La spada e la magia

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.

This film is so enjoyable. It's one of those movies you could only get when there were privately owned video rental shops, probably bought at a discount rate from some video wholesaler that gives people the opportunity to purchase large grab bags of cheap films instead of one or two expensive ones. When I found this one back in the late eighties, I was on a bad fantasy film kick, and this one beats 'em all. It's better even than any installment in the almighty "Deathstalker" series! If you can find it, have fun with this one. I'm sure the film makers did. I'm still trying to figure out if it's not one of the greatest movies ever made.

The evil sorcerer Traigon dies in the attempt to perform a sacrifice to his evil goddess. Not easily discouraged, he swears to return in 20 years and try again. His twin daughters have meanwhile grown into 2 skilled fighting ladies. Mira and Mara fight against Traigon with the aid of a barbarian red-beard, a little faun with a flute and a gambler turned swordsman.

'Sorceress' is a hilarious piece of 80s trash with a rare sense of humor. For example, when the sorcerer summons an army of zombies, they don't fight for him, but instead steal the temple virgins and run. "You know, they were buried for a thousand years", the barbarian explains. Among a wave of 'Conan' imitations I missed this one back in the day, but fortunately now got hold of the Blu-ray with interviews, from Roger Corman explaining the casting of 2 Playboy playmates ("they looked good in the nude scenes") to the special effects guy remembering how he spent even less money on masks than Corman expected, to the writer who was asked to "write a script by Monday". Low budget film-making, an adventure for itself.

Sleazy sword-and-sorcery fantasy as only Roger Corman can produce it, "Sorceress" is good fun provided that you're not too demanding. It delivers a generous amount of amusement and fun, especially when it comes to the ridiculous dialogue, and its delivery. For the most part, it doesn't do that much to stand out from the pack of other, similar films during this time. But that all changes when it gets to the climax, a full-on assault of cheese and spectacle, complete with light shows and otherworldly creatures.

A large part of the charm, of course, lies in the casting of luscious twin sisters Leigh and Lynette Harris, playing warrior women Mira and Mara. It seems that one of them needs to be sacrificed by power-hungry villain Traigon (snarling and hammy Roberto Ballesteros). They take the fight to him, aided by such characters as the hunky young Erlick (Roberto Nelson) and the proud Valdar (Bruno Rey), a guy who wouldn't look out of place in a Lord of the Rings feature.

That's really all you need to know, so you can discover the silly pleasures of this lowbrow feature for yourself. John Carl Buechler handles the creature duties, creating a likable "goat man" sort of character as well as a variety of ape-like beasts. The music is liberally borrowed from the earlier New World productions "Battle Beyond the Stars" and "Humanoids from the Deep". The action scenes are basically decent. The Harris sisters aren't exactly very good actresses, but this viewer can't imagine many fans of this type of thing caring all that much.

The sad postscript is that this turned out to be the final directorial credit for exploitation master Jack Hill ("The Big Doll House", "Coffy", etc.), who had a falling out with Corman over the matter of the editing. In the end, Hill retained a producing credit under his name but the direction was credited to a pseudonymous "Brian Stuart" (the names of Cormans' sons).

If you like fantasy features to be on the cheesy, sleazy, low budget side, watching this will be a no-brainer.

Seven out of 10.

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!