Los bárbaros

I'm watching through a wave of 70s to 80s low budget movies, fantasy genre right now. This one is pretty fun. Will spare the plot details you can find them in other reviews. The story is fun and the lead actresses are better than most in these films if still far from good. Contains several humorous scenes, most of them intentional! And has a good amount of t and a which is why most of us guys enjoyed this genre when we were 12. Fight scenes, effects, and costumes are classic 80s camp.

Hmmmm, picture this if you will; a pair of sexy twin sisters who have a delightful tendency to bare their (perfectly formed) breasts at any given opportunity, barbarians, boobies, cruel torture routines, boobies, monsters, boobies and magic..... Yep, everything any self respecting, red blooded male could ever want for in a film in fact, feature in this highly enjoyable sword & sorcery outing brought to us by director Jack Hill.

The film never makes the mistake of taking itself at all seriously and is chock full of tongue in cheek moments and double entendres in addition to the requisite action goodies.

Highlights of special note include some particularly well rendered and creepy looking zombies, a cringe inducing scene where a main character narrowly avoids suffering a wickedly sharp spike up his back side(!) and a super hammy main villain.

Tremendously fun if you approach it in the correct frame of mind (and probably even better when one is drunk). Oh, did I happen to mention the beautiful boobies on display in this?

My review was written in February 1983 after a Times Square screening.

New World's lensed-in-Mexico "Sorceress" demonstrates that a "Conan"-type heroic fantasy film can be made on a modest scale, a point soon to be underscored by the dozens of Italian-made imitations poised to hit the market. The Jack Hill production directed by Brian Stuart emphasizes nudity and vulgar humor, with the resulting package likely to appeal to cable-tv viewers after completing its current theatrical run.

Okay story line by Jim Wynorski is set in an ancient time, deals with twin girls (Leigh and Lynette Harris) brought up as boys and hidden from their evil wizard father Traigon (Robert Ballesteros), who plans to sacrifice the first-born to the forces of darkness in return for increased supernatural powers. Traigon is allied with the beautiful princess Dellisia (Ana De Sade), while the twins are aided in their quest for revenge against their father (who killed their mother) by warrior Erlik (Bob Nelson) and Baldar (Bruno Rey) and friendly satyr Pando (David Millbern).

Punctuated by frequent (and unexciting) sword battles and even some martial arts fights this abbreviated adventure film is largely an excuse for the shapely Harris twins (previously featured in the "I, the Jury" remake) to bare their charms. Hero Bob Nelson provides equal time with nude beefcake scenes but his good ole boy accent (typical of the film's poor dubbing) is just one among many indicators that the filmmakers are spoofing the fantasy genre. In fact, the phony beards, tacky sets and silly jokes make "Sorceress" resemble the quaint softcore porn pageants (e.g., "The Lustful Turk") of the 1960s.

Title is a misnomer, as the well-executed optical effects done at New World's Venice facility are generally extraneous to the story. Fantasy content includes a meaningless and static finale battle between two opposing gods in the heavens, a silly fight with horny zombies in the catacombs (as Baldar says, they've been buried for a thousand years) and various cheap makeup creatures such as the red-brown haired monkey men (also horny).

The gimmick of the twins sharing their feelings and experiences at a distance provides a cute sex comedy scene of Mira reacting orgasmically when captured Mara miles away is deflowered by Erlik. Ultimately the oft-repeated "The two who are one" epithet for the twins is just an excuse for a sex joke at fadeout. They are briefly upstaged by the stunning-looking dark villainess, played by Latin actress Ana De Sade.

These ultra-low-budget Sword and Sorcery films from the early 80s sure tend to be awful as hell, and yet I find them so amusing that I always watch them once I get hold of them. "Sorceress" of 1982 is no exception. Au contraire, it is actually the epitome of the 'so bad it's good' type of Sword and Sorcery flick that makes this fantasy sub-genre so trashy and yet so fun to watch. This is actually even quite a bit worse than most other zero-budget genre efforts of the time (such as "Deathstalker"), but then again, the immensely high trash factor makes this especially recommendable to lovers of trash cinema and/or a good laugh. This awfully amusing flick is also the last flick by a director I personally admire. Jack Hill will always enjoy a cult status amongst exploitation fans for absolutely awesome flicks such as "Coffy", "Foxy Brown" and "Switchblade Sisters". His take on the Sword'n'Sorcery genre sadly cost Hill his career, as it is his last film up to date.

The central characters are two super-hot blonde twin sisters, Mira and Mara (played by Leigh and Lynette Harris). Mira and Mara, were hidden after their birth in order to save them from their father, an evil warlord willing to sacrifice them to his deity in order to achieve more power. Years later, the sisters have grown to become two hot and busty blond babes with superior fighting skills and exhibitionist tendencies...

"Sorceress" is full of genre-typical characters, such as a faun (a guy who is half-man half-goat) or a huge bearded barbarian who looks like a dwarf from "Lord of the Rings", only bigger and crappier. The performances are ridiculously awful, but who is going to watch a film like this for good acting anyway. The storyline is extremely stupid even for low budget Sword'n'Sorcery from the early 80s, but I don't think anyone will watch this expecting a clever plot neither. "Sorceress" is extremely stupid, but highly amusing trash. If you like trashy low-bud fantasy from the 80s give this a try and be amused. Otherwise avoid!

Fans of the sword and sorcery genre might want to take a look at this laughably inept masterpiece about a pair of buxom twins fighting their evil father. This film has it all: bad acting, terrible dialogue, awful special effects, and of course, gratuitous nudity. As another reviewer mentioned, the dialogue appears to have been dubbed, even though the actors were clearly speaking English to begin with. This just serves to make the film even more amusing. Equally amusing is how initially nobody can tell that the twins are really girls, even though this should have been obvious to anybody with at least one eye. All in all, a fun film for fans of the genre. I give it a 7 out of 10.