Bad guy Mora, who is the son of the devil (well, he’s actually the son of a messenger of the devil), wants to sit on the Throne of Fire, but he must marry a princess who is a rightful heir first. The princess that Mora sets his sights on is Valkari, who is helped by the very buff Siegfried (Pietro Torrisi), but the muscled hero finds himself dealing with such obstacles as the Well of Madness.

THE THRONE OF FIRE is an Italian sword and sorcery film (it comes across more like a peplum) directed by Franco Prosperi, who reuses the village raid sequence from his previous 1982 movie THE SWORD OF THE BARBARIANS. Princess Valkari is played by Sabrina Siani, who was the mask-wearing, sadistic, topless villainess Ocron in Lucio Fulci’s mist-shrouded fantasy barbarian yarn CONQUEST (1983).

This movie has some interesting elements, including the aforementioned Well of Madness, where the muscular hero is confronted by a panther, a python and fights an empty suit of armour. The villain’s origin is okay (you see brief shots of him as a newborn, slimy monster baby) and the titular throne is a fun concept: it burns alive anyone who is unworthy of sitting on it!

So it’s a shame that this sword and sorcery film doesn’t do enough with its ideas, coming across as rather dull and meandering, even with a floating ghost head, some fairly decent sets, and the on-screen presence of Sabrina Siani as the blonde-haired warrior princess.

Yep, a shame.