 2020

By the Gods!

 A scene from AVALON (1989)

Directed by Michael J. Murphy, who created many super low budget fantasy/PEPLUM movies. They look like weekend projects or some filmmaker school's project, with nudity and simulated sex scenes. The cast is made of unknown actors therefore I won't identify any of them here.

Now I won't summarize the story of this movie. It's about the excalibur and such. And I'm not here to trash the movie (even though many out there might be tempted to do so). I already wrote about Murphy's movie in a post back in 2013. Personally speaking, I love such 'fan-made' movies. They show a lot of dedication and effort on the filmmaker's part. A lot of low budget movies in the past often spawned some emerging artists (actors, special effects crew, etc) who later would become famous. I rarely critique a movie because of its budget limitation. I look at the creativity behind the production. Alas this production didn't spawn any new talent. There is some creativity here but due to its limitations the end result doesn't showcase that creativity in its best light.

The problems with Murphy's movies is the cinematography and editing. They're really unforgiving. Add the non-professional acting and the end result is what you expect it to be. I like watching them as an experiment of sorts. On some level, they are fascinating to watch. Just don't expect the usual entertainment.

You can view a scene uploaded at Youtube. This will give you an idea of the type of production.

I won't rate it but I give 5 out of 10 for the sheer effort of it all.

 The cinematography is bad. The framing here is terrible. 

Some sort of creature. I can barely make out its features.

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