Crypt of Hologram

Because I apparently have both nothing better to do and extreme obsessive tendencies, I decided to spend a few of the precious hours I've been granted on this earth to compile as complete a list as possible of Sword and Sandal movies available to stream on both Netflix Instant and Amazon Prime Instant Video. Most of these are available on Amazon Prime Instant Video free to stream with yearly membership. Others are available on Netflix Instant.

I used this Wikipedia page as reference, manually searching for each title entry on Amazon. I didn't search each title on Netflix because its more robust recommendation features kept suggesting the same small batch of titles, leading me to believe I had about found all it had on offer. Anyway, Amazon Instant has a massive, Viking-king vault treasury full of these things free to stream. I've organized links to each of the available titles below in the chronological and series order used by the Wikipedia page. I've modified chronology in favor of IMDB release years, which reflect original international release rather than favoring the U.S. release date. I've made a few additions myself, as well.

Click on the titles to be taken to the relevant Amazon Instant or Netflix page! Or read the Wikipedia page to read the fascinating history of this film craze! Don't stay too long in the desert! Or do!

HERCULES SERIES:

1958 - Hercules

1959 - Hercules Unchained

1960 - Goliath and the Dragon

1961 - Hercules in the Haunted World [NETFLIX]

1962 - Ulysses Against the Son of Hercules

1962 - The Fury of Hercules

1964 - Son of Hercules in the Land of Darkness

1964 - Hercules Against the Sons of the Sun

1964 - Hercules and the Tyrants of Babylon

HERCULES DUBS:

1963 - Hercules and the Masked Rider

1963 - Hercules Against the Mongols

1964 - Hercules Against the Moon Men (MST3K)

1964 - Hercules Against the Barbarians

MACISTE SERIES:

1960 - Colossus and the Headhunters

1961 - Samson and the Seven Miracles of the World

1961 - Mole Men vs the Son of Hercules

1962 - Fire Monsters Against the Son of Hercules

1964 - Maciste in King Solomon's Mines

URSUS:

1961 - The Vengeance of Ursus

1963 - Ursus in the Land of Fire

THE SONS OF HERCULES TV SERIES:

1962 - Ulysses Against the Son of Hercules

NON-SERIES ITALIAN PEPLA:

1954 - Ulysses [NETFLIX]

1959 - Devil's Cavaliers

1959 - Herod the Great

1960 - Cleopatra's Daughter

1960 - Colossus and the Amazon Queen

1960 - Conqueror of the Orient

1960 - David and Goliath [NETFLIX ONLY]

1960 - Esther and the King

1960 - Giants of Thessaly
1960 - The Minotaur [NETFLIX]
1960 - Revolt of the Slaves [NETFLIX]

1961 - Amazons of Rome [NETFLIX ONLY]

1961 - Constantine and the Cross

1961 - Duel of Champions

1961 - Duel of the Titans [NETFLIX]

1961 - Last of the Vikings

1961 - My Son, The Hero [NETFLIX]

1961 - Romulus and the Sabines

1961 - Sword of the Conqueror
1962 - Caesar the Conqueror

1962 - Damon and Pythias

1962 - Fury of Achilles
1962 - Gladiator of Rome
1962 - Old Testament
1962 - Taras Bulba

1963 - Ali Baba and the Seven Saracens

1963 - The Beast of Babylon Against the Son of Hercules

1963 - Thor and the Amazon Women

1964 - Giants of Rome

1964 - Gladiators Seven

1964 - Lion of Thebes

1964 - Sandokan, Pirate of Malaysia

1964 - Saul and David

1964 - Spartacus and the Ten Gladiators
1964 - Triumph of the Ten Gladiators

1964 - Two Gladiators

1965 - Challenge of the Gladiator

1965 - Kindar the Invulnerable

1966 - Knives of the Avenger [NETFLIX ONLY]

1978 - The Norseman [NETFLIX]

NON-ITALIAN MOVIES:

1929 - The Iron Mask
1935 - Captain Blood

1945 - Caesar and Cleopatra [NETFLIX]

1949 - Samson and Delilah

1953 - Julius Caesar

1953 - The Robe

1956 - Alexander the Great [NETFLIX]

1958 - The Vikings

1959 - Solomon and Sheba [NETFLIX]

1965 - The Agony and the Ecstasy [NETFLIX]

1966 - The Bible

LATER MOVIES:

1981 - Dragonslayer
1983 - Hercules

1984 - Conan the Destroyer [NETFLIX ONLY]

2011 - Conan the Barbarian [NETFLIX]

I didn't want to post anything before I'd gotten a few weeks in, but today marks the end of two completed weeks of my thrice-renewed MOVIE-A-DAY project! Week three begins tomorrow! Lucky stars! Cow patooties! Full steam ahead, by gosh!

If for some reason you care to see what I've been watching look below; also, read about my self-imposed I-Just-Made-It-Up-Rest-Of-November-Sword-And-Sandal-Italian-Muscle-Man-Challenge! EXCITEMENT! HORROR! LIONS!

Week 1:
*John Hough's TWINS OF EVIL (1971): The last of Hammer's KARNSTEIN trilogy, starring Peter Cushing as a marvelously ambiguous witchhunter balanced for the viewer between good and evil. Notable as Hammer begins to assimilate exploitation elements from the contemporary grindhouse. (Available on Comcast Free Movies)

*Tobe Hooper's LIFEFORCE (1985): An incredibly ambitious genre-mashup that begins with an abandoned alien spaceship and ends with a vampire-zombie apocalypse. Dan O Bannon worked on the screenplay -- that opening scene reminiscent both of ALIEN and Bava's PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES, from which it presumably borrowed. Also featuring a pre-Next Generation Patrick Stewart. What a trip! (Available on Netflix Instant)

*Stuart Gordon's REANIMATOR (1985): Legendary for a reason! Horrific and disgusting! Sits alongside RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD and NIGHT OF THE CREEPS as the best of the 80s horror comedies. (Available on Amazon Prime Instant Video)

*Don Siegel's INVASION OF THE BODYSNATCHERS (1956): Establishes one of those sci-fi tropes that transcend time and place -- the pod people can stand in for any number of threats. And in a simple way raises very complex questions about what, ideally, we want human life to be. An idea movie wrapped in a thriller's shell -- can't wait to track down the 1978 re-make, which I've heard develops these themes more explicitly. (Available on Amazon Prime Instant Video)

*Jean Rollin's SHIVER OF THE VAMPIRES (1971): Unfolds like a dream. Like many Italian and Spanish movies from this period, SHIVER disregards conventional narrative and pacing for atmosphere, color, sets, and ambiance. Featuring a trippy psychedelic-prog score. Mind-bending film-as-psychedelia -- Rollin's third vampire film. (Available on Netflix Instant)

*Ishiro Honda's GHIDORAH, THE THREE-HEADED MONSTER (1964): The movie that reminds us that we owe the continued existence of our planet to Mothra. Ghidorah is a space dragon responsible for completely wiping out of existence the entire population of ancient Mars. Baby Mothra (still a larvae following his rebirth after battling Godzilla in the previous film) attempts to convince Godzilla and Rodan to join forces against Ghidorah in hopes of saving Earth. Godzilla and Rodan refuse, preferring to fight with each other -- literally saying "What have humans ever done for us? We'll just hide in the sea/earth until its over." Only when Mothra, still a tiny larvae, whose only defense is shooting silly string, *single-handedly* attempts to battle Ghidorah do Godzilla and Rodan finally feel guilty enough to help out. So, remember, we're all here because Mothra thought we were alright. Thank you, Mothra. Oh, they won, by the way. (Available on Netflix Instant)

*Bob Kelljan's SCREAM, BLACULA, SCREAM (1973): The sequel to 1972's BLACULA (which I haven't seen), this movie features the *incredible* William Marshall as Mamuwalde (aka Blacula). He is one of the most imposing, magnetic, regal, commanding actors ever to play the role of Dracula (and well...probably just ever). He dominates every scene he appears in. For my money, one of the best performances of the Count (or equivalent) on film. Stands toe-to-toe with stalwarts Lugosi and Lee. Interesting trivia, Marshall went on to appear as the famous King of Cartoons on PEE-WEE'S PLAYHOUSE. This movie also features the ever-awesome Pam Grier. Here she's cast against her usual type, however, in a more "traditional" damsel-in-distress type role than a butt-kicking, pimp-punching kind of role, which is a bit of disappointment. (Available on Netflix Instant)

*Charles B. Pierce's THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN (1976): WOW! Comcast has some very bizarre stuff on offer right now (in a good way). TTTDS is a relatively tough to track down film and hasn't yet appeared on DVD, so I was shocked to find it tucked away in Comcast's free movies. TTTDS is what I call a "proto-slasher" movie, or a slasher movie that came out before HALLOWEEN, which set off a wave of imitators through the 80s and set a lot of the precedents and conventions for those films. A lot of those conventions appear here in fossil form. The movie is a kind of docu-drama and "documents" a real historical serial killer known as the Phantom Killer in the 1940s. But the movie is downright schizophrenic. It mixes documentary narration with police procedural and attempts to tell the story of what happened to this Texarkana town, but it is punctuated with some of the most brutal murder set-pieces I've ever seen. And these will be followed by absurdly incongrous comedic relief. The Phantom Killer, in real-life, as well as in the film is never caught, and leaves this film as a disturbing nexus point where the real and the movie-mythic meet. The Phantom Killer is distinctive in the movie for his horrifying sack mask, which seems to pre-figure The Shape's white-washed Shatner mask -- suggesting supernatural anonymity and presenting an ambiguous ur-form for the death and disruption that haunted and threatened both post-WWII prosperity and 1960s optimism. (Available on Comcast Free Movies)

*Edgar Wright's SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD (2010): I've seen this multiple times, so it's a bit of a cheat. But that doesn't stop me from being impressed by Wright's direction. He is also responsible for SHAUN OF THE DEAD and HOT FUZZ, two of the most fun movies I can think of in recent memory. Love it. (Caught on TV)

*William Nigh's MR. WONG, DETECTIVE (1938): Starring Boris Karloff as Mr. Wong (!!!). In the late 30s, Karloff did a number of films for Monogram Pictures, one of the more infamous studios on Poverty Row. Mr. Wong is clearly supposed to be a knock-off competitor against Charlie Chan, but despite the obvious potential for racist caricature with the very English Karloff as a character named Wong, Karloff instead plays a very subdued, surprisingly tasteful presumably Chinese-American detective most defined by his calm and polite manner. This movie doesn't have a whole lot to recommend itself, but it's a fun little pot-boiler with a cool twist murder device. And there's always something about these old black-and-white noir-esque movies that you can wring a *little* bit of precious atmosphere from if you try hard enough.

Week 2:
*Al Adamson's BLOOD OF DRACULA'S CASTLE (1969): Now here's a trip! Al Adamson was one of those treasures of the 60s and 70s, like Roger Corman, who worked in any numbers of genres and styles, and whose work is probably, though almost entirely of the cheesy variety, due for renewed attention. Because this movie is as wacky and out there as a Jess Franco movie, if you left it sizzling in the desert for a few months. Featuring John Carradine as not Dracula but his butler(??) and Alex D'Arcy (of HORRORS OF SPIDER ISLAND) as Dracula. Featuring all my favorites: vampires, torture dungeons, hooded cults, witch-burnings, psychopathic possibly wolfmen killers, and the mute monster Mango! Also featuring cinematography by Lazlo Kovacs, who would go on to work on films like EASY RIDER and GHOSTBUSTERS. Scriptwriter Rex Carlton borrowed money from the mafia to finance this movie, and sadly, when he couldn't re-pay them, he took his own life in the same year it was released. :( (Available on Amazon Prime Instant Video)

*Harold P. Warren's MANOS: THE HANDS OF FATE (1966): Now infamous after its revival by Mystery Science Theater 3000, MANOS is well-known as one of the best/worst of the worst movies ever made. It was made by fertilizer salesman Hal Warren, on a bet that he could make a horror movie as good as anyone else. He did the screenplay, directed, produced, dubbed, and starred in the movie. Watched without MSTK's commentary, the film has an uncannily surreal power despite generally failing miserably at doing anything it sets out to do. The character Torgo must be seen and especially heard to be believed. The crew could not afford audio equipment so the whole film was dubbed afterwards. This has, however, the effect of rendering all of the film's action like that of a hypnotizing silent film, especially the moustache-sporting Master. It's really just the epitome of the "bad" film apotheosizing into outsider art. (Available on Amazon Prime Instant Video)

*Phil Tucker's ROBOT MONSTER (1953): Another of the ultimates of bad movie-dom. Featuring the most inexplicable of movie monster villains: Ro-Man, an alien robot invader whose appearance consists of an ape body-suit and a diving helmet. Robot Monster also has tragedy sinewed behind it. Director Phil Tucker was so devastated by the horrible reviews this film received that he attempted to take his own life. Thankfully, he didn't succeed, but more than any other case I can imagine ROBOT MONSTER epitomizes the earnest passion that underlies much of what we consider to be "bad movies." There is a deep vitality in that passionate energy you can feel while watching a movie like this, and as I know others have said -- we can learn so much from "bad" movies by observing how they violate our expectations for what movies should do and be. It's hard to put this all into words. The love of schlock is a journey not a destination. (Available on Amazon Prime Instant Video)

*Meir Zarchi's I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE (1978): Woo boy. Writing all this in one go is getting tiring. I don't think anyone is even going to read this. And I don't know if I have the energy to tackle talking about I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE, which remains to this day one of the most controversial movies to emerge from the 70s grindhouse. Some people argue this is disgusting, misogynistic, pornographic exploitation (Roger Ebert was chief among them upon its release). Others argue it is a feminist film. Frankly, I'm not sure what to think. It certainly raises a lot of questions. It is probably more effective in that respect than it is as a film. So, I'm going to cop-out of the discussion for now by offering you this tid-bit of trivia: the film's star Camille Keaton is the granddaughter of Buster Keaton. (Available on Netflix Instant)

*Wes Craven's DEADLY BLESSING (1981): Okay, I had to palate-cleanse after that with this. Uhh, this was a weird one. It almost felt like a made-for-tv movie, but I've noticed early 80s movies share that similar style (ie. THE HOWLING). Featuring one of the first appearances of Sharon Stone and the last film appearance of Marsen Jensen. Also...Ernest Borgnine as Father Isaiah, which earned his a Razzie nomination according to Wikipedia. This came after Craven's landmark early work LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT and THE HILLS HAVE EYES. I haven't read anyone discussing this, but the bizarre set-pieces in this movie are reminiscent of the characteristically elaborate murder scenes in the Italian gialli. The final reveal of the killer is strange and unforeseen and the narrative features that classic giallo disregard for narrative logic or continuity. So, this might be Craven's giallo. According, possibly, to me only. The murderer even wears black gloves! Takes place in "Hittite" country, for the movie, a sort of super-Amish community, which apparently reflects Craven's own upbringing. (Available on Netflix Instant)

*Rich Moore's WRECK-IT RALPH (2012): Rich Moore apparently directed some of the more well-loved Simpsons and Futurama episodes back in the day, and this movie oozes heart. As good as any of Pixar's classics. Brilliant art and even more brilliant performances from John C. Reilly and Sarah Silverman. Moreover, it manages to deftly interweave multiple independent plotlines without sacrificing pacing that allows us to really get to know the characters, with whom we inevitably fall pretty much head over heels. See it! (Seen in theaters)

*Terence Fisher's HORROR OF DRACULA (1958): What can I say about Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee? I love Hammer and I love these guys. Lee has surprisingly little screen time despite how legendary his performance has become here. (Private collection)

*Jesus Franco's OASIS OF THE ZOMBIES (1982): There are two kinds of people in this world. Those who watch this movie and go "What the heck is this crap?" or "This is BOOOORRRING" and those who are like "...wait, there's a French cut AND a Spanish cut with different actors and soundtracks due to the weird vagaries of the European film market of the 70s and 80s -- I want to see both!" If only that dream could come true. The French cut, dubbed into English is all we have available so far. The Spanish cut is only available un-subtitled on R2 DVD. So, we'll have to wait. That version features both Franco's own original score (he began his career as a musician) and his long-time leading lady and life-companion Lina Romay. Hypnotic as only Franco can be, but quite different from hi earlier work. Like a sleazier, cheaper, slower version of Fulci's ZOMBI. Not "good," but I liked it. I'll leave you to figure out what that says. TERRIBLE transfer quality available on Amazon Instant.

*Mario Bava's BLACK SUNDAY (1960): A landmark in Italian horror. Bava's love letter to the Universal horror films. To me, this film has the most beautiful black and white photography I have ever seen, my favorite next to SEVEN SAMURAI. Incredible depth, texture, and lighting. Gorgeous beyond reason. In addition to debuting the haunting Barbara Steele, it pretty much kick-started the entire Italian horror genre. Quite possibly one of the wonders of the film world. (Available, along with many other Bava films, on Netflix Instant)

*Narciso Ibanez Serrador's THE HOUSE THAT SCREAMED (1969): Another minor euro-landmark/gem. The first Spanish film ever filmed in English. A fascinating psycho-sexual heir to PSYCHO and inspiration for Argento's SUSPIRIA. Featuring a stunning performance from Lilli Palmer as the headmistress of a school for girls. Bypasses the overt exploitative tendencies of his contemporaries in favor of atmospheric tension building. The few murder scenes are the stunning centerpieces of the film. Watch as it tosses the main character 2/3 of the way through. An eerie slow-burner way ahead of its time. Another gem inexplicably available on Comcast Free Movies.

Whew, okay. So those weren't the best reviews. But that was supposed to just be a list anyway. And then I got started typing. And. Meh. Eh. Geh. Last but not least! THE ITALIAN SWORD AND SANDAL MUSCLE MAN CHALLENGE!

Today's movie is 1958's HERCULES, starring Steve Reeves -- the film that kicked off the tidal wave of sword and sandal (pepla) movies into the 60s. For the rest of the November, my goal is to watch ALL of the Hercules/Samson/Maciste/Goliath movies I can can find on Netflix and Amazon. There's a tidy bunch. Wish me luck. I'll post a list later!