Knives of the Avenger
Knives of the Avenger is a Spaghetti Viking epic that’s all guts, no glory. Enter Rurik (played by Cameron Mitchell), a Viking enigma who rolls up at a backwoods farmhouse only to find himself playing hero to a dame and her kid under siege by a bunch of cutthroat marauders. Turns out, the lady, Karan (Lisa Wagner), ain’t just some damsel—she’’s royalty, the king’s own blood, and she’s got a target on her back thanks to the villainous knight Hagen (Frank Ross), who’s got his eyes on the throne.
Rurik, this stone-cold warrior with a closet full of skeletons, steps up as the shield to Karan and her young son, swearing to send Hagen to the grave and restore some semblance of peace to this twisted kingdom. As the plot thickens, Rurik takes Karan’s kid, Moki (Louis Polletin), under his lethal wing.
Mario Bava, the maestro behind this madness, pulls a cinematic rabbit out of a hat, turning what was a doomed project into a visual spectacle. Originally handed a sinking ship after the first director got the boot and the budget got slashed, Bava rewrote the script and shot the whole shebang in six days—a miraculous feat given the shoestring budget.
I’ll stab you in the heart so the poison will flow out.
Cameron Mitchell is the linchpin of this wild ride. Rurik’s bond with his so-called son Moki echoes the classic Shane, while his burgeoning, tension-filled relationship with Karan takes a dark twist when we learn he’s not just a guardian angel—he’s the monster who raped her and slaughtered her kin.
Sticking to a Western vibe, Bava swaps out gunfights for knife-throwing duels. It’s a stretch to buy Rurik slashing through hordes with his blades, just buckle up and enjoy the bloody ride. The film crashes to a close with a ballet of brawls, and that’s all she wrote.
Bava’s budget wizardry conjures a Viking saga without the usual flair—no armies, no castles, no ships, barely a horse in sight. The music’s a hot mess, the dubbing’s a joke, but the threadbare tale is magnetic, and the actors squeeze every ounce of drama from their scenes. The real MVP, though, is the cinematography—those haunting beaches and mystical caves steal the show.
Bottom line? Knives of the Avenger is exactly what you’d expect from a Spaghetti Viking flick—an okay ride, if you dig that sort of thing.
