Joe D’Amato had abandoned his fantasy hero Ator after just two films, Ator l’invincibile/Ator the Fighting Eagle (1982) and its sequel Ator 2: L’invincibile Orion/The Blade Master (1982), but Alfonso Brescia had steeped up to the plate, without D’Amato’s permission, to make a surprisingly arty third film, Iron Warrior in 1987. D’Amato wasn’t best pleased with the way that Brescia had reimagined Ator and decided that, although most of the world had given up on fantasy epics (The Beastmaster films notwithstanding) there was room for one more outing for Ator. He would have to make do without the series’ traditional leading man, Miles O’Keefe, though who wisely decided that three films was more than enough. D’Amato didn’t seem all that keen on him anyway, later complaining to Nocturno magazine that that O’Keefe had been a nice enough person but wasn’t much of an actor, a fair enough comment to anyone who had seen any of the Ator films.

This new adventure gives Ator (this time played by another musclebound charisma void, Eric Allan Kramer) yet another back story. This time he’s the son of Ator, the king of the land of Aquiles (Kramer doing double duty and looking every one of his 28 years despite playing a teenager), who was given a magic sword by the god Thorn. Reluctant to give it back when instructed to, Ator kills himself and the goddess who championed him, Dehamira (Margaret Lenzey) is imprisoned in a circle of fire to await a human strong enough to free her. 18 years later, that human turns up to be Ator Jr who is given the magic sword by the gnome sorcerer Grindl (Don Semeraro) and sets off on what would turn out to be his final quest. People pelt around all over the shop as D’Amato tries in vain to inject some energy into an otherwise lacklustre journey. Along the way, Ator battles dragons and plays out the story of the German myth of the Nibelungen, taking the part of Siegfried with Dehamira cast as Brünhilde amd meeting characters named Gunther (Donal O’Brien) and Grimilde (regular D’Amato collaborator Laura Gemser).

There’s none of the visual style or panache here that Brescia brought to Iron Warrior and it just looks cheap. Those who have suffered through enough terrible Italian films of the time will spot one of the reasons why immediately. It was made around the same time that Claudio Fragasso was making the legendarily awful Troll 2 (1990) for D’Amato’s company Filmirage, a film so appalling that it enjoys a cult following among those revelling in its status as one of the worst films ever made. Cutting corners even at this level, D’Amato had the terrible Troll 2 masks shared with his production and the immobile make-ups render the various gnome creatures laughable. The drab locations, just more anonymous Italian countryside, are no match for the gorgeous Maltese vistas that Brescia brought to Iron Warrior and a wildly inappropriate synth score from Carlo Maria Cordio is as much an affront to the ears as D’Amato’s photography (he used another of his regular pseudonyms, Frederiko Slonisko) is to the eyes.

Kramer (who had played Marvel’s Thor in the television film The Incredible Hulk Returns (1988) and would play Little John in Robin Hood: Men In Tights (1993)) isn’t really given a lot to work with here – his dialogue is awful, his character motivations suspect, and his back story muddled. He flexes his muscles and handles himself in a fight better than O’Keefe did but he’s still no great shakes. The supporting cast though is full of familiar faces – O’Brien, here sporting a face full of boils, was the mad doctor in Zombie Holocaust (), Gemser was an old hand at this sort of thing and D’Amato lured Marisa mell out of a five-year retirement for the small role of Nephele. Of all of the cast, Dina Morrone as Sunn (not, apparently Sunya, Ator’s wife from the first two films) draws the short straw and has to suffer the indignity of kissing one of those aforementioned troll/gnome masks.

It’s all bloody awful with no redeeming features whatsoever, and apart from extreme hubris, it’s hard to imagine why D’Amato though this was a good idea. It’s so impoverished that the big monster scene features a dragon-like thing covered in slime that gets hacked up in a cave by Ator – and it’s still the best special effect in the film. Just wait until the conjoined twin robot turns up… Essentially it’s a remake of the first film that somehow manages to be even worse than its source.

Confusingly, Quest for the Mighty Sword was also released as Troll 3 (presumably in an attempt to persuade punters that they weren’t going to have to watch yet another of his terrible adventures), a title that was also appended to the English Fabrizio Laurenti’s science fiction film Contamination .7 (1990), produced and co-directed, uncredited, by D’Amato. Amazingly, it’s almost as awful as Quest for the Mighty Sword.