La spada e la magia

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?

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.

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.

When I came across this film my first thought was "Ok, another Deathstalker knock off fantasy". But after watching the entire film I realized that this film did set its own pace and by pace I mean lots of BOOBS! It was the 80s and Fantasy Sci-fi films were being published by just about every production company at the time. Rating system back in the 80s was pretty much anything goes. And I mean anything! This film follows two twin sisters that have magical and physical powers given to them by a ancient wizard/god at birth to assist them on there journey. The two sisters meet a Goatboy and punch him square in the FACE! But later realize that the Goatboy and viking are both there to help them on there journey to defeat Traigon the evil wizard. Over all the movie is pretty fun to watch and gave me some good chuckles. I would recommend to anyone that enjoys low budget 80s fantasy films. I have to admit that this movie does have a lot of boobies scenes in it so that is always a plus for me.

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!