The Devil's Sword

Good warriors and evil warriors all clash together for the sake of finding the legendary Devil’s Sword, a powerful weapon desired by the Alligator Queen, to rule over the world. It’s up to Mandala (played by Barry Prima) to destroy all the evil warriors and the Alligator Queen and save the world. Meanwhile, he’s joined by a young sassy girl who knows kung fu who is bitter about the Alligator Queen stealing away her husband.
You have to give this movie an A for effort. Truly, if there was ever an example of comic book influences on a movie, it would be this one. It’s almost like they wanted to make a movie in the Conan vein, but with the budget of a high school play. Still, we have a lot of cool stuff, like Alligator people who know kung fu and get beheaded easily (what is it about Indonesia and alligators?), a cave Cyclops that makes the monsters on Sesame Street look realistic, warriors on flying rocks, and cannibalistic sex slaves? There’s also a lot of beautiful women, although sadly no nudity, damn Indonesian censorship! There’s a lot of action however, lots of kung fu stuff and plenty of gore. My favorite sequence has to be when the four evil warriors, consisting of our flying rock guy, a kung fu dude, a Flying Guillotine dude and an old hag with a deformed broom all fighting each other and insulting each other as they kill themselves one by one in order to have the privilege to enter the cave and get the Devil’s Sword. It lasts almost fifteen minutes and it’s by far the most entertaining part of the movie, almost like a Three Stooges skit on acid.
The end has our hero Barry Prima fighting against the evil Alligator Queen, and it’s all pretty whacked out. It should be said that Barry Prima was a huge action star in the 80’s, particularly in his home in Indonesia where he would literally be mobbed by fans, like he was Michael Jackson. It’s too bad, since the interview that is featured in the Mondo Macabro DVD makes him out to be a little bitter and sad over his film career. Come on, Barry! You’re the warrior, you’re Jaka Sembung, you’re Mandala from The Devil’s Sword, and you’re awesome! Not a great actor but an awesome film star, and here you can see him kicking all sorts of supernatural evil ass. This movie is very entertaining and fun, and does not disappoint.