Today's extra cheesy slice is...
Prisoners of the Lost Universe (1983)
The film was written and directed by Terry Marcel (Hawk the Slayer / Jane and the Lost City.) He seems to love this genre!
With the passing of actor Richard Hatch last week I decided to review a cheesy low budget film from 1983 that Richard starred in...
Prisoners of the Lost Universe is a sci-fi/fantasy about a scientist, a contractor and a reporter that get teleported into another dimension that is ruled by a primitive warlord. The three must team up with various races & creatures from this lost universe using modern wits and medieval weaponry to defeat the evil warlord and return to their own dimension.
CHECK OUT THE TRAILER BELOW...
Richard Hatch (Apollo from Battlestar Galactica) stars as Dan, the contractor handyman type of guy that accidentally gets ran off the road and has to walk to the nearest building to borrow a phone and call for help (because in the '80s people didn't have cell phones.) When he gets to the nearest building, it is a science lab where he meets up with actress Kay Lenz who stars as Carrie, the reporter that ran Dan off the road to start with. Carrie explains to Dan that a scientist she was there to interview just got zapped by a machine and sent into another dimension. Dan, thinking it's a joke begins to look around at all the scientific equipment in the lab and also gets zapped... sending both Carrie and himself into the other dimension.
This whole setup for the movie sounds like a rip-off of Flash Gordon... a rugged action man and a female reporter meet a crazy scientist and the three of them end up in another world together battling the ruler of that world in search of a way home.
When Dan, Carrie and the scientist end up in the other dimension they don't exactly find Ming the Merciless... they find Kleel, a primitive warlord that runs the entire dimension. Kleel is played by actor John Saxon (A Nightmare on Elm St./Enter the Dragon.)
Much like Ming captures the scientist Zarkov and forces him to work in his science lab, Kleel captures this scientist and forces him to work in his labs making guns and explosives so that he can rule over the inhabitants of his world more deadlier than ever.
And again, much like Flash Gordon... Dan and Carrie must team up with indigenous people of the kingdom to help them overthrow the tyrant leader.
And much like Flash Gordon, Kleel imprisons Dan and takes Carrie to be his woman. Dan must escape and rescue Carrie before time runs out.
The budget was so low that what we get is mostly people just walking around in the woods or hillside dressed in furs and/or loin cloths. It was filmed in South Africa.
To me the only interesting character was the mysterious and resourceful green man played by actor Ray Charleson. He had an interesting weapon too... it was a wooden gun that shot wooden crossbow bolts and was powered by berries from a plant that worked sort of like CO2 cartridges in a pellet gun.
Bad acting, bad special effects and super low budget makes for a fun time (in my world at least.)
I originally saw this film in the '80s on HBO. Being a kid at the time I loved the film. I had so much fun watching the different races and creatures and that gun I was talking about really intrigued me. There's a cool fight scene with Richard Hatch and some giant of a man who wields a big sword. I remember Hatch kicking this guy right in the balls as hard as he could and the sound effects just made a metallic ding sound and the giant was unaffected.
The film released theatrically in other countries but was only shown in the US on cable.
Don't bother buying the DVD because you can watch the entire movie on Youtube for free.
Until next time... enjoy those cheesy movies!
- Patrick Shawn Bennett
