In a world which mixes the prehistoric with the fantasy, a young warrior with a box that shoots laser-arrows goes to challenge the reign of an evil Queen Ocron. Queen Ocron foresees this in visions of her own doom, so he makes the young man’s journey a living hell, sending all sorts of creatures and minions, and even a Golem-like warrior, to destroy the young man. Thankfully he has help from a rugged, muscular man, who doesn’t like the company of people but believes in what the young man is fighting for.
This is one of director Lucio Fulci’s less known films, lost among his ocean of extreme gore films. It probably has something to do with the fact that the movie is basically a cash in on the sword and sandals fad that appeared in the early 80’s thanks to the success of Conan The Barbarian. It also borrows elements from Dungeons & Dragons and Quest for Fire (check out the native women’s makeup). Yes, it does feature a lot of those elements, but this movie is pretty damn good still. I would go on to say that up to now, it’s the best movie I’ve seen by Fulci on a technical level, along with The Beyond. He pulls out every cinematic trick he knows: great, contrasting lighting, cool makeup effects and pretty hilarious-but-cool-in-an-80’s-way laser animation. It also has a lot of imagination, with cool creature designs. We have werewolf soldiers that look like the first-stage transformation from the video game Altered Beast, we have rock/fish creatures, a cool golem creature, and of course, zombies. Couldn’t be a Fulci movie without zombies. There’s also a lot of explicit violence, only in a completely different context than his other gore films.
Most of the acting is forgettable, but special mention has to go to Sabrina Siani, who plays the evil Queen Ocron. She’s beautiful and is featured completely naked (except a thong) during the whole film, and wears a Destro-like mask. Last time she was nude was in D’Amato’s 2020 Texas Gladiators, but there she was just a victim. Here we get to see her play an physical, and evil role. Sadly the third act disappoints a bit, especially after all the build-up that the last hour had. The final confrontation between hero and villain leaves you wanting more, to say the least. Also, when we are finally shown Queen Ocron’s face, it’s a mayor letdown. Looks like a 50’s Halloween mask! Still, with all the faults, this movie is still pretty damn good, features gorgeous cinematography, cool action, and cool monsters. Cool movie!
In a world which mixes the prehistoric with the fantasy, a young warrior with a box that shoots laser-arrows goes to challenge the reign of an evil Queen Ocron. Queen Ocron foresees this in visions of her own doom, so he makes the young man’s journey a living hell, sending all sorts of creatures and minions, and even a Golem-like warrior, to destroy the young man. Thankfully he has help from a rugged, muscular man, who doesn’t like the company of people but believes in what the young man is fighting for.
I agree about the cinematography being good, some of the shots that take place in the wild, are beautiful. Lots of low budget features ended up shooting in real exteriors cause they didnt have the money to build any kind of sets.
ResponderEliminarAlso, was it just me man or was that fog machine put on high? I forgot to mention it on my review but it seems Fulci connects fog with fantasy for some reason, this movie had fog on almost every single take! I thought that was hilarious.
Did you notice how Fulci used a lot of shots where we see the character face and the sun is shinning behind them? Also, the film had a strange glare, like every shot was glowing...Im guessing Fulci got that from Clash of the Titans which uses the same effect on many of its scenes.