La conquista de la tierra perdida

Adults deserve to have their fairy tales & fantasies too, and I'd say Lucio Fulci cooked up a pretty potent adult pulp fairy tale here. I'll leave it to others to describe the plot: My first indication that this wasn't going to be your average CONAN ripoff when the four guys dressed up like Smokey the Bear rip a cave girl babe into quarters, snort drugs with a nude sorceress witch babe with a body from hell who then copulates (R-Rated style) with her companion python while having a vision of someone shooting her with TRON's bow & arrow. Talk about weird!

The film is an interesting combination of opposites that aims right at the atavistic, adventure-loving 14 year old with a desire to see bared breasts in all of us. While the narrative is somewhat confusing in your typical Fulcian kind of way the visuals are just as striking, with costume design by Mad Max and Larry Flynt, including oddball touches such as the Dog Men, the Gauze Men, Ape Guys and that far-out sorceress. She really is the focus of the film: The two guys out gallivanting around saving each other from imminent doom are more sort of there to give the film an excuse to have such an outrageously sexy harlot as it's force of evil, complete with a bestial contingent of half men half animals to do her evil bidding.

But seriously, if you go into this expecting anything other than complete dreck the movie *WILL* annoy you. For fans of be-headings, clever escapes, back-flips, fights to the death, mystical snake babes, ferocious howler guys, Atari era computer graphics, ridiculous cornball dialog and equal amounts of beefcake and cheesecake, this movie should be your priority rental next time you're in the mood for something other than a Global Warming movie. CONQUEST may not change the world, win any elections or even be that good, but I'd rather be confused by something that knows it's garbage & has fun with the idea than snookered by ideology disguised as entertainment.

7/10, even if it doesn't make much sense ...

If there's any movie Lucio Fulci made that inspires equal love and hatred, it must be this, the director's lone fore into the Sword and Sorcery subgenre. The general opinion of its detractors seems to be that "Conquest" marked the beginning of Fulci's descent into both commercial and artistic mediocrity, and while the former may be true, I'm not understanding the latter. In light of what Fulci's work aspires to be, "Conquest" can in many ways be seen as a culmination of his style, and if your best criticisms of the movie are that it's "plotless and cheap," I wonder why you're watching a Fulci movie in the first place.

Sure, the plot is a rudimentary blob that in the end amounts mostly to characters wandering back and forth as an excuse to get them into perilous situations involving traps and monsters, but Fulci's visual sensibilities are positively ON FIRE here, so much so that the limitations of the story become pretty much inconsequential. They take a back seat to the otherwordly mythic fantasy environment that Fulci is able to create with the most frugal materials. It is the foreboding fog-shrouded swamps, ancient stone temples, grotesque creatures and lurid-colored alien skies that will linger in the mind as the work of an artist who clearly has an eye for distinctive visuals. You could only accuse this of being a movie derivative of "Conan the Barbarian" if you completely ignored this aspect of it, because I can't think of another film that looks anything like this.

Other aspects of "Conquest" work to its advantage in subtle ways. The spare, monosyllabic dialogue helps to create the sense of a primitive and brutish world and the minimalist pulses of Claudio Simonetti's electronic score mesh well with the stunning visuals. Bizarre details - the villainess' gold mask and fascination with snakes, the enchanted bow that glows blue, the dolphin rescue - border on the surrealistic. The effect achieved, at least to this viewer, is hypnotic. I find myself wondering how so many filmmakers today, when they are given all the resources in the world and can't give us one interesting thing to look at, can be treated so leniently by critics who would jump on the bahnwagon to slam Fulci without a second thought.

Fans of Fulci, you will love this! This film is no Zombi or Beyond but it has the feel and atmosphere of a Fulci masterpiece. He may be the Godfather of Gore, but if your just looking for that certain aspect in the film, then turn away. With the exception of one or two scenes(which are pretty decent), Conquest has little gore to offer. What Conquest does have to offer tho is a great atmosphere and music score. Around the time of Conquest's release, the sword and sorcery genre was very popular. This film is merely Fulci's take on the genre and he pulls it off brilliantly. The story may be simple and seem generic yet it is pulled off well enough to make the plot of the film enjoyable and entertaining through the use of great settings, creatures, cheesy special effects and a cool techno score of the early 80's. If you're a fan of Fulci or even a fan of cheesy 80's movies, then Conquest would probably be a great film for you. 8 out of 10!

Sword and sorcery tale of two powerful hunters from a future World trapped in prehistoric times , confronting a nasty witch : Sabrina Siani bent on taking the fantastic bow for evil . In a place beyond time, comes a terrifying challenge beyond imagination .At the beginning a young hunk , Andrea Occhipinti, with a magic bow sets out into searching for a villain sorceress . On his trip he meets another mighty warrior : George Rivero , and both of whom join forces to battle horrible creatures , creepy zombies , weird apes and anything else. He is the only hope for a dying race , he is the beginning which will destroy all but the boldest warrior !.

A nice sword and sorcery tale about a terrifying odyssey into the unreal , featuring brutality , strange production design , ethereal ambience by means of a foggy photography and attractive musical score. A camp fun with fights , violent confrontation , lots of blood and gore , beheading and somewhat silly finale . Being a Spain/Italy/Mexico coproduction , here appears Italian actors : Andrea Occhipinti , Gioia Sscola , Sabrina Siani , Spanish : Conrado San Martín, Violeta Cela, Jose Gras and Mexican player : Jorge Rivero . Special mention for the dark but colorful and foggy cinematography by cameraman Alejandro Ulloa who used peculiar filters , soft focus as well as a fog machine . This splendid cinematographer Alejandro Ulloa had a long international career including films as House of Garibaldi Street , Manaos , The Amazons , California , Pancho Villa and Horror Express . A rare but very atmospheric musical score composed by Claudio Simonetti by means of synthesizer , he is the composer of the soundtrack of several Dario Argento's pics , besides being a music composer and keyboard player of the Italian rock bands Goblin and Daemonia.

The motion picture was uneven but professionally directed by Lucio Fulci in his usual style , including some regular tics and ordinary marks. Fulci was deemed to be the godfather of the gore , making decent films as Zombie Flesh Eaters or Zombie 2 , City of the Living Dead , The Beyond , The House by the cemetery , The Black Cat, New York Ripper and many others .

......A bit of an incoherent mess sadly. Still, with Lucio Fulci at the helm, what more could you expect? Yes, this is fairly typical of our Lucio's output; Beautiful to look at, with some outstanding, dreamlike imagery but as regards the actual substance, well, let's just say that it's muddled to say the very least. To be equitable, whilst the whole is somewhat of a bore to sit through, there are a number of well handled sequences which regular Fulci fans will delight to, such as one scene which is pleasantly reminiscent of the director's infamous zombie output, here featuring subterranean 'zombie' like creatures which slowly rise from a misty lake and amble menacingly towards one of our heroes.

True to Fulci form, there's the usual gore quotient including such wondrous sights as a woman torn in two down the middle(!), a magic arrow exploding through a woman's chest, a number of gooey head smashings and last but not least, some particularly off putting, pus oozing boils!

Without giving too much away, I must admit that I was taken by surprise by the fate of a main character quite late in proceedings - good old Lucio, he certainly doesn't mind sacrificing a main protagonist for the hell of it!

Overall, whilst gore fans will no doubt derive a kick from some of the films icky moments, there really isn't much else to recommend this on. Certainly, this is sadly far from Fulci's best work.